by Briar Miller

Created on: February 12, 2010   Last Updated: February 17, 2010

A really determined vegetable gardener will manage to grow something however small the space.  I have known canal-boat dwellers that carry their veg garden on their roofs.  I have known people in high rises with veg on their balcony.  I've seen a handkerchief sized front yard become a cornucopia of abundance.  It just takes extra thought and inventiveness to really maximize a small vegetable garden.

If you actually have a piece of land, however small, containers need only fill a peripheral role, but can be very valuable in increasing your growing area.  You can use a container to contain a bed which is raised up to a place where the sun can get at it if part of your garden is shaded.  You can hang containers from walls and fences.  My personal favourite use of a container in a veg garden is the potato tire tower. 

Get hold of a few old tires.  Put one on the ground somewhere, even a patio will do, and fill it with a compost and soil mixture.  Plant three seed potatoes in a regular triangle.  When the leaves come up and put on enough growth, put another tire on top of the first and fill it, leaving only the top leaves showing.  Make sure you water each layer thoroughly, and keep watering if the weather is warm.  Excess water will drain away.  Eventually, the tops will have grown as much as they can and will start to die off.  I have had as many as six tires full of really good potatoes.  

Tires are also good for growing really good roots.  Four tires should be sufficient.  Lay them on top of each other, filling with a soil and sand mixture.  Sow quite thickly into the top, thinning regularly as the seedlings develop. You can leave the final plants really close together, say four inches, using this method, and the roots will grow down straight and strong.

Be creative with your use of containers, and make sure to keep them well watered and fed.  At first there will be nutrition in the compost you added.  Later you can soak nettles or comfrey in water to make a tea to replenish nutrients, or feed them with a proprietary mixture if you must.

A small vegetable garden can be maximized by the use of raised beds.  Or one raised bed!  The higher you raise it, the more productive it can be made to be, because plants can be closer together and you can keep adding compost.  Raised beds have the added advantage that they are easier to work once they are

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