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Grow Your Own Garden Even if You Have Limited Space
by James Tebbart
http://www.bigongardening.com
In today's world many of us live in apartments and small
condos with little or no garden and yet, there still seems
to be a need for us to dip our hands into the soil and have
the pleasure of watching plants and vegetables grow.
Gardeners have put their heads together a creative method
of managing a reasonable output of vegetables.
This is called the inter-cropping system and the key
requirement is that you know the needs of your crops and
plan the season carefully. The first thing is to find
vegetables that only need a small space, certainly no more
than six inches per plant, but even this will depend on the
amount of space you have. This amount needs to not only
grow the plant but allow space for the fruit.
Vegetables that enjoy being inter-cropped include,
parsley, spinach, radishes, kohlrabi, chard, beets,
lettuce, carrots, green onion and turnips. These are all
vegetables that can stand a frost and can therefore be
planted earlier than ones such as peppers and tomatoes.
They're also able to germinate and grow well in cold soils.
Since planting space will be limited, you should consider
only plants that can offer maximum returns. These include
vegetables like celery, green onions, herbs, kale, parsley,
spinach, pepper and tomatoes because they can offer the
chance of multiple harvests over long periods of time. On
the other hand, you will want to carefully decide about
including vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce,
garlic, onion bulbs and radishes due to the fact that they
will only yield a one-time harvest. Your personal
preferences and the kind of production you want from your
inter-cropping garden need to be assessed for the
efficiency of your small garden.
When you have chosen the vegetables you wish to grow and
are familiar with their needs, you need to do your best not
to crowd too many plants in one space. The growth of the
best kinds will be of lesser quality or even fail by
crowding. Most plants come with information on their
height and space they will reach upon full maturity. You
need to take that into consideration when planting your
inter-cropped garden.
A number of garden plants tend to sprawl with growth, like
vine plants and can require more space between plants. You
can save space by enclosing these plants in a circle of
wire fencing or even staking the plants as they grow. Not
only will you gain more space, but you will keep the plants
and produce off of the ground for a more even and less
contaminated growth. This technique traditionally allows
for the plant to produce more.
With even just a small window box, it is still possible to
grow something using the inter-cropping system but remember
to think about the harvest requirements and remember to
give as much space as you can and you simply can't go
wrong!
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