In Praise of a Patchwork Garden

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Don't let frequent moves, or lack of a garden plot, prevent you from growing your own food. A wealth of herbs and vegetables can thrive—all year long—in some very unlikely little spaces. 

Do you want to start an organic garden but fear that you may be moving by midsummer? Do you pine for a farm but find yourself stuck on a quarter-acre suburban lot? Do the requirements of your current job make living in the city a necessity?

If any of these problems sound all too familiar to you, don't despair, because city folks and modern nomads don't have to forgo the joys of growing fresh produce. In fact, even if the empty moving van has just pulled out of the driveway of your new home, it's not too soon to make a start toward food selfsufficiency, because my gardening method requires only as much effort as you want to put into it. The workload can then expand in small, manageable chunks as more time and energy become available or as you decide you're likely to stay put long enough to justify added effort.

ROOM TO GROW

Of course, many homes seem to have too little yard space for a garden. Well, we faced that problem three years ago, when we were transferred from our suburban home to a house in a metropolis. The new abode was located on a city-bound lot only 34 feet wide, and the back yard was almost completely shaded by 50-year-old trees (there was a sunny strip right next to the house, though). The site was, nevertheless, just perfect for a "patchwork" garden.

Like a patchwork quilt, you see, this type of plot is made up of a number of separate minigardens. And—like the components of a homemade quilt—each little growing space would likely seem nearly worthless by itself. What good, for example, is a 2' X 4' patch of land ... or a strip of sunlit soil in a shady back yard?

Well, the truth is, a patchwork garden—made up of such small available plots—can be immensely productive. In ours, for example, a sunny spot bordering the street provides all the fresh kitchen herbs we can use, plus dried ones for gift giving at Christmas. The small, sunny backyard strip I mentioned produces peas in the spring ... a summer full of tomatoes ... a seemingly endless trickle of broccoli (which we accumulate in mealsized portions and freeze) ... and even a pumpkin or two for Halloween! A semishady patch in the same area yields all the green onions, lettuce, and spinach we can eat ... and each of these little microenvironments allows us to experiment with seed varieties, plant growth requirements, and companion plantings.

Manageability is another advantage offered by patchwork gardens. On several occasions in the past, our family has endured midsummer transfers from one state to another, and—during those times—we believed it was impractical to try to start a garden at our new home. July, we thought, was too late to plant much of anything, and—busy with getting settled—we lacked time to cultivate a large plot, anyway. I've since learned, though, that a small garden patch can be started almost anytime. It takes little time, for instance, to improve heavy clay soil when the plot in question is only 3' X 3'. (just remove 8" to 10" of the dirt and lighten it by mixing one part of soil with one part of sand and one part of mulch, such as leaves, straw, or dry grass clippings ... then fill the patch with the mixture.)

Furthermore, tomato seedlings planted in July can produce ripe fruit before frost in most places, while greens, green onions, fall vegetables (such as Chinese cabbage), and herbs (for repotting indoors for the winter) can often be planted as late as August.

The patchwork method also offers the gardener a chance to work with a variety of terrains not usually found in more conventional plots. During the heat of the day, for example, I putter in the cool of the semishade out back ... but after heavy rains when my other patches are soggy, I traipse up to the unshaded hillside and work where the ground is a good bit less damp.

Then, too, each patch of my organic quilt exhibits its own distinctive personality, composed of its size, its location, and the plants that thrive in it. The green, partially shaded patch is cool and moist. There, I keep a sharp eye out for slugs, and bait the area with beer poured in shallow, foil-lined depressions in the ground. The sunny, front-yard herb plot is a joy to harvest, early on a summer morning ... as the evaporating dew fills the air with the odors of pungent basil and sweet thyme. My high-and-dry hillside tract is less tame. Rabbits compete for my beet greens there, and moles undermine root crops and match wits with me in their attempts to circumvent my traps. It's no place to be at noontime during a Cincinnati summer either ... but the tomatoes, beans, peas, and corn thrive there with a vigor unmatched in my other plots.

Another advantage of this form of cultivating is that it allows you to "fine tune" plants to make the best—and most attractive—uses of space and location ... perhaps by interspersing colors and patterns to create a harmonious whole. An herb and flower patch can display mounds of blue green thyme contrasted with snowy gray dusty miller ... spikes of chives can set off graceful marjoram ... Thumbelina zinnias will shine in front of a mass of basil ... and gray green sage can provide a fitting backdrop for grape hyacinths.

The best feature of this garden concept, however, is that you can begin to piece together a patchwork garden almost anywhere. Here are some examples, just to whet your imagination.

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