How to Grow a Small Vegetable Patch

A raised-bed garden can provide maximum yield in small spaces.

Small vegetable gardens can supplement your family's produce needs without taking over the entire yard. A 4-foot-square garden is enough space for 16 vegetable plants when you follow the square-foot gardening method. This gardening practice was popularized by Mel Bartholomew, gardening author and creator of the non-profit Square Foot Gardening Foundation. It centers around the idea that everyone can enjoy homegrown vegetables, even if they do not have acres of space to dedicate to a garden. In a square-foot garden, each vegetable takes up only 1 square foot of space.

Things You'll Need

• 4 boards, each 4 foot 5 inches by 1 foot by 2 inches
• Drill
• Screws
• Tape measure
• Marker
• 6 plywood strips, each 4 foot 1 inch by 1 inch
• Wood glue
• Nails
• Hammer
• Shovel
• Soil
• Compost
• Peat
• Vermiculite
• Vegetable seeds

Instructions

1. Choose a location for your garden. The area should receive at least eight hours of sunlight each day. Gardens that face south generally receive the most even sun exposure.

2. Assemble a square with the 4-foot-5-inch boards. Drill screws into the ends of the boards to secure the frame.

3. Shovel away the turf from your desired garden location. Place the frame over the plot and fill with a mixture of one-third each compost, peat and coarse vermiculite. The frame will require about 5 cubic yards of this soil blend.

4. Mark every 12 inches around the wood frame. Place plywood strips across the frame according to the marked positions to divide the square into 16 1-square-foot sections. Secure the strips to each other with wood glue and secure the strips to the frame with nails.

5. Plant vegetable seeds in each of the square-foot sections. Plant multiple seeds per square to ensure germination and thin to single plants once they grow several inches tall.

6. Water plants to a depth of about 1 to 2 inches inches weekly. Measure watering depth with a graduated stick inserted in the soil.

7. Water and weed weekly through the growing season. Harvest vegetables when ripe. The exact time will differ based on the vegetable variety, but most vegetables planted in spring are ready to pick by the end of summer.

Tips & Warnings

• Assign 1 or 2 square feet of the garden to each member of the family to involve everyone and make vegetable gardening a fun family project.

• Good vegetables for square-foot spaces include tomatoes, peas, beans, broccoli, spinach and leaf lettuce. Smaller root vegetables, such as radishes and carrots, require less space and several may be grown in a single square.

• Water the soil, not the plants. Keeping leaves and stems try will reduce the possibility of disease.

References

• Texas A&M AgriLife Extension: Efficient Use of Water
• University of Florida Extension: Square-Foot Gardens