Small Space Gardening

Growing food in small spaces can be fun and productive — you just need a little sunshine and some imagination.

article image
by Janet Horton
If a deck or balcony is the only space where you can grow, go crazy with containers.

Get started growing food with small space gardening. You can even start with apartment vegetable gardening for a fun and productive hobby.

My first experiment in small-space gardening was in Brussels, Belgium, on a rooftop with no guardrails. While my official goal was container-grown tomatoes, my unofficial one was to avoid becoming human gazpacho on the pavement five floors below. Now, 15 years later, I’m still practicing my small-scale growing skills, this time in the safety of a 10-by-10-foot plot in the suburbs of Maine. I’ve learned that no space is too small for growing food. Whether your garden consists of a window box in the city or an acre in the country, you can still benefit from applying the techniques of small-space gardening.

Soil Is No Small Matter

All successful gardening endeavors, big or small, start with fertile soil. If you have a large plot, you can get away with having less-fertile soil by planting more and spacing out your crops. In a small space, however, that approach simply doesn’t work. When I was preparing my front yard garden back in 2008, I remember sifting my sandy soil through my fingers and realizing I had to improve it. I added lots of organic compost along with a little lime and bone meal, and I add more organic matter each year.

  • Updated on Dec 7, 2022
  • Originally Published on Dec 14, 2011
Tagged with: Balcony Garden, microcompost, patio garden, season extensions, small space garden
Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368