How to Make the Most of Your Garden Space

Gardens are amazing and contribute to food security in most countries. For anyone with a small garden, they might think that their yields are very limited. However, just because you own a small does not mean you should always get fewer yields. If you can’t expand the size of your garden, then you will be required to make the most out of the limited space in your garden. Here are amazing and practicable tips on how to make the most of your garden space.

1. Practice Succession plating

To make most of the space you have, you have to ensure that your garden yields enough produce. If you can’t expand the garden space, you could buy time. You are probably wondering how you can buy time in your garden? Well, the thing you can do is plant crops that mature fast and after harvesting, plant something else in its place. By doing this, you will be able to plant many types of crops in close successions thereby making most out of the space you have.

The disadvantage of this approach is that it requires a region that has good weather throughout the year. However, in case you are in a region which has long planning seasons, you could plant them at least two times in a season. 

2. Apply Environmentally-friendly Gardening Tips

Gardening is a skill and art at the same time. To make the most out of your garden space, you need to have environmentally-friendly gardening tips. These tips will help you to undertake eco-friendly gardening practices which are important in ensuring that the garden produces the highest yields. 

You should try to use fewer chemicals in your garden and instead opt for natural ways of dealing with pests, diseases, and weeds. When you undertake environmentally-friendly gardening practices, you will realize an increase in the yields as a result of reduced pest and disease infestation. Furthermore, you will be providing the best environment for your crops to thrive. 

3. Plant Climbing Plants 

Just because you have limited space on the ground does not mean the air space is limited. This means that in order to make the most out of the space in your garden, you should plant climbing plants. This is because you can use cages, stakes, or even fences to support the climbing plants. This will take advantage of the vertical space available in your garden. 

Examples of climbers include beans, peas, melons, cukes, and tomatoes. Once these plants start maturing, you can tie them and support them. When you plant climbers, you will realize that you will have higher yields at the end of a season as compared to when you had planted other crops that grow horizontally or just on the ground.

4. Plant in Raised Beds

When you are able to shape your beds correctly, you will be able to make most of the space available. You should gently round up the soil making an arc to raise beds. Apparently, raised beds are space-efficient. For instance, if you have a bed that is 20 feet long and 5 feet wide, you will have a planting area of 100 square feet. 

However, when you raise it by mounding soil in the middle, you will have an increase in the width as a result of the arc to have a 6-foot wide arc above it. This will obviously increase the area of the bed to 120 square feet. This will increase the size of the bed by 20%. In turn, the number of plants that are planted in the same area will have increased by almost the same margin. 

5. Plant Crops in triangular rows  

It is tradition to plant in rows. However, a garden is a smaller model of a farm and as a result, there needs to be a maximization of everything. The arrangement of crops in a bed has a huge impact on the yields realized during harvesting. It is important to note that if you stagger your crops by planting them in triangles as opposed to rows, you will increase the number of plants grown by over 10%. At the same time, the plants will still have enough spacing to avoid overcrowding. You should note that overcrowding crops results in reduction in yields and also spread of pests and diseases. Therefore, when you plant in rows you are able to plant more crops while at the same time not overcrowding the plants. 

6.  Think of Hydroponics

The future of farms and agriculture, in general, is driven by the advances in technology, just like all other parts of our livelihoods. Hydroponics is a new technology where plants are not grown on soil but the roots are inserted to water which has dissolved nutrients. With hydroponics, you no longer care about the soil area of your garden but how well you can arrange the crops within the entire garden space. 

Hydroponics has numerous benefits including being space efficient. Furthermore, crops grow faster and as a result, you will be able to plant more times. Good thing is that you don’t have to worry about the weather and time of the year as hydroponics works throughout the year. They also support indoor farming and as a result, you could extend your garden into the shed you are not using. What is amazing about this technology is that your yields are able to increase up to 10 times. This is ideal for gardens that are really small. 

Conclusion 

Most gardens are small in size yet the need for food and vegetable increases. A garden should be optimized to make the most out of the little space available. The above tips will help you to ensure that you are making the most of your garden. You might also be interested in  checking out how to choose an eco-friendly shade for your backyard.