What are the best vegetables to grow when you have limited space?
Some vegetables are extremely space efficient. They will happily grow in as little as a single square foot of ground and still produce an abundance of food. In the space it takes to grow one broccoli plant, you can grow a tomato plant that produces ten pounds of fruit, making tomatoes the far better option in restricted spaces. Other vegetables that produce impressive yields include bunching onions, leaf lettuce (and other leafy greens), peppers, eggplants, radishes and summer squashes.
Root vegetables such as beets, carrots, parsnips, bulb onions and turnips are slightly lower yielding, but can be worth the effort depending on how great your appetite for these vegetables is and just how much space you can eek out of your yard. In the space it takes to grow one tomato plant, you can grow about sixteen carrots or parsnips and about ten beets or bulb onions. You’ll have to do the math to determine whether those yields are worth it to you.
Large plants that produce low yields, such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and celery are best left to gardens with a bit more space. A whole season growing a low yielding plant can be all it takes for novice gardeners to take up golf instead.
Then there are the plants that are best to avoid because although they produce impressive yields, they take up a lot of space to do it. This list includes corn, which won't pollinate properly unless grown in large quantities, as well as pumpkins, winter squashes, and most melons, which will overtake your garden, your neighbour's garden, slow moving pedestrians and just anything else they can clamour over. All of these plants are best left to gardens with significant elbow room.
If you've got access to a wall or a sturdy trellis, there are several valuable food crops that can be grown vertically in order to save space. Pole or runner beans, peas, vining tomatoes, and cucumbers are all happy to grow up and can produce a surprising amount of food on a notably small footprint. Certain small-fruiting melons can also be grown vertically as long as the trellis is sturdily attached to the wall or it may come down in a hurry as the fruit reaches maturity.
Space efficient vegetables don't even need to be grown in the ground. They will grow successfully in pots, buckets, tubs, wooden crates, garbage cans (not previously used for trash, of course) – really anything that will hold a cubic foot or more of soil.
If you have any questions or comments, please send them to me at vanessa@gardenmuse.ca.
