Whatever your vegetable garden ideas are, they are fun to start and harvest throughout the seasons. Producing many delicious fruits and vegetables with flavors you just do not get with store bought produce. The problem is, not all of us have huge back yards with lush soil to have the gardens we dream of. Or maybe you have never had a garden before, and do not want to rip up your backyard for a vegetable garden that might not be what you want.
Vegetable Garden ideas is intended to help you with those hang-ups by sharing with you great vegetables to have with very limited gardening space. Just because you don’t have huge back or front yards does not mean you cannot have a beautiful and tasty garden. Remember when choosing different types and varieties of vegetables, find ones you like and want to eat. Vegetable garden ideas will make it more exciting and the entire experience will be good. But the most important concept to remember is be patient. Growing food takes a hot minute, so relax, prune, and have fun with it.
Herbs
Herbs are perfect for anyone trying to grow edible plants in small spaces. They grow fast, and the leaves can be plucked or pruned to enhance the flavors of our foods. They are usually smaller and be planted around bigger plants to fill in space. There are so many different types of herbs, you can pick and choose your favorites to grow and use. Some of the most common herbs are cilantro, parsley, basil, oregano, rosemary, mint, sage, chives, garlic, ginger, and thyme. Herbs can all be grown in small space vegetable gardens, and will provide a plentiful supply of food during the season. Some herbs do better in heat like basil, and others do really well with plenty of water and wet soil like mint. Some herbs like rosemary and certain sages and thyme has the potential to grow into big bushy plants, so keep that in mind if planting those herbs. You don’t want them growing too big and not allowing anything else to grow.
Pepper Vegetable Garden Ideas
Peppers are great for vegetable garden ideas because they grow up and not out creating more space for your garden. These pest resistant plants are a great addition to any garden. A pepper plant is made to tolerate the heat, and is more drought resistant than most vegetables. If you like to flood the garden, you might damage these plants. The soil should be left to dry out between watering, they do need a period of relatively dry soil. If watering is not adequate, pepper plants can develop blossom-end rot, which is when the bottom of the born fruit rots. This is a very common disease that is caused from over or under watering the plant. These plants produce a variety of colorful fruits and can make great ornamental plants for your garden if planted in the right locations. You can choose from a wide variety to plant, including really hot ones to cooler more known ones like bell peppers.
Radishes
Radishes even though grown under the soil makes for great small space gardens. One reason being they are very quick to grow, and you can pull them up 30-35 days after planting. Once you harvested radishes, you can start and sow other plants in their spot. Radishes prefer cooler weather and like a more moist soil. Since their sow to harvest is so short, always start this vegetable from seed. Start by planting the seed 0.5-inches in depth, and about 1-inch apart. When you water radishes, be sure to water the soil well, as the plant has large taproots and very little horizontal roots. Sow the seeds where the plant will get full sun, but if they are under larger plants they still can thrive. There are many varieties, so find and grow ones you have never tried before to expand your own pallet and discovery. Do not leave the radish in the soil too long after 5 weeks, because this could change the taste of the radish and make them unpleasant to eat. Radishes are a great vegetable garden idea.
Tomatoes
There are a lot of different tomato varieties, so finding a patio tomato plant, cherry or grape producing plants are great if you have limited space in your garden. Some varieties do really well hung in baskets, which creates even more space in your garden. Tomato plants are really easy to grow, manicure and harvest, all you basically need is a sunny spot and a lot of water everyday. For better harvests and fruit I do recommend using a tomato plant food to enrich the soil. Some say a cherry tomato plant is the easiest plant you will ever grow, and that can be especially true with Sweet Million or Sun Sugar cherry varieties. These varieties grows taller and can grow up to 8-feet tall, growing up and not out leaves a lot of space for other plants in your small space garden. I like to use tomato cages for my tomato plants, this keeps them from growing top heavy and falling over, and keeps them nice and tightly. They come in many different sizes and styles. Tomatoes are essential with any vegetable garden ideas.
Lettuce Vegetable Garden Ideas
Lettuce is a great plant if you have limited space for your garden, and there are literally hundreds of different varieties you can choose from. Many types can grow relatively quickly maturing in 5-8 weeks and can be harvested for your salads as little as that time. When harvesting lettuce, start with the outer most leaves, and do not damage the center. Damaging the crown, or middle will destroy the future harvesting for the plant. This plant does enjoy cooler seasons and should planted in early spring and discarded by the middle of summer. Lettuce enjoys full to partial sun and loves a lot of water. If the leaves look scorched by the sun, it might be getting too much sun and/or not enough water. Choosing the right variety for your climate is important when choosing lettuce. This will help with the productivity of the plant, and how edible and tasty the leaves will be.
Runner/Pole Beans
There are many different variety of green beans, so choose one that grows vertically and not the bushy variety. It is best to start beans from seeds, as they do not respond well to messing with their roots and do not transplant well. Plant the seed in full sun and well drained soil about 1-inch in depth and 2-4-inches apart. You will start to see the sapling in about 15-days. Runner/pole beans will need trellises, netting, or tepees to be successful and have a happy and healthy plant and harvest. Remember when you are sowing your seeds to your garden, these plants will grow tall, and will cover the sunlight from other ground plants. Use this to your advantage and place your plants that do not like a lot of sun underneath or nearby. Runner/pole beans are a must have with vegetable garden ideas.
Peas Vegetable Garden Ideas
Fresh peas harvested right from your garden are sweeter and more flavorful than anything you could ever buy in the store. Peas should be planted 1-inch in depth, about 2-inches apart if you decide to start them from seed. One reason I think this plant is perfect for small space vegetable gardens ideas is because they grow vertically and not horizontally. This makes it perfect for smaller gardens, because the sky is the limit vertically. Watering is extremely important for the pea plant success, and never let the soil fully dry out. Regular watering is important especially when the plant is blooming and producing pods. Provide structures and support for the peas to hold on to as they grow. Trellises are a great way to help the plant grow vertically. Peas grown on trellises produce more and are less prone to root rot and other diseases. Be carful when harvesting and use two hands. You do not want to pull out or disturb the root structure.
Swiss Chard
Swiss or Rainbow are the best varieties of Chard in my opinion for small space. Not only can the plant be used as an ornamental plant placed around the edge creating a beautiful landscape for your garden, it is so incredibly nutritious for us to eat. Swiss Chard enjoys partial sun, so placing them around the border of the garden will be perfect placements as the taller plants will throw some shade on them during the day. They enjoy moist soil, and are not very drought resistant. They do like warmer weather, so do not plant until mid-spring when the last frost has left. Another beautiful feature about this plant is you can harvest the leaves as you want them. Once Swiss Chard has enough leaves and is about 9-inches tall, start cutting the outer most leaves first. This will allow the more tender inner leaves to grow and chard tastes amazing at any stage.
Take your time and enjoy the entire experience with vegetable garden ideas. Be prepared to test your skills, and knowledge, and be ready to deal with bugs too. There are a numerous different kinds of ants, aphids, slugs and pest that will work at destroying what you have created. Be cautious if using pesticides to help combat this problem, and make sure you wash all your produce if using pesticides. There are other solutions like egg shells at the base or garlic and vinegar mixed with water misting. Some natural predator’s are lady bugs, and praying mantises, they can literally save your gardens from other pests by keeping the populations down. If you get rats or rabbits eating your crops, you might have to buy traps.
Have fun! Enjoy your garden!