When your outdoor space is small, advance planning is critical to get the highest yield -- and the most enjoyment -- from your garden. Flowers, vegetables, fruit and herbs can all thrive, but you need to be selective in the varieties you choose to make the most of a small area. A tiny garden space kicks your creative senses into high gear, so draft the garden plans early, leaving time to incorporate the practical requirements of successful gardening before planting season arrives.
Instructions
1. Choose first which large-sized plants you want to grow. Place dwarf fruit trees, columnar apple trees, upright raspberry and blackberry bushes and grapes that grow on trellises near the side of the house where they will receive ample sunlight, protection from inclement weather and not shade the rest of the small garden.
2. Block out space at the side of the garden for smaller, permanent shrubs like blueberry bushes for their fruit and azaleas or other flowering shrubs for their seasonal beauty. You may also wish to line one or more sides of the garden perimeter with narrow, evergreen arborvitae or holly shrubs to create a privacy hedge.
3. Plot out the orientation of your garden rows so that taller plants like corn and pole beans don't block the sun from lower-growing plants that need plenty of sunshine to thrive. Take advantage of the shade from tall plants, though, by planning an adjacent row of lettuce and spinach, which benefit from cooler shade on hot days.
4. Mark out an area at the edge of the garden where the vines of winter squash, melons and cucumbers can spread without interfering with the rest of the garden. Grow select varieties with smaller-size fruit vertically on a trellis to conserve ground space. Choose bush types of summer squash, instead of varieties that grow on vines, to produce the vegetables in a compact area.
5. Schedule successive plantings as part of your small garden plan. Instead of one long row of carrots such as you might grow in a large garden, for example, plant a short row early in the spring and another in late summer to mature before cold winter weather sets in.
6. Organize several rows in your small garden for inter-planting. This technique allows you to grow a row of lettuce, Bok Choy, peas and other vegetables harvested early in the season, next to peppers, cabbage, tomatoes and various plants that take much longer to produce a harvest. As you harvest and remove the early-bearing plants, space becomes available for the larger plants as they expand in height and width.
7. Incorporate edible flowers into your small garden plan, especially if you feel the need to produce food, but crave the beauty of colorful blossoms. Use the space under fruit trees to grow pansies and Johnny-jump-ups to use for salad and desert garnishes. Tuck one or two multi-colored nasturtiums and orange calendulas in at the end of vegetable rows, and place borage near a trellis where the plant's bright blue flowers will stand out against other garden foliage.
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