#Small Space Gardening

[toadstoolgardens]

Gardening in Raised Beds On Pavement

Growing in raised beds on top of pavement is an excellent strategy if you have limited growing space. Let's learn how to make the most of that concrete or asphalt!

Build Tall Beds

Crops need room to send roots down into the soil. Providing plenty of room to grow means your crops have a strong foundation, hold moisture longer, and can access more nutrients in the soil through deeper roots. Raised beds on pavement should be a minimum of 24 inches tall and ideally 32 inches tall! Taller is always better, especially if you live somewhere with hot and/or dry summers.

Filling Your Raised Beds

When you build raised beds on the ground, your crops have access to the soil underneath for draining excess water from above and wicking water up from below. Building on pavement takes this away, so how we fill the beds really matters!

Bottom Layer: Gravel

Fill the bottom of your raised beds with about 6 inches of gravel. This helps fight erosion, helps with drainage, and keeps your crop's roots from coming into contact with the pavement.

Middle Layer: Decomposing Wood

I highly recommend the hugelkultur method. A hugelkultur, or "mound culture" in German, is a raised bed with a base of decomposing wood. Rotting wood encourages fungal networks, holds moisture, and fills the space pretty cheaply. Get some logs, sticks, and other dead wood pieces and make a layer on top of your gravel.

Top Layers: Loose, Rich Growing Medium

There's lots of options for filling this space, but the goal is high-quality organic matter. Avoid bags of potting soil, as these aren't living soil. Living soil self-renews and keeps providing a nutrient rich environment. Potting soil will eventually dry out and lose nutrients. Instead gather things like:

Compost (homemade or purchased)

Coffee grounds (many coffee shops are happy to give out used grounds for free)

Living soil (from your yard or garden, even just a few shovels full will likely contain fungal networks and earthworms)

Grass clippings (not sprayed with anything!!)

Kitchen scraps (egg shells, fruits, veggies)

Leaf mold (leaves that have aged for two years)

Livestock manure

Shredded office paper

Worm casings

Alternate layers of whichever of these materials you're able to get and make a big raised bed lasagna. Save your compost for the top lasagna layer. Then top the whole bed off with mulch! Mulch helps hold water and keeps weeds at bay.

The Best time to Build Raised Beds is in the Fall

You can build beds any time, but building in the fall gives your bed contents time to settle and break down over the winter. Your lasagna layers need time to break down into finished soil, which crops generally prefer. Then just add some more organic matter on top in the spring before planting.

What To Plant

Here's some crop suggestions to go easy on your garden in the first year. After the first year though the sky is the limit!

Beets

Herbs

Leafy greens

Legumes

Onions

Maintaining Raised Beds on Pavement

Irrigate: Even with your fabulous organic material lasagna, your raised bed on pavement will still dry out. Prepare to water regularly, especially in the seed and seedling phase. After your crops get established a deep weekly watering should be enough unless it's extremely hot/dry.

Fertilize: During the summer, add some liquid fertilizer every couple of weeks (during your watering sesh) to push nutrients down into the soil. Some great liquid fertilizer options are comfrey tea, fish fertilizer, and worm tea.

Soil Renewal: Every fall top your beds off with some new organic matter. Over time your raised beds will decompose and sink, so fill those babies back up so they're ready for next spring! And don't forget to mulch!

Aerate: As your layers decompose you'll want to do some gentle aerating with a digging fork to keep the soil loose and crumbly.

Use Cover Crops: Cover crops help enrich the soil and keep it from drying out.

Summer cover crops: Buckwheat, cow peas, millet

Winter cover crops: Daikon radish, oats, winter rye

Happy growing!!

Source

[gardeningloverfamily]

✅✅Growing vegetables in containers is a great way to enjoy fresh produce, even if space is limited. Here are some of the best vegetables to grow in containers:

Tomatoes: ✅✅Varieties: Cherry or bush types (e.g., 'Patio Princess' or 'Tiny Tim') do well in containers. Container size: 5-gallon pot or larger.

Tips**: Stake or cage for support and provide plenty of sunlight and regular watering.

Peppers: ✅✅Varieties: Both sweet and hot peppers thrive in containers. Container size: 3 to 5-gallon pots. Tips**: Full sun and well-draining soil are key.

Lettuce: ✅✅Varieties: Leaf lettuce like 'Black-Seeded Simpson' or 'Salad Bowl' are ideal. Container size: Shallow containers (6-8 inches deep). Tips: Grows quickly and prefers cooler weather, so partial shade can help.

Spinach: ✅✅Varieties: Most types work well, but 'Baby Leaf' is particularly suited to containers. Container size: 6 inches deep or more. Tips**: Grow in cooler weather with regular watering.

Radishes: ✅✅Varieties: Quick-growing varieties like 'Cherry Belle' are perfect. Container size: Shallow pots (6 inches deep). Tips**: Ideal for small spaces and quick harvests in cooler weather.

Carrots: ✅✅Varieties: Choose short or round varieties like 'Thumbelina' or 'Nantes'. Container size: 12 inches deep or more. Tips**: Ensure loose soil for root growth and keep soil consistently moist.

Cucumbers: ✅✅Varieties: Bush or dwarf varieties (e.g., 'Spacemaster'). Container size: 5-gallon pots. Tips**: Provide support for vining types and ensure full sun.

