5 Tips For Small Scale Gardening

Lighting & Planning

Planning a garden all starts with how much light you have to work with, then you can plan on what you will most likely be planting & consuming. Most fruiting veggies like tomatoes or peppers will need a minimum of 6-8 hrs of sunlight to grow properly. Whereas most leafy greens will need a minimum 3-4 hrs of sun.

Helpful Tip: If you have full sun, you can grow your leafy greens and plants that don’t like too much heat in between the taller, sun-loving fruiting plants.

This is called high intensity gardening. This technique will maximize your planting space, as well as help retain moisture in the soil due to more of the soil being covered.

Ask yourself and your family what you most likely to eat- that’s what you’ll want to grow. It’s easy to get carried away and want to grow everything! However, starting small can be the best way to learn how to manage basic plant care. I like to recommend people start with some herbs and build from there. Keep it simple, and it will become second nature to manage your plants and grow your own food. Trust me, it tastes way better and it's more nutrient dense when you grow it yourself!

Soil

Soil is not dirt, it is a living thing! There are billions of microorganisms that live in healthy soil. If you have hard packed, dry, dead soil, it can take some time to build that back. You can amend your soil with helpful things such as- Compost, microryza fungi, wood ash, manure (rabbit manure is best), worm castings, liquid seaweed, bone meal, etc…

Adding these types of amendments will help feed and oxygenate your soil, in return giving you healthier plants.

If you are planning on container gardening, the best thing you can get is a good potting soil mix. When you are not gardening in the ground, it’s important to keep the soil nice and fluffy and that’s why potting mix works well. Some mixes will even have “slow release” fertilizers in them so you don’t need to worry about feeding your plants. Ecoscraps is a sustainable & organic good brand, as well as Fox Farm and Coast of Maine

Hydroponics

Hydroponic gardening has to be one of the most fun and easy things I recommend to a lot of my clients. Growing hydroponically means you skip the soil guess work and grow your plants in water. You will have to add some nutrients to the water periodically though. This model of growing a garden makes your plants grow faster and cleaner, which is ideal for most people. Not only that, but they use less water to grow plants because of the water circulation. Efficient? Absolutely! There are so many great designs on the market today.

There are small ones you can get for your kitchen counter to have your herbs right at your fingertips. The Aerogarden is one of my favorites. The light and water is automatic, so it takes all the guess work out. Plus it looks amazing having all those fresh herbs and salad greens growing right in the kitchen. Right where you need them!

On a larger scale, there is the wonderful Tower Garden for indoor or outdoor growing.

This particular setup comes with lighting options but not necessary if you have the tower out on a patio or maybe even a city rooftop.

The options are endless for growing in just water. Most of these systems come set up with lights and automatic pumps that turn on and off when needed. These seem to be the most ideal garden setup for urban growers.

These towers can hold between 20-32 plants! That's a lot of veggies grown in a small space.

Grow Vertically With Companions

We’ve all seen the standard tomato cage right? Well, take that idea and apply it to other vining crops such as cucumbers, melons, beans, squash, etc. You can really get creative with how you build a trellis of food on your patio. Wouldn't that be pleasant - to sit under the shade of cucumber and green bean vines on your porch or in your garden? When you have more food growing up, you have more ground space for root crops such as radishes, beets, or onions. Not only that, but this can serve an amazing purpose called Companion planting. Companions help to confuse pests and keep them away naturally without the need to spray your plants with anything harsh. The more herbs you throw in the mix, the better! This also helps draw in natural predators that you need like wasps and ladybugs to eat those unwanted pests. Planting onions next to carrots help to keep away the awful larvae from carrot fly - they can end up eating all your carrots from the inside, and it's not pretty!

Don’t forget about flowers! Marigolds are great companions for tomatoes and peppers, and they help bring in the bees. Some flowers are also edible like nasturtiums, which can act as a companion to your cucumber plants & also add a spicy kick to your salad.

Pest control

No one likes bugs in their salad! Yuck! No matter what form of gardening you’re doing, in a raised bed, or container we all deal with bugs at some point. It’s a good idea to get used to inspecting your leaves, especially the underside of them where most larvae will be hatching. In my experience, I have found that using a simple piece of duct tape will get those little guys off your leaf without damaging too much. Refer to my other post on Duct tape and Pest control.

Neem oil is one of the most popular sprays for pests. It is a natural oil which makes the leaves bitter to the bugs, but still safe for humans. The downside is, you will need to apply often, especially after it rains. The other thing that you can make yourself is to get 1 gallon of water, add 1 drop of dish soap (this only helps the solution stick to the leaves), add 15-20 drops of peppermint oil, and 10 drops of geranium oil. This is a solution I have had great success with keeping pests away in my own garden.

With the proper planning, gardening will not just be a hobby, it will be a part of your life. Growing your own food gives you a sense of pride and helps you connect better with your body and nature. It doesn’t matter if you have a house, an apartment, or and RV- you can always find a way to grow something yummy!