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Gardeners Guide

Planting a Mini Garden

 Lack of yard space is no excuse for not growing a vegetable garden. Regardless of whether you live in an apartment, condominium or mobile home, some space is available for growing a few of your favorite vegetables. However, the area you choose to grow your garden must receive at least five hours or more of sunlight a day. As a general rule, leafy vegetables such as cabbage and mustard greens can tolerate more shade than root vegetables such as radishes and beets. Vegetables that bear fruit such as peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers will need the most sun.

Apartment dwellers will probably be limited to using containers or window boxes for vegetable growing. Always make sure the containers used are large enough to hold the vegetable plants when they reach maturity. All containers should have  a sufficient number of drainage holes in the bottom for proper drainage.

You have more alternatives if you live in a duplex, a single unit or house and have access to an open yard. You may still use window boxes, but now you have access to borders along walkways and foundation plantings. You will be pleasantly surprised to see how attractive a walkway can be when edged with such plants as carrots in full foliage. There is also ample opportunity to position large containers such as baskets with pepper or tomato plants.

Fences are ideal for growing many vegetables, especially vining types such as cucumbers and melons. Six to eight  feet  of fence space could provide enough cucumbers for fresh consumption and ample supplies for pickling. Pole beans (lima and snaps) will also do well . When cantaloupe fruits begin to enlarge, tie them to the fence in a sling made from nylon hose to avoid self-picking.

Your success will depend on the soil mixture you use . It should be free of disease, insects and weed seeds and have a pH of about 6.0 to 6.5. You can purchase a soil testing kit to test the pH of your soil.

You can buy commercially prepared mixtures from a garden center or you can make your own mix by using equal parts of sand, loamy garden soil, and peat moss, or composted leaves. Sterilization may be done by baking it in an oven for about one hour at 210 degrees F to kill any bacteria, fungi, insects, or weed seeds.

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