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Calling everyone with a small to tiny garden
by James Tebbart
http://www.bigongardening.com
In today's world many of us live in apartments and small
condos with little or no garden and yet, there still seems
to be a need for us to dip our hands into the soil and have
the pleasure of watching plants and vegetables grow.
Gardeners have put their heads together a creative method
of managing a reasonable output of vegetables.
One such way is called an inter-cropping system. This
arrangement calls for careful planning and knowledge of
each crop's performance. The key to successful inter-
cropping is choosing vegetables that are singularly adapted
for use in this system. These vegetables will have a small
to medium space (4-6 inches per plant) requirement for
growth and maturity, a quicker maturity rate than the crop
in which it will be inter-cropped with, or it will have
shade tolerance. The more requirements the vegetable
meets, the better.
Vegetables that usually work well with inter-cropping
include beets, chard, kohlrabi, lettuce, carrots, parsley,
green onion, spinach, radishes and turnips for the green
and roots. Another benefit to these vegetables is that
they are typically tolerant of occasional frosts. This
means that they can be planted earlier than other
vegetables (like peppers and tomatoes). They can be
planted between 4-6 weeks before the frost-free point and
will have the quality of being able to germinate and grow
their best in cold soils.
Since planting space will be limited, you should consider
only plants that can offer maximum returns. These include
vegetables like celery, green onions, herbs, kale, parsley,
spinach, pepper and tomatoes because they can offer the
chance of multiple harvests over long periods of time. On
the other hand, you will want to carefully decide about
including vegetables like cabbage, cauliflower, lettuce,
garlic, onion bulbs and radishes due to the fact that they
will only yield a one-time harvest. Your personal
preferences and the kind of production you want from your
inter-cropping garden need to be assessed for the
efficiency of your small garden.
Beware the problems of trying to put too many plants in
too small a space. A lesser quality will be achieved in all
vegetables if they aren't allowed a certain amount of space
and height.
There are some plants which sprawl with growth. If you
grow these around a circle of wire or stake them out you
will gain space and also keep the plants off the ground for
a cleaner and more abundant fruit.
By considering your options with inter cropping you will
inevitably grow more and a better fruit or vegetable within
a small space.
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