GET YOUR VEG ON

Small space solutions for growing your own vegetables

Creating a small garden and producing fresh vegetables is an ideal hobby now that we are seeing warmer weather and it doesn’t even need to be a traditional soil garden. Pots can work as well!

Spring is a time for rejuvenation and rebirth and after the difficult years of repetitive lockdowns, creating a food garden is a possibility for almost everyone. In fact, even if you don’t have any outside garden space, you can still create a small garden that is completely functional and beautiful.

Given that so many people live in townhouses or apartments, outside space is at a premium if there is any at all. Creating a food garden is something that can be accomplished in a tiny area or, if needs be, indoors too – all you need is sufficient light.

Growing up

For those with a small patch of garden that can be used for growing, the space can still be maximised by growing up. Create pyramids or cones with a spiral around them as this will allow you to get a much bigger yield than just planting flat. Put a trellis around the edges so that the climbing plants, like green beans, can have somewhere to go that is out of the way. Even if you don’t want beans, a trellis is a useful structure to hang other containers on – just ensure that it is sturdy.

There are some pointers to consider before you start. Firstly, if you are planting in Spring, you need to know what vegetables will grow in Spring. You also need to know how long it will take before you can harvest – this can be evident for vegetables like lettuce where the crop is visible, but root vegetables cannot be seen. If you plant carrots, instead of waiting until they are grown, harvest baby carrots after thirty days. Some veggies can be grown throughout the year, like carrots,

Similarly, if you are growing herbs indoors in pots, these will usually flourish all year if they are nurtured. Strawberries can be grown in a vertical pot specifically for this purpose and it takes up very little space and can even be placed indoors under the correct conditions.

Should you wish to have a larger variety of berries and veggies, a good idea is to speak to your neighbours – if you all grow different veggies and share, you can have the best of all worlds. Berries, herbs and chillies can be grown in abundance in a very small space.

Spring veggies

Spring is the ideal time to plant asparagus, artichoke, baby marrow, beetroot, broad bean, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cucumber, garlic, green beans, leeks, mushroom, mielies, parsley, parsnip, peas, rhubarb, Swiss chard, spring onion and turnips.

Get your gardening gloves on and start growing. Almost any space, even windowsills, are ideal growing spaces. Having fresh ,home-grown veggies and herbs is also so healthy and it’s just a fun thing to do! �

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT