Grow food at home: 8 great tips for growing food in small spaces

Many of us look forward to the unmistakable taste of fresh, locally grown vegetables and fruit, especially those that come from our own soil. For those of you who would like to grow food at home but have limited space, don't despair. Your dream of home-grown food is still within reach.

You may be wondering how to grow vegetables if you have little to no space with full sun exposure, but many vegetables will tolerate partial shade, and a few could even be considered 'shade vegetables' as they won't tolerate full sun exposure.

也许你住的公寓只有一个阳台，但你喜欢新鲜的蔬菜，仍然想自己种——没问题!这里有一些顶级的建议，可以帮助你的城市花园成为一个美味的成功。If you don't even have a balcony, you can evengrow vegetables at home in an apartment if you can spare a small amount of window space - see here.

1.) Container gardening

If you have limited outdoor space, be it a small yard, shared courtyard or balcony, a container garden with vegetables and fruits may be the ideal thing for you.

One of the great things about container gardening is the ability to grow almost any vegetable and many varieties of fruit, given the right conditions and space enough for an appropriately-sized container.

With the right amount of sun exposure and watering system it's even feasible to successfully grow small fruit trees or bushes this way. In my day I have seen both lemon trees and blueberry bushes thrive in above-ground planters - what a tasty way to fill your container garden with color!

Container gardens are also extremely space efficient as every ounce of soil in your container will count for fruit and vegetable production - no growing space will be wasted underfoot as you care for and harvest your plants.

Container garden also has the added benefit of being a great back-saver, or they can be configured for those with reduced mobility, making certain that growing fresh fruit and vegetables at home is accessible to all.

Yet another unique thing about container gardening is your ability as the gardener to chase the sun if necessary, as containers can be moved throughout the day. If you have no time to be moving containers whilst life carries on around you, no problem, plant for the amount of sun you have.

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While it's true that many plants will demand a minimum of 6 hours of direct sun per day there are several 'shade vegetables' that will tolerate or thrive in partial shade and dappled sunlight.

A few things to consider when container gardening:

• 'Upcycling' can lead to some very interesting containers - steel pasta strainers are great for kitchen herbs, reclaimed vintage boxes will add flair to your vegetative stylings and even upcycled plastic totes can make great planters if you're more concerned with utility than style. You are limited only by your imagination and preferences. You'll want to remember to allow for drainage, so if necessary drill holes or otherwise puncture the bottom of your chosen containers. We also found agreat lightweight yet robust fabric raised planter that we could get delivered to home here- and we're on our second season. It makes growing vegetables easier for young and old alike!
• 如果容器足够大，几乎任何植物都能在容器中生长。
• 稻草捆本身可以用作园艺的容器，尽管它们可能有点乱，而且分解得相对较快，但它们是一种可行的选择。We've been enjoying pumpkins and zucchini straight off the top of straw bales this season - and it couldn't be easier (See how this is donehere.)
• Be sure to provide enough water and food when gardening in containers, as soil in containers will dry out faster and nutrients tend to flush through them with greater speed than their in-ground counterparts.
• 评估你的日照量，并相应地种植植物。

For more container gardening resources check out the forum at homegrown.org

2.) Vertical Gardening:

Ah, vertical gardening. There are so many ways to grow upwards- let's face it, most vegetables and fruit bearing plants grow upwards - when fitting food production into a smaller space, consider using a traditional trellis to a recycled pallet planter to a hanging hydroponic window garden. The options for vertical gardening are vast and require only some creativity - making productive space out of lost space is the key to maximum productivity in the small urban garden.

