Making the Most with a Small Vegetable Garden

(Even though the topic is on small vegetable gardens, the concept can be used for small vegetable farms as well.  debi kelly)

The purpose of intensive gardening is to harvest the most produce possible from a given space. More traditional gardens usually consist of long, single rows of vegetables that are often widely spaced. Much of the garden area consists of the space between rows that is not occupied by plants. An intensive garden minimizes wasted space.

However, the practice is not just for those with limited garden space; other reasons that gardeners plan an intensive garden include creating an ideal plant environment and obtaining better yields with less labor and other inputs.

A good intensive garden requires early, careful planning to make the best use of space. Interrelationships of plants must be considered before planting, including nutrient needs, shade tolerance, above- and below-ground growth patterns and preferred growing season. The following techniques are common to most high-yielding intensive gardens:

Raised growing beds
Raised beds are the basic unit of an intensive garden. A system of beds allows the gardener to concentrate soil preparation on small areas, which results in effective use of soil amendments and creates an ideal growing environment.

Interplanting
This practice of growing two or more types of vegetables in the same place at the same time can help reduce weed and pest problems. Proper planning is essential to use interplanting effectively.

Close spacing
Individual plants are usually more closely spaced than in a conventional garden. An equidistant spacing pattern is often used that calls for plants to be planted so that the center of one plant is the same distance from plants on all sides. In beds of more than two rows, this means that the rows are staggered so that plants in every other row are between the plants in adjacent rows.

Succession planting
Successional plantings involve replacing the spent plants of one crop with something new. Again, planning is key to raising a series of crops that will produce from spring through late fall, such as spring peas followed by summer corn succeeded by a fall lettuce crop.

Relay planting
Relaying consists of overlapping plantings of one type of crop. The new planting is made before the old one is removed. For example, this might be done by seeding three different plantings of green beans two weeks apart.

Despite the benefits, the intensive garden may not be for everyone. Some people enjoy the sight of long, straight rows in their gardens. Others prefer machine cultivation to hand weeding. Though there is often less weeding to do in intensive plantings because of fewer pathways and closely spaced plants, the weeding that is needed must be done by hand or with hand tools. Some gardeners like to get their gardens planted in a very short period of time and harvest all at once, later in the growing season. The intensive garden focuses on growing something in every part of the garden during an extended growing season.

This article came from the MU Guide Vegetable Gardening, MG5. Contact your local MU Extension office for the guide.   (Submitted: James Quinn, MU Extension Horticulture Specialist)