The Downsized Veggie Garden. Kate Copsey

      Water. For healthy growth, plants need consistent water. Since nature does not always provide that, the gardener will have to supplement where necessary. Outside containers are particularly hungry for water and dry out very quickly in the height of summer (see page 40 for container watering solutions). It goes without saying that an outside spigot is very helpful for watering both containers and the garden plot. Don’t place your garden area too far from the water source, because two or three hoses strung together produces a much lower stream of water than just a single hose. Think about getting one of the modern hoses that coil or roll into small bundles for neat storage; they take up much less space than a conventional hose. A timer on the hose to water at dawn is also useful but can be wasteful if the water comes on during a rainstorm, so keep an eye on the weather forecast and adjust the timer when necessary. Too much water can be as detrimental to a plant as too little.

      Sharing space with your vegetables. Your vegetable garden might end up competing for space with other things, like gym sets, sand pits and paddling pools – or a volleyball net and room to throw a soccer ball. For balconies and patios, you need to leave room for a chair or two and maybe a barbecue. Your enthusiasm for colorful, productive containers can be wonderful until the sheer number of containers makes it hard for you to turn around!

      Finding balance. The reality is that you probably will not be able (or willing) to grow every vegetable you like to eat – whether you don’t have the time, energy or space, or you love some vegetables that take up too much room for a small home plot. I recommend growing some things at home, some things in a community garden, then using a farm stand or farmer’s market to supplement your homegrown produce. That way, you are optimizing your garden space. And don’t forget the value of exchanging garden produce with friends who also garden.

       Rooftop Gardening

      There has been a revolution in growing vegetables in less conventional spaces, and that includes rooftops. For a simple container, this is not a big deal as long as you can get water to the garden. More extensive rooftop gardens require careful planning and more than likely require permission as well. For apartment dwellers though, this can be a wonderful space to have a small garden – with abundant sunshine and no animals to create havoc when the crops are ripe (except for fruit-loving birds). Definitely worth looking into!

       A Garage Does Double Duty

      Carol Siracuse and Tom Palamusa live on a small urban plot that has neither sun nor room in the front or back to successfully grow all the vegetables that they wanted to use. Their solution was to create a garden on the roof of their garage. It is accessed with a library ladder and affectionately known as the vegetable library. In the three years since they started, the garden has expanded to 20 wooden boxes lined up along the supporting edge of the garage roof. The garden is watered primarily with a hose. Because the garage faces the driveway and road, Carol and Tom incorporate colorful flowers in among the vegetables.

       Gaining Space by Vertical Growing

      Vertical growing has been around as long as container growing. You have probably seen espaliered fruit trees in walled gardens or grape vines in greenhouses – both using the vertical plane to allow the tree or vine to grow in a protected environment. (Espalier is an ancient method of artistically pruning branches against a frame or wall to control growth.) More recently, though, the idea of using that vertical plane to grow vegetables, or to maximize the space on a patio, has taken on a new look. Tomatoes, which traditionally have been grown from the ground up and supported on stakes, continued that way until the “upside down” tomato bag came along, which strung the tomato on a support and let the plant grow down toward you for harvesting. If you like the idea of growing strawberries, they don’t always have to be in a strawberry pot – or even a space-saving pot, like the one shown here; they can be planted in a hanging basket or other non-traditional vertical container to free up more ground space for conventional containers. The same can be done with herbs.

      Vining plants. Vining plants such as peas, beans, squash and melons also use the vertical plane, but will need to be supported. Besides conventional supports and cages, deck or balcony railings do just as fine a job. A bonus to vining plants is that you can grow them on a trellis to create a temporary privacy fence when you are living close to your neighbors.

      Vertical growing systems. The trend toward growing vegetables on patios and balconies has spurred the industry to develop not just small-growing varieties but also vertical growing systems that will support several containers, one above the other.

      Combining all these ideas provides a way to maximize the square footage of growing space while minimizing the square footage on the ground.

       Square Foot Gardening

      Back in 1981, retired engineer Mel Bartholomew revolutionized the home vegetable garden with his book Square Foot Gardening. His idea was that home vegetable gardening was not just a scaled-down version of farming and the guidelines for farming were not necessarily appropriate for the home gardener. Prior to his method of gardening, we were all encouraged to till up, clear stones from the area, rake flat then sow a 10-foot row of cabbage seed. When the cabbage seed germinated, we took most of the seedlings out so that the remaining cabbages could grow at one foot apart.

      Square Foot Gardening disregards this wasteful idea and says that if you want five cabbages, you sow five seeds, each at one foot apart in a grid system. Most seed available to home gardeners has a very high germination rate, so each of the five cabbages is very likely to germinate and produce a great head of cabbage for your kitchen. When combined with a 4-foot-square garden space, Square Foot Gardening creates 16 one-foot cells.

      Here’s an example of what you can fit into those 16 cells in a 4-foot square:

       4 tomato plants

       2 peppers

       18 onions

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