Space Is A Luxury - And Not A Requirement For Growing Vegetables

Limited space should never be considered a deterrent when wanting to grow our own vegetables at home. Vegetables can literally be grown almost anywher

19:49 18 November 2020

Growing Veggies In Small Gardens And Spaces

 

Not having a huge garden or back-yard at your disposal is no excuse not to make the best of what you have – even if your heart’s only desire is to grow your own vegetables at home. No truer words have ever been spoken about gardening than these: it is better to make a success of a small garden you can be proud of than to be endlessly frustrated by a massive amount of space you’re hardly able to manage, let alone eat from.

 

The truth about vegetable gardening is that you don’t even need a garden to grow your own vegetables and herbs. All you really need is a container (pot or planter), a few handfuls of soil, a bit of water, and a lot of sun.

 

Here’s how to get started growing your own vegetables and herbs to make delicious smoothies and salads – even when you don’t have a lot of garden to work with.

 

Vegetables Need Sun

 

Vegetables need a lot of sun – even as much as six hours or more every day. For those without sufficient access to sun, there’s always lettuce, broccoli, spinach, and other greens. For just about everything else, you’ll need all the sun you’re able to invite on over.

 

Vegetables Need Water

 

When getting into gardening and growing vegetables – whether on a massive allotment or in a tiny pot hanging from your balcony – you’ll need a reliable source of water. A good and cost-effective idea is what is known as a drip irrigation system. These come in different sizes and are perfectly easy to install. They’re also superbly eco-friendly because of their water-saving abilities. Instead of spraying water all over the show, they water plants where it matters most – directly at root levels.

 

Vegetables Need Soil

 

Vegetables need soil – and they need soil as rich as possible in organic matter. Though soil is often overlooked and perhaps even regarded the monotonous part of gardening, it helps to keep in mind that soil is essentially where your plants will get their food from.

 

Healthy and nutrient-rich soil will typically have a loose and crumbly texture – very near the texture of the crumbs on an apple-crumble pie. This particular texture allows air to pass through and water to drain effectively but gradually enough for maximum absorption.

 

Just like when you want to register to play online, the process of soil improvement is simple. There are two basic methods when wanting the improve the structure of the soil in your garden – or even in your planters and/or pots:

 

• Soil can be loosened up and lightened in texture by tilling. Important to know about tilling is that it can potentially kill good insects typically found in soil. Daily or even weekly tilling is therefore not advised.
  
  
• Soil can be improved in several ways by adding organic matter. Examples of organic matter are: compost (this can be purchased from most nurseries), leaf mold, and manure. Should you have a patch of garden at your disposal, you can even make your own compost by creating your own compost heap from vegetable peels, teabags, grass cuttings, leftover fruit, etc. Even bio-degradable cardboard and eggshells can be added to your compost heap.