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Growing flowers and vegetables in small spaces

Seeing my food garden at Apartment Therapy: San Francisco spurred me to post about growing herbaceous plants--flowers, vegetables, and herbs--in small areas. The garden can be located anywhere, even in the sidewalk. Elephant Pharmacy in Berkeley planted a sidewalk planter, pictured below, with squash and lamb's ears among other things.

In my small garden, squash, mint (volunteer and purposefully planted), rosemary, sage, Golden Bell sweet pepper, and Purple Cherokee tomato (below) grow in a 1-foot-by-10-feet bed. I started my garden a few years ago and over the years have seen and read about variations on the theme of small space gardening.

Flowers, not surprisingly, can be grown in small spaces. Small gardens like the credit-card flower box at Instructables.com are one example. I have observed several eclectic flower planters and two examples are shown below.

Toronto, Canada

Berkeley, Calif.

There is also incredible variety in food garden design. The portable salad table, created by ReadyMade, is a case in point. You can grow food in grow bags--filled with one-half tonnes of soil--developed by WHAT IF: project Ltd; grow bags were first installed on a vacant lot on Chart Street, London. Women in Maseru, Lesotho are growing their vegetables in keyhole gardens. In a BBC News article, the gardens are described as

...two metres in diameter and raised to waist-height to make them easy for the sick and elderly to work. Inside, the garden-beds are layered with tin cans, mulch and ash which together provide the nutrients to make the gardens extraordinarily productive.
The "One-Block Diet" team at Sunset Magazine have designed and installed "two half-moon-shaped beds, each about 3 feet across and 11 feet long" with seventeen herbs and vegetables at the San Francisco Civic Center. If you follow the You Grow Girl blog, you've read about Gayla Trail's roof and community gardens.

Finally, in the world of small (and large) gardens, fertile-izer and water are important elements. I am intrigued by The City Chicken's Chicken Tractor and Lenny Librizzi's rainwater tank.

Comments

Maria Prieto said…
Hi, my name is Maria and I run a blog on the subject of sustainable Lifestyle from Chile to the spanish speaking world. I quoted your site today and used a picture, I found you through google and would love to saty in touch and recommend the garden that inspired my post today, a young chilean lady that made the first garden on the post. Feel free to use the image. You can contact me through the article. Thank you! Great blog by the way!
Maria Prieto said…
www.veoverde.com

Chile