How to make the most of your garden plot

Intercropping

Involving growing two or more crops in proximity, and is usually used to improve growing conditions. Also, this can be great for space saving. For example, plant deep-rooted brassica crops alongside shallow-rooted cut-and-come-again lettuce mixtures. This works too for positioning tall crops next to low growers that tolerate shade, like spinach. This way, both plants access adequate growing conditions, but you’ve saved on planting them in two different spots. Temporal intercropping uses a similar method but involves sowing fast-growers – like radishes – with slow-growing peas, for instance. The quick crop can be harvested before the slow crop matures—you literally get two for one!

2. Dwarf Varieties

These lend themselves to small-scale setups. So, as well as how you’re planting, consider what you’re planting. Try to avoid growing crops that take up a lot of space overground (such as asparagus, or maincrop potatoes). But some vegetables can be bought in bush varieties, like with courgettes and pumpkins, instead of traditional long, trailing kinds. You can also go for mini or baby veg varieties that typically start cropping early. Otherwise, the compact habits of dwarf bush rootstock, like cultivar Malus domestica ‘Discovery’, will work well in petite plots.

As a clue, look out for anything named patio, pixie, tiny, baby, or dwarf. Just because a plant is bred to be small, don’t make the mistake of thinking the fruits will be small or less plentiful. So, pick what you plant carefully, and it will pay dividends.

3. Pots & Containers

A really useful option, but don’t stop there. Potatoes grow well in confined spaces, like dustbins, and grow bags are ideal for raising seedlings where space is restricted. Use portable containers like this to utilise areas with tough growing conditions. For shaded corners, try loose-leaf lettuces including varieties such as ‘Lollo Rosso’ or fast-growing, spicy mizuna leaves. Radishes will also do well in shady areas and can be ready within a few weeks of sowing. Though Mediterranean herbs are best for sun-baked soils, herbs like Moroccan mint can be grown in shade and mint is fantastic to cook with. Naturally suited to dappled light, woodland fruits like white currants, redcurrants and blackcurrants or berries – such as blackberries and alpine strawberries – are also perfect for such positions.

4. Utilise Height

Particularly helpful in small spaces. If you’ve only a sliver of land left, why not grow upwards! Put up a wall to grow on and then cut the sides off used plastic water bottles and screw them to the wall. Even a half tyre simply filled with soil can serve as ample growing space when fixed to a tall structure and you can fill these with anything you like.

Trellising cucumbers to grow vertically can be accomplished by planting so that the stems are roughly 4 inches away from the structure. The tendrils will weave upwards as they grow instead of trailing across the ground. Similarly, you can do this with heavy-yielding climbing runner beans too—even an archway placed over a path can do it. Additional to this, the espalier technique for training the branches of fruit trees to spread them out flat can be hugely effective and decorative.

5. Design Your Space

Make sure your garden works for you. Why not stop planting in rows and give triangles a try instead? This really optimises space to accommodate more crops per area. Raised beds also have the ability to yield more than when planting in rows. That’s due not only to their loose, fertile soil but to mounding the soil upwards to form an arc. A rounded bed can make a big difference in the total planting area. Grow lettuce, spinach, and other greens on the edges of a rounded bed and you’ll have produced more crops without even trying.