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Do You Garden In The City?
Green Thumb In The City
Since 2020 I have been actively gardening in the city. The space I own is small but the potential to grow produce is big. Right from the start I have been fortunate to grow a lot of food in a limited amount of space. However, as we garden mistakes can be made. Here I will explore what some of them are.
Is Gardening Easy?
Easier Than It Looks
Gardening for beginners may seem a bit daunting but once you get started it gets easier. Despite making mistakes along the way you will develop a great potential to receive positive results. The year started off well, but when it came time for late Spring to plant outside, I lost several plants after transplanting our seeds.
The following suggestions are 5 gardening lessons to learn from.
What Are The 5 Biggest Gardening Lessons?
1. Give Plenty Of Space Between Your Plants
If you are fairly new to gardening you may be surprised how large some vegetables grow. They can grow huge in a short period of time and can deliver a hefty return if you plant them properly. The more space you give them, the greater their chance to grow to their full potential, which is quite big for many of them.
Although I am not tall person the vegetables can grow as large as the size of a human. For example one tomato seed planted in the ground can give you about 20 tomatoes in return. This plant needs a lot of room.
Even though tomatoes take up a good amount of space, it is nothing like growing sweet potatoes or butternut squash, which need a lot more space. Not all plants grow the same. When you have some room between each plant, the spacing will differ. Just be mindful of which ones need more and adjust how you are going to plant them. If the space you have is too small, avoid growing vegetables that need a lot of room. Otherwise you will not be able to grow anything else.
Before the winter begins I will take my tomato seeds and preserve them for the next year. Preserved tomato seeds grow just as much in strength and deliver a good harvest as new tomato seeds. The benefit of preserving them is that they can last for a long time.
Check out the home garden to see how this process started.
2. Plant Fewer Seeds
You do not need to start with 50 seedlings of tomatoes or more like I did. This is not a good idea. Plan on how many tomato plants you know will fit in your garden and plant your seeds accordingly. Just 10 tomato seeds can grow into large tomato plants resulting in over 100 tomatoes by harvest season. However, for good measure, plant 15 seeds in case some do not make it.
Kale, Collards and Celery Side by Side
Another spacing error is that I planted celery right next to kale. Without knowing how large the kale and collards will expand, this stopped the growth of my celery. Their leaves grew on top of the celery. Even though the celery started off beautifully, due to the lack of space, it did not flourish like it did in my garden the previous year.
Nevertheless, celery is a great vegetable to grow in your garden. It is easy to plant and takes a little effort to take care of it. The same applies with kale and green collards. The price of kale is $3.99 for a bunch and yet you can plant one kale stem in your garden and receive 4–5 batches throughout the summer and fall.
Both celery and kale can be used in so many dishes. Celery provides great flavour to your meals as well. Although the error of having them close to each other stopped the celery from growing, I still ended up with some kale and green collards throughout the summer and fall.
Celery growing in between my kale collards and peppers. They need more room
3. Start Seeds In Larger Containers
Each seed holds a lot of value. We do not realize how wild some of the plants can grow. Right from the start, your seeds need room. They cannot be bunched up with a whole bunch of other seeds. Otherwise they will not have a solid foundation. Get them to grow strong from the start by planting them in larger containers.
In the beginning I used coffee cups to plant seeds. I will no longer use coffee mugs as my second step.
Also I am longer using egg cartons. They are not sturdy enough. When you pour the water into it, it reaches the bottom, losing its grip. Plus, they do not provide enough space. Use larger containers and let them grow in there until they are ready to be transplanted into your garden.
Better to use plastic square containers for the initial planting of your seed over using small pods for stronger growth
4. Do Not Transplant Kidney Beans
It is interesting how in my first year of trying to grow kidney beans, I just planted them in my pergola square and did not move them. They grew fairly tall and expanded. I ended up with a few handfuls of kidney beans in return. Unfortunately, I planted only a small amount of kidney beans and ended up with a somewhat decent yield in return. This year I planted several more, but then transplanted them twice and came up with nothing. Lesson learned. Do not transplant kidney bean seedlings.
The two planters with sticks are the transplanted kidney beans. They did not grow much beyond this point after they were moved.
5. Build A Raised Bed
Building a raised bed will make your space look a whole lot better. Our backyard was not looking so great. Weeds were growing in the centre of the pergola and over taking our vegetables. Aesthetically, it made the area look lack lustre. I had to spend time cleaning all that up this over a weekend. However, had there been a raised bed that would easily help block the weeds growing into the vegetables.
Luckily all along our fences we have a stone built raised bed. In most of the beds there are beautiful spring and summer flowers that flourish. Taking up a little space, I created space to grow some vegetables in the garden bed. They turned out very nicely without weeds in the way.
You do not need to make anything fancy. It is not required to have a garden bed, but it makes the space look much better. Even if you are in a condo and have a balcony, a raised bed is a good idea to consider.
The top picture is a vegetable garden without a raised bed. It turned out organized and clean and delivered some delicious produce. However, I had work to do around it, removing weeds and keeping the area clean. To avoid doing extra work having a raised bed can block this from happening.
If you have a smaller backyard, or have a balcony, setting up some raised beds will make your space look more put together.
Selling for $216.00 at 24% off online. Build your own raised bed at a fraction of this cost. It does look nice though.
Summary
Although the goal is to build an abundant vegetable garden in a small space, we must be mindful how much we can actually grow. It is evident that my eyes were bigger than my backyard. With the amount of seeds I planted and vegetables that could have flourished, I would have needed a much larger backyard, at least three times bigger than what I have. This is because each plant grows exponentially.
Do not be deceived by how small it is when you plant your seeds. I only gave a six inch distance between my seeds. The next year, I cannot give all my plants this amount of small space. The plants need to breathe and grow.
As of now I am picking items up from the backyard and eating them as side dishes to my meals. I use collards in my salads, as well as to steam, I also have a blog sharing how to make kale chips. Purchase my Authentic Homemade Vegetarian Cookbook and The Complete Meatless Lifestyle Vegetarian Cookbook, Vol. 2.
There is so much abundance available in the palm of our hands. We are being taken care of and the bounty of wealth is right under our feet. All the money spent to grow my garden is minimal. Check out building a garden on a dime to learn about how to grow your own garden on a low budget.
Hopefully these 5 gardening lessons will help you avoid making these mistakes next year.
**September 2, 2021**
*This blog is recently update on October 17, 2023 on mcinthehouse.com.**
Please visit more of my blogs on Gardening.
Additionally you can also check out blogs on Home Reno’s, Recipes and 2020 and Beyond for cost effective ideas for your home, garden and the future.
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