Which edibles lend themselves to vertical gardening you may be wondering; well I'm happy to report that the list is long. Here are just a few to get you started:

• Tomatoes:特别是圣女果(但大多数品种都可以)，如果给予适当的支持，它们很乐意向上生长。剪成条状的旧尼龙纤维非常适合把植物绑在它们向上的结构上，因为它们很灵活，对植物的压力最小。也许你不穿尼龙丝袜，或者你的尼龙丝袜太贵重了，不适合在你的城市花园中使用，别担心，在旧货店买一些，它们几乎不花什么钱。或者，你也可以在地下室的墙头种上一株，随着夏天的推移，看着树枝上爬满甜甜的小番茄。
• Winter squash and melons:These plants vine naturally and will happily grow towards the sky. Again, they will need adequate support, particularly as they begin to fruit, but they react well to being trained to where you have the room.
• Peas and pole beanswill happily grow up anything strong enough to support them
• Cucumbersthis favorite of the afternoon tea, spa, or spritzer ingredient on the warmer days of summer is relatively simple to grow in the smallest of spaces.
• Asian greens, salad greens, strawberries and kitchen herbswill all happily grow in nothing more than a recycled pallet on its side. Instructions for that can be foundhere.
• Greens,strawberriesorkitchen herbswill also happily grow in sections of rain gutter which can either hang or be fixed to the side of almost any southward facing structure or in a network of hanging bottles in a south facing window as seenhere.Hanging rain gutter garden instructions arehere.
• Potatoes.是的，如果有合适的容器，土豆也可以垂直生长。想象一下，你正在使用一个底部钻了各种洞的干净垃圾桶。撒上几英寸的土和堆肥，放入切好的、腌制好的种子土豆片，再盖上6英寸的土。水。当植株的地上部分长到6 - 8英寸时，再加一些土，只留下几英寸的绿叶露出来。这个循环可以在整个季节重复几次。当植物变成褐色并死亡时，就是收获的时候了。最上面的土豆会比下面的更小更嫩，很像商店里以高价出售的美味“新”土豆。我听说垂直种植土豆是在一个装满稻草的容器(而不是土壤)中种植，这样更容易收获，我计划今年尝试一下。Stop Press:这对我们完全有效，看起来土豆长得更容易，收获更重。 I kept topping up the straw with the slowly disintegrating straw bales our pumpkin and zuccinis are growing in.
• Try hanging planters:草莓在悬挂的篮子里会茁壮成长，甚至西红柿也会从悬挂的桶底倒着生长。我们的地面上覆盖着草莓，不过是为肥肥的、快乐的花栗鼠做了些什么，把它们挂起来意味着你也可以吃到一些。DIY upside down tomato planter instructionshere.

Worthy of note: We have had great success using sunflowers as the support structure for beans, peas and cucumbers while planting shade tolerant salad greens in the shadow of the vertical consortium.

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3.) Raised beds and square foot gardening:

If your gardening space is big enough for raised beds, they can be a great way to maximize space and effort. Not only can raised beds accommodate more plants per square foot, but gardening in a raised bed greatly reduces the need to weed. It also makes weeds much easier to uproot throughout the season, which can be a real blessing for your back and if the beds are carefully spaced, even gardening from a wheelchair becomes an enjoyable possibility in small spaces. Garden upkeep was never easier.

Here are just a few of the advantages of growing food in a raised bed in a small garden:

• An extended growing season. A raised bed will warm up faster than the ground in the spring and in the fall your bed can easily be tented to extend your growing season by a few weeks or so - this helps with yield in a smaller garden.
• Location, location, location: Grow food in the location of your choice regardless of soil conditions as you will be adding your own.
• Raised beds offer excellent drainagein all soil conditions, regardless of where your garden is located.
• Soil compaction in no longer an issue，所以对于较小的空间来说，工作、维护土壤和除草会容易得多。
• Every square inch of soil in your small space will go towards food productionas none will be wasted underfoot.
• Depending on how high you choose to build the raised beds in your small-space garden, you could completely eliminate the need to bend over. At worst, even if your raised beds are only a foot and a half high, you won't be bending as far.

