How To Maximize Any Small Garden Space

A small garden space can yield large quantities of fresh flowers and vegetables when you use the space creatively and with a few gardening secrets. Growing plants upward instead of outward is one secret to maximizing a small garden space. The second is to select the right plants for the limited space.
You don’t even need outdoor land space for growing food and flowers, a couple of containers and the right plants can provide you with fresh veggies and floral beauty for most of the year. Check these tips to maximize any small garden space.

Right Location

Plants need sun, so select the sunniest location for your small garden. This can be a fence, exterior wall, patio, walkway, or any location that receives at least 6-hours of sun each day.
If you don’t have one location that is the continuous sunlight for that many hours each day, use containers and place them on wheeled dollies so the containers of plants can easily be moved to follow the sun throughout the day.

Go Vertical

Vertical gardening maximizing the space by lifting the plant off the ground and having them grow upwards. The plants are lifted up and off the soil and away from damaging moisture and pests. Upwards growing plants also receive more sunlight and better air circulation, making them healthier and stronger.

Add trellises to your small space garden so cucumbers, chayote, climbing tomatoes, malabar spinach, pole beans, peas, nasturtium, climbing roses, and clematis will grow upwards and take up very little surface space. Add trellises to containers or to small in-ground gardens to maximize growing space.

You can place growing containers on vertical surfaces to create gardening space. Window boxes, hanging baskets, containers attached to a privacy fence or exterior wall make ideal planters for growing food and flowers. As long as the location receives adequate sunlight and its easy for you to reach, it can be used for vertical gardening.

Plant Selection

I recommend you select plants that are labeled ‘dwarf’ or ‘bush’ so the mature size of the plant will be smaller than normal. The flowers and food will be the same size, they will just be produced on a smaller plant.

Alibi cucumber grows on a very short vine. Bush Delicata Squash is a yellow summer squash produced on a small plant. Cherry tomatoes produce short vines and can be grown in a hanging basket. Little finger eggplant, white half-runner beans, baby broccoli, no-runner strawberries, dwarf lettuce, snack-sized bell peppers, and many other dwarf and bush varieties of vegetables and fruits will take up minimal garden space.

Maximize flower-growing space by combining a low-growing mounding plant with a tall-growing plant. Zinnias produce blooms on tall stems that have few leaves and pairs well with a low-growing mounding plant like pansies, dwarf marigolds, or moss rose.

You can grow three flowering or vegetable plants (or a combination of flowers and vegetables) in one large container to create a WOW factor in a small space. Select one thriller, one filler, and one spiller plant for the container.

The thriller

It needs to be tall and planted in the center. A canna lily or banana tree makes a great thriller plant.

The filler

These fill-in the space around the thriller. Begonias or coleus make good filler plants.

The spiller

These spill over the sides of the container. Petunias or pentas make good spiller plants.

A sunflower, pepper plant, and squash vine make a good mixed container of flowers and vegetables.

Companion Planting

Even if you’re not going for a WOW factor appearance, companion planting is essential to maximize a small garden space. Containers or in-ground gardens can benefit from companion planting for enhanced vegetable flavor, increased production, fewer pests, and fewer diseases.

Plant dill and basil near tomato plants to keep hornworms from devouring the plants and grow oregano nearby to enhance the tomato flavor.
Corn stalks provide an upright support system and a little shade for beans to help them grow their best.
Nasturtium is a hardworking colorful, edible flower. Nasturtium helps rid soil of nematodes, increase the nitrogen level in the soil, and add a peppery flavor to salad.

Marigolds repel beetles, nematodes, several stinging insects, cats, dogs, and deer. Plant dwarf marigolds all around the perimeter of the garden for best results.
Basil, onions, spinach, and tomatoes make good companions for peppers. The plants will keep aphids, spider mites, flies, and mosquitoes off of the pepper plants.
Onions, carrots, beets, parsnips, rosemary, and dill repel whiteflies, aphids, carrots flies, and enhance the flavor of other vegetables.

Succession Planting

Succession planting allows you to grow several vegetables or flowers in the same spot and harvest multiple times from spring through fall.
Start with a cool-season vegetable or flower, like broccoli or cabbage, or tulips or daffodils. When the cool-season, early-spring plants having completed their production, dig them up and replace them with warm-season vegetables and flowers. Near the end of summer when the warm-season plants have finished production, replace them with kale, collards, turnips, and chrysanthemums.

Vegetables that reach maturity quickly and only have a short harvest season should also be planted in succession at 2-week intervals to extend the harvest. Radish, carrot, and zucchini seeds should be planted every 2-weeks to keep the harvest going.

At the end of the garden season, plant a winter cover crop in in-ground gardens to help prevent soil erosion. And then increase fertility, and prevent compaction. You should dump the soil in containers into the compost bin to be recycled because used container soil has been depleted of nutrients. You should start with fresh soil next gardening season.

Feed The Soil

The soil keeps the plants nourished and thriving and soil must be very fertile to support the closely-planted vegetables. Before planting and re-planting is a small space garden, feed the soil with compost and your favorite organic plant food. Organic plant foods like bone meal, blood meal, kelp, or well-rotted animal manure should be incorporated into the soil to increase soil fertility and improve soil structure.