How to Grow Food in a Small Vegetable Garden

If your dream has always been to become a gardener or have a small farm, but don’t have the space in your backyard, chances are that you will just have to find a way to maximize your existing space. There are plenty of ways you can grow produce in a very small vegetable garden, and always have fresh, organic produce to harvest for your cooking.

Don’t be discouraged if you only have a small space to grow your vegetables. There are tons of ideas that can get your creative juices flowing for getting more vegetables in less space. You can do this!

Ideas for Maximizing Your Small Vegetable Garden

Use one or all of these ideas to make more space in your garden area. Bonus points for finding new areas to grow food that you hadn’t even though of using!

Plant Pots

One of the things you might want to do is get some old plant pots and grow various fruit or vegetables in them. For an example, if you would like to grow tomatoes, you can choose a variety of cherry tomatoes that can climb and grow upward. Tie them up regularly so they are supported and can get the sunshine they need, and voila! A harvest in a few months! Learn how to start tomato and pepper seeds indoors.

You can do the same with grapes, cucumbers, and anything else you can grow in a pot and allow to climb. Just make sure to use the correct size pot!

Another option if you are planting a climbing plant in a large pot is to plant herbs under the larger plant. Many delicate annual herbs would do great when shielded from the afternoon sun with the cool leaves of a climbing plant.

If you don’t want to bother with climbing plants, you can plant anything you like in pots, really. As long as they are getting the proper amount of sunlight and shade, most plants will do just fine. Learn how to plant and grow zucchini in pots.

Ladder Planters

If you are good at upcycling, you might even get an old ladder from a reclamation yard, and transform it into a beautiful plant pot ladder to ensure all your plants are getting the sunshine and you are not taking too much space up in your backyard.

You can rotate the plant pots, so every fruit or vegetable will get the right amount of water, sunshine, and nutrition.

Square Yard Gardening

In case you haven’t heard about square yard gardening yet, it might be time to study it. It is a simple way of maximizing the use of just one square yard of your garden and being able to water, weed, and reach every single plant.

This method is great for small spaces, and will give you up to nine varieties of herbs and vegetables to pick from throughout the season. Learn how to keep your raised bed garden soil in tip-top shape.

Vertical Gardens

What if you are looking to maintain an eco-friendly home and would like to have organic food as well as the shade you need to reduce your use of air conditioning during the summer?

If you have a window that gets a crazy amount of sun, or an area on your property that you want sheltered from the wind, you can set up a vertical garden. This can provide you the shade you need for a living room window, or the shelter from the wind for your patio.

You can use a trellis to grow climbing plants on, and maximize the space you have available. As long as you can “grow up”, you can create the shelter you need, AND get a great harvest!

Rotating Plants

You might also want to plan your gardening and make sure that you are rotating the seasonal plants. Find out when to start the germination process for each seed, and when to move them into your pots or boxes.

You can have herbs, such as chives and lettuce all year (depending on where you live), but peppers will start growing and ripening later, when the weather is warm. Spinach and Brussel sprouts will be early, but you will have to wait for carrots and parsnips to grow.

A small garden should never be a barrier for not growing your own fruit, herbs, and vegetables. Use the above tips to make the most out of the space you have available.