Love to grow vegetables, but simply don’t have the room? Sure you can grow vegetables, no matter where you live.

Gone are the days of very large vegetable gardens, requiring hours and hours of weeding and watering. If you live in an apartment, you can grow veggies in containers. If your house has a small yard, you can grow a small space vegetable garden. Apartment gardens Apartment dwellers can raise vegetables in containers on a windowsill or balcony.

Start with vegetables that don’t need a lot of room, such as carrots, radishes, lettuce, tomatoes and peppers, and perhaps some herbs, such as chives and parsley. Root and leaf crops can take some shade, but vegetables grown for their fruit need at least five hours of direct sun each day.

Containers for vegetable plants must be large enough to support full-grown plants, have adequate drainage and be made of materials that aren’t toxic to plants or people. Possibilities include barrels, cut-off milk jugs, window boxes, and baskets lined with plastic with drainage holes punched in it.

Dollies or platforms with wheels are very useful for a balcony garden, so plants can be moved to receive maximum sunlight.

Plant container veggies at the same time you’d plant vegetables in a garden. A soilless potting medium is best for container gardening to ensure adequate drainage. Container plants can dry out quickly, so pay close attention to watering.

Vegetables grown in containers are still subject to insect pests, so inspect them carefully and often for insects and/or disease. I’ve had great success growing leaf lettuce in window boxes, tiny Tim tomatoes in hanging baskets and even potatoes in five-gallon plastic garbage cans. Small yards If you have a yard, but not much room or time, you can grow vegetables with careful planning.

First, set up your garden where your vegetables will receive six or more hours of sun a day, and be sure you can get water to the site.

There are a number of things you can do to make the most of a small space:
• Plant vegetables in beds instead of rows.
• Try using trellises or fences to grow cucumbers, pole beans and even squash; try cages or stakes for tomatoes.
• Grow two or more vegetables, such as radishes and carrots, in one area (a long-season crop and a short-season crop) Leafy greens such as spinach, lettuce and mustard do well in a small garden and can be grown between rows of tomatoes. As soon as one crop is finished, plant another.
• Plant dwarf or bush varieties of vegetables that take up less room.
• If there are gaps in your garden, fill them in with herbs, edible flowers such as nasturtiums, and marigolds which are a natural pest control.

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Related Links:

4 Simple Steps to Grow a Hundred Pounds of Potatoes in a Barrel
http://greenupgrader.com/11708/4-simple-steps-to-grow-a-hundred-pounds-of-potatoes-in-a-barrel/

Urban Window Farming
http://www.greenmuze.com/nurture/urban/2506-urban-window-farming-.html

信．有機
http://www2.mingpaoweekly.com/contents/?id=5271