Green Beans: ✅✅Varieties: Bush beans (e.g., 'Bush Blue Lake' or 'Contender') are best for containers. Container size: 12 inches deep or more. Tips**: They don’t require much space and can produce a large harvest in a small area.

Eggplants: ✅✅Varieties: Compact varieties like 'Patio Baby' do well in containers. Container size: 5-gallon pots or larger. Tips**: Needs full sun and regular watering.

Herbs (Bonus) ✅✅Varieties: Basil, parsley, cilantro, thyme, and rosemary thrive in containers.

✅✅Container size: Small pots (6-8 inches deep). Tips**: Grow in a sunny spot and harvest regularly to encourage new growth.

✅✅General Tips: Soil**: Use a high-quality potting mix, not garden soil, for proper drainage.

✅✅Watering: Containers dry out faster, so water regularly and ensure proper drainage.

✅✅Sunlight: Most vegetables need 6-8 hours of direct sunlight each day.

✅✅Ertilizing: Since nutrients can wash out of containers, use a balanced fertilizer to support growth.

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[etakeh]

First ripe tomato of the season

Wasp drinking out of the hummingbird feeder

Hummingbird and hummingbird feather

Sunrise.

~~~~~~~

Someone please appreciate how hard my tiny little balcony in a city is trying to not feel like a tiny little balcony in a city.

[yardenercom]

Container Gardening: Perfect for Small Spaces

Lacking much space but wanting to add some greenery to your area? Growing plants in containers is the ideal solution! A thorough overview of container gardening is provided in our most recent blog post, along with advice on picking the best plants, soil, and container for your area. This article has everything you need to make a lovely and flourishing container garden, whether you're an experienced gardener or are just getting started. Check it out now to avoid missing out!

Visit for more at www.yardener.com

[snotsloth]

I started with some perennials in my backyard that my mom and aunt gifted me and a couple of potted herbs and house plants. A lot of the early ones died! I still kill off houseplants occasionally, especially when the seasonal depression hits. I did what I could when I felt well enough.

Now that I'm physically healthier and more experienced, I'm putting in proper raised beds and trying more vegetable and herb gardening. You don't have to start with a big old project. You can just get a pot of basil or mint to brighten up your dinners and cocktails. Plants bring a lot of color and cheer both indoors and outside. And if they die, you can always try again. I absolutely recommend it!

Encouraging home-grown food is a fine thing, but I think a lot of posts on the subject are shooting themselves in the foot by making frankly optimistic assumptions about what reasonably constitutes a basic starter project. If you really want to get folks on board with home growing, your best bet is probably going to be looking up which culinary herbs can feasibly be cultivated as indoor houseplants; sure, a pot of thyme on the windowsill isn't going to make a meaningful difference to anybody's weekly grocery budget, but if we're being honest with ourselves, for most folks that fancy balcony garden isn't going to do that either, and at least the potted thyme is attainable!

[peachysoymilk]

I grew these. Oh, the bounty of a home garden lmfao

[theladylizzy]

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A post shared by Liz Katon (@theladylizzy)

My little garden 🥰✨

[trendytopicswordpress]

Containers, Raised Beds, or In-Ground: Which is Right for Your Garden?

Many gardening lovers come across this problem on a daily basis, when it comes to green experiments. Some of these factors that can lead a person choose containers, raised garden beds, or in-ground include space for a garden, mobility of plants and how they wish their gardens to look like. Containers:Container gardening proves to be an efficient and space-saving option suitable for people whose…

[art-sciencedesigns]

Maximizing Your Garden in a Small Space: Expert Tips & Tricks for Successful Small Space Gardening

[rylonsworld]

My north facing balcony gets about one hour direct sun a day, but it’s still going

[snotsloth]

I got so much garden stuff done today! Went up to my parents' house and helped my mom build a compost bin. Then my parents came back down to mine to help me build a compost bin and assemble my new garden bed. I feel so accomplished!

[jillraggett]

Plants of the Day

Monday 11 November 2024

Even at the end of the season there are some salad leaves to harvest even from this ‘small spaces’ container demonstration for edibles at the Royal Horticultural Society Garden Hyde Hall, Essex.

Jill Raggett

[the-home]

[martha-anne]

Things are starting to happen in the garden

Seedlings! Tulips! Buds bursting!

The fruit bushes I planted over winter are showing signs of life!

I planted these peas outside last week. It's too early, but they were desperate to LIVE and to CLIMB. I could not give them the life they wanted indoors. It snowed pretty much immediately, and was frosty for several days. And yet, the peas remain unbothered and flourishing. 

I had a 100% germination rate with these guys too. The variety is Lord Leicester if anybody is interested.

I've stacked up a load of old twigs and prunings which were lying around to make a bit of a habitat wall area. I'm hoping this will one day give frogs a safe passage to the pond. In the shorter term, I'm wondering if any climbing plants might like to use it as a support. Does anybody have experience with this?

This is the inside of the compost bin. I just like to look at it :)

[peachysoymilk]

Spent the afternoon gardening which was really quite nice after the month I’ve had. But I planted some gooseberries and the THORNS WERE THORNING ALRIGHT.