Grow Your Own Garden Even if You Have Limited Space
by James Tebbart
http://www.bigongardening.com
People love to get their hands dirty in the garden.
Perhaps it goes back to our Neanderthal ancestors, but
certainly, in most of us, our yearning for the soil is as
strong today as it was thousands of years ago. This can,
however, cause some large problems with lifestyles in the
twenty first century. High rise blocks of apartments don't
make life easy for the keen gardener and so listed below
are a few examples of vegetables and plants that can be
grown in very small spaces. In fact, even if you only have
a window box you can achieve a tasty range of your own
vegetables through the season.
One such way is called an inter-cropping system. This
arrangement calls for careful planning and knowledge of
each crop's performance. The key to successful inter-
cropping is choosing vegetables that are singularly adapted
for use in this system. These vegetables will have a small
to medium space (4-6 inches per plant) requirement for
growth and maturity, a quicker maturity rate than the crop
in which it will be inter-cropped with, or it will have
shade tolerance. The more requirements the vegetable
meets, the better.
Vegetables that work well with this system are things like
radishes, spinach, beets turnips, green onion, carrots,
lettuce, parsley, chard and kohlrabi. These are also plants
that enjoy and can germinate in cold soil to the point of
being able to cope with quite deep frosts. This means that
they can be planted earlier in the year, before the frosts
have finished.
Think about growing the plants that offer the maximum
returns as space will be so limited. Vegetables such as
spinach, pepper, tomatoes, green onions, kale, celery and
herbs (particularly parsley) are all good because you can
harvest them over and over again during the season. Think
carefully about vegetables like cabbages, cauliflowers or
lettuces that take up a lot of space and only yield a one
off harvest. You need to consider carefully if this is
something that you particularly want to grow for the
efficient running of your small garden.
When you have chosen the vegetables you wish to grow and
are familiar with their needs, you need to do your best not
to crowd too many plants in one space. The growth of the
best kinds will be of lesser quality or even fail by
crowding. Most plants come with information on their
height and space they will reach upon full maturity. You
need to take that into consideration when planting your
inter-cropped garden.
There are some plants which sprawl with growth. If you
grow these around a circle of wire or stake them out you
will gain space and also keep the plants off the ground for
a cleaner and more abundant fruit.
By considering your options with inter cropping you will
inevitably grow more and a better fruit or vegetable within
a small space.
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