by Jonathan List

Created on: September 29, 2009   Last Updated: October 01, 2009

I love to garden using some of Mel Bartholomew's techniques. You can find out all about his ideas and techniques at this site. I do not adhere to all of his methods, but I think his concept of soil creation is perfect, so I'll use it as a base here.

The soil is crucial for gardening in a small place. You do not want to be continually fertilizing, nor spending all of your time worrying about various aspects of your soil, so follow this recipe. 1 part coarse vermiculite, 1 part peat moss and 1 part blended compost. These three things should be readily available at your local garden center, but if they are not, you can easily get them on line.

Each part is vital for your garden. The vermiculite will help your garden to retain moisture. One of the biggest problems of gardening in pots or raised beds is that the water evaporates too quickly. The peat moss provides the substance for your vegetables to grab on to, and the compost provides the nutrients. While the exact recipe calls for blended compost, I never purchase compost. It is too easy to section off a small corner of the yard or to get a box compost unit to buy compost.

Contrary to traditional thinking, you do not need an extremely deep bed to grow your plants. Six to ten inches will easily accommodate the root systems of most plants you will grow. You can always a lot more depth for tubers like carrots, onions and potatoes. The support structure of taller plants like tomatoes is not as important here because you will be adding additional support through the use of a trellising system.

While you might have limited space horizontally for your garden, you will have a significant bit of space above your garden. You can trellis tomatoes, cucumbers, squash and any other vine-style plant. Obviously, you cannot trellis heavy things like pumpkins or watermelon, but you can allot a space for these items to grow next to your pots or boxes. You might even trellis part of the watermelon, and put the fruit up on a shelf. A trellis need not be some complex and expensive system of metal and wood. You can use some stakes with string if you like. I once put together a spiderweb style trellis between the railing of a deck and the stairs to support some tomatoes. A little bit of string and some creativity will take you far in the world of limited-space gardening.

When you plant your seeds, place them based on harvesting times. When you buy your seeds, they should have information about how long it will take those seeds to germinate

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