A raised bed is ideally 18 - 24 inches deep, but if you are building your raised beds on top of existing earth you wilI have some leeway here. I have successfully gardened in boxes built over earth with only one foot of soil depth. You can find both detailed instructions for building a raised beds and multiple choices online, or

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and forraised bed kits including special offers and home delivery - see here

4)。Keyhole gardens

Keyhole gardens are designed to maximize space by eliminating the need for walkwaysas found in traditional row gardening or with raised beds. The design is also intended to be draught-resistant and deliver nutrients via compost throughout the entire growing season.

钥匙孔花园是一个凸起的风格的床，采取一个粗略的圆形形状和一个“钥匙孔”形状的路径允许进入整个花园。圆圈的中心是一个垂直的隧道，里面有很多层堆肥。当堆肥分解时，它会把营养和水分直接送到床上。当然，钥匙孔花园是一种高效的种植方式，可以用许多不同的材料来建造，就像快速搜索谷歌术语一样。如果你有一个大约8 - 10英尺直径的圆圈的空间，你可以使用任何适当的材料，很容易获得波纹壁板，雪松柱，景观岩石，砖或任何组合。We havea page dedicated to keyhole gardensfor more details.

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5.) The edible landscape, forest gardens and permascaping

The art of edible permascaping involves planting food bearing perennialsin areas where ornamentals would traditionally take up space. In fact, many popular ornamentals are edible, so turning your landscape into a food-bearing paradise is easier than it might sounds.

When looking at your entire property as possible ground on which to grow food, your potential to increase your yield goes up accordingly. Lawns, for instance, can easily be transformed into garden plots, flowering perenial gardens can often accomodate plants that are both beautiful and edible, even forested areas on your property can produce food (and in some cases might already have something wild worth harvesting).

6.) Community gardens

No south-facing window, balcony or yard? Consider a community garden, it's a great way to grow food while strengthening relationships with neighbours. If there isn't already a community garden in your neighbourhood, might there be a vacant lot on which to start one?

One thing is for sure, learning how to grow vegetables with others in your community while sharing information and resources will do more than put food on the table. Collective gardening or even just sharing gardening space will help to build and strengthen relationships within your community.

A community garden is also a great way to give kids exposure to food production that they might not otherwise get. We will face many challenges in the future around the issues of natural resources and food production, so the ability to grow food in one capacity or another is a skill that may be quite valuable for future generations.

7.) Try lasagna gardening (it's a method, not what's grown)

The easiest way to turn a backyard lawn into an organic food-producing garden is by building a lasagna garden, as there is no digging required.

The first thing we will clear up for any rookie gardeners; we aren’t planting noodle trees where we will be harvesting penne and rigatoni. Not even tomatoes, aubergines, zuccinis and bell-peppers, although they'd go great in home-made lasagne and we could! A lasagna garden is actually a technique often referred to as ‘sheet composting’ or the 'sheet mulch method', and is a great way to keep kitchen food waste from ending up in a landfill and easily get a quick start to growing your own food at home. It's also one of thefabulous ways to convert an area of high-maintenance lawn into an eco-friendly, productive and possibly organic garden- without having to go out and buy soil, especially if the underlying conditions are a heavy clay soil, lasagne gardening produces a light tilth, full of nutrients, and ready togrow delicious vegetables in the shadeor in full sun. It's both simple and satisfying!

千层面花园的名字简单地指的是一种利用现有草坪的养分，在草地上分层种植土壤、覆盖物和根系屏障的方法，并小心确保草和杂草不通过这种方法生长。直到他们做。因为他们会。这就是园艺的生活;拥抱它，享受它。To seestep by step instructions for creating a lasagna garden, see here- or to explorelasagna gardening pros and cons, see here.

8.) Be strategic

在决定自己种植蔬菜之后，为你的空间选择合适的植物可能是你要做的最重要的决定。Many plants will require a minimum of 6 hours of direct sun per day andothers vegetables will prefer partial shadeduring the hottest days of the summer. Assess your space, choose wisely and good luck! As always, if you have any tips or experience to share, we sure hope you'll share your knowledge in the comments below.

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Alsoread about building a greenhouse in a cold climate here, fromthe EcoHome Green building guides