No yard or balcony is too small to grow vegetables! Even if you don’t have an outdoor space, there are still ways to grow fresh, home-grown food. Here’s how to grow veggies in any urban setting, including small yards, balconies, and indoors.
How to Make the Most of a Small Vegetable Garden
Even if your growing space is only a few square feet, you can still enjoy a harvest with a variety of vegetables. Here are some growing strategies to get you started with a tiny yard.
1. Choose Compact Crops
Sure, it’s cool to grow pumpkins, but a plant like that needs ample space to sprawl. On the other hand, greens like spinach, lettuce, bok choy, baby kale, and arugula don’t require much space at all and can grow together compactly.
2. Choose Fast-Growing Vegetables
Why wait months for your peppers or squash to ripen when you can enjoy several harvests of radishes, greens, or bush beans during that time? Slow-growing crops are rewarding, but with limited space, speedier crops produce more food because you can get multiple harvests in a season.
3. Manage Small Spaces Intensively
Plant your crops close together and harvest them when they get crowded. If space opens up, plant something new! Be sure to weed daily so that only your harvestable plants use your precious space. With just five minutes of work each day, you’ll manage to harvest more than you’d expect from a small plot!
4. Grow Vertically
Utilize vertical space by growing plants that climb, such as pole beans, cucumbers, climbing peas, and indeterminate tomatoes. Train them up a trellis, and they’ll climb into the heights, freeing up space for other plants below.
No Garden? No Problem!
Depending on how “urban” you’re living, you may find yourself with no growing space at all. Maybe your yard is a concrete pad, or perhaps you’re limited to a small balcony. Here are ways to garden when you have no garden at all:
1. Build A Raised Bed
You can build a raised bed right on top of a gravel pad or patio that is the perfect size for your needs. Add a layer of mulch on the bottom and fill it with good-quality garden soil. You won’t even have to tear up any concrete in the process!
2. Container Gardens
Make your patio or balcony come to life with garden pots. Almost anything that you can grow in the ground can grow in a pot. Most vegetables grow beautifully in containers as long as they have enough root depth.
3. Hanging Baskets, Fence Planters, and Railing Planters
These planters hang above the ground or latch onto fences or railings. They are great ways to give you more growing room when ground space is in short supply.
Growing Vegetables Indoors
Even if you have nowhere to put a container outside, you can still grow some vegetables inside. Microgreens are nutritious and flavor-packed greens that grow in a matter of weeks. Indoor herb gardens are also popular, but don’t stop there! There are numerous mini vegetables that will do well in a container indoors, such as Micro Tom tomatoes, Baby Ball beets, and mini bell peppers. Just imagine your windowsill is like a miniature greenhouse!
You don’t need a suburban home or an acreage to grow fresh vegetables. If you choose the right crops and manage your space well, you can reap an abundant harvest. Visit our garden centers in Chicagoland to get your vegetable growing underway!
Platt Hill Nursery is Chicago’s premier garden center and nursery.