Four Tips for Small Space Gardening

Our members have access to monthly gardening workshops to help them get the most out of their gardens. In our April member gardening webinar, we shared tips for maximizing your garden space. Here are a few gems that are great to know for small space gardening.

Tip 1: Layer Your Plants

Our first tip for small space gardening is to layer your plants.

What does garden layering mean? 

Layering means that we’re thinking about our gardens in different layers, meaning different heights and levels of plants.

If we have three plants that all grow to about the same height and width, each plant takes up roughly the same amount of space. But if we have three plants that grow to different sizes, we’ll be able to fit more in. Planting a small, medium and large plant in the same area works quite well—and makes the most of a garden area.

Take our Pico Pot Grow Kit as an example. It comes with chili pepper, tomato, green onions and cilantro seedlings. Green onions are super-skinny and grow in a little area. In contrast, the pepper takes up more space, and so does the tomato. But cilantro is a smaller plant and can grow around and under the larger plants. So, what’s fantastic about layering these plants is that you can grow them all in the same large pot.

Tip 2: Take Advantage of Vining Plants

Another way to layer and maximize the space in a small garden is to grow veggies underneath a vining plant, such as an indeterminate tomato (aka vining tomatoes). Kaylee mentioned that she often plants greens underneath her zucchini plants.

“Zucchini plants grow up, and then they get these big broad leaves. So I grow lettuce underneath those big wide leaves,” she said. Lettuces need to be shaded from the strong afternoon sun, and Kaylee “was able to grow greens much longer despite the heat.”

Tip 3: Planting in Succession

Another way to maximize your space is to plant successively. So instead of planting everything at once and just being done for the season, you grow continuously. Basically, you harvest your first crop as soon as it reaches its peak and then plant a new crop.

Continually growing new harvests is easy with Planted Places because you regularly receive new seedlings. And, you get into the habit of knowing when to harvest and when to replace them.  

Tip 4: Grow Vertically

A vertical garden is a perfect solution for small space gardens. An example of one is our Planted Wall vertical gardening system. It can hold up to 36 plants, and it’s on wheels, so you can move it towards or away from the sun. You can learn more about the Planted Wall here.

Another idea for vertical gardening is to plant leafy greens and herbs in containers and place them on shelves. You can also grow food in hanging planters. For example, Kaylee sometimes uses bird feeder hooks to hang edible plants and maximize her garden.

If you like these tips, you’ll love our members-only content. Learn more about a Planted Places membership.