Small Space = Big Yield

By Mike Darcy, Host of In The Garden with Mike Darcy on KXL Radio

You don’t think you have the space to garden?  Think again!  A garden can be any place and any size.  Take a look at your surroundings; a roof, balcony, patio, deck, window box, or an indoor windowsill; the choices are all around us.  In fact, the limiting aspect might have more to do with sunlight than space itself.  The challenge is how to convert the space into a garden designed to give big yields. Doing this is not nearly as difficult as you might imagine.

Let us start at the beginning.  The first and most critical factor is to observe where the sun shines.  If you are going to grow herbs, vegetables, and/or fruit trees, they all need sun.  Usually they will need at least one half day of sunlight at a minimum.  While you might think you are in control, the sun is really telling you where you can plant! 

Once you and the sun have come to terms with your location, the fun part begins.  I’ve found an easy way to start is with raised beds and/or large containers.  With raised beds or containers, you are controlling the soil mix and soil is a key ingredient.  For containers, you can purchase large bags of a good all purpose potting soil and use it exclusively.  For larger areas with raised beds consider buying an all purpose soil in bulk.  If you have sun and good soil, you are bound to be successful.  In my own containers and raised bed areas, I like to add a mix of organic fertilizers just before planting.  These will generally provide a slow release of nutrients over an extended period of time. 

Now that you have sunlight, good soil, and fertilizer, you are ready to plant.  Whether you decide to start your own seeds or use transplants, the choice is yours.  Some plants are very easy to grow from seed and that is, of course, a less expensive way to start.  If you have children, letting them sow vegetable seeds is a wonderful learning tool in teaching them some basic information about what we eat and where it comes from.  However, there are some plants that are generally easier to begin with as transplants. 

If your raised bed is in a highly visible area, consider planting vegetables and herbs that will be visually appealing.  Lettuce would be a perfect plant for such a space.  You can start with transplants, but lettuce is also very easy to grow from seed.  Since you have created a sort of ideal planting space, place your transplants or seeds much closer together than you normally would.  Lettuce seeds are small so you can easily thin them out by hand if some areas are too crowded.   

With the many different colored and textured leaves of lettuce, it can be very visually attractive.  Consider planting trailing nasturtiums (very easy from seed) and letting them trail down the sides of the raised bed.  Between the rows of lettuce, try some root crops such as radishes, carrots, or beets.  This will allow for optimum use of space.  Most radishes are ready to harvest in less than 30 days from seed, so you can continually replant.  At one end of the bed a small trellis might be effective for growing cucumbers and training them to climb it.

Tomatoes are nearly a ‘must have’ in most gardens.  Easy to grow, they prefer full sun, and by giving them some support to keep them up off the ground will provide you with more space to plant other vegetables around them.  When buying tomato transplants, check the tag as to how many days is generally required for maturity.  I encourage people not to buy just one variety.  Select some that are early season, mid season, and late; therefore increasing your chances for a long season of harvest.  If you are new to growing tomatoes here in the Pacific Northwest, I would suggest you select some varieties bred for our region.  Look for names like ‘Legend’, ‘Oregon Spring’, and ‘Willamette’.

A bean teepee is a fun structure for children.  Beans are very easy to grow from seed and quickly germinate in warm weather.  If you are primarily interested in color, try Scarlet Runner Beans and you’ll enjoy their red flowers all summer plus the edible pods.  When our children were young, we always had a bean teepee and they loved playing in it.  Any type of pole bean will work. 
If your space is limited, I would suggest you stay away from corn, pumpkins, and many of the squash.  Corn grows tall and can shade your other vegetables (not a good thing) and pumpkins and squash, while fun and easy to grow, take a lot of space.  If your space is not limited, then try the ‘three sisters’; corn, beans, and squash.  Let the beans climb up the corn for support and let the squash crawl on the ground around the corn.

Don’t forget a container on your deck or patio or just outside the kitchen door to plant with herbs.  Mix it up with parsley, sage, thyme, oregano, chives, and basil.  Basil is similar to lettuce in that it has a variety of leaf colors for a nice visual effect.  Basil does need full sun and should not be planted until the weather is warm.  I have seen containers exclusively with basil and they are attractive all summer.

The possibilities are endless.  It is fun to experiment by growing and mixing different edibles.  You will soon discover what works well and what does not.  You will also quickly realize the difference in taste from the fresh produce you harvest and that purchased at the supermarket.

A Chinese proverb I once read and have always liked is ‘the good yield depends on the cooperation between heaven, earth, and people’. *