Small Garden-Part 3-More Beds

When you have a small garden... especially in the city.... it can be challenging to find room for garden beds.  You may look around your property and say you just do not have any room, but don't give up too quickly... you may just find room to tuck a bed here and there... you may even have more room to garden than you realize.

  Most garden plants need sun, nutrients and water... we can do much to control the nutrients and water, but when it comes to sunlight, the best thing to do is plan the location of a bed.

Our yard has a lot of shade and very little full sun... actually almost no full sun at all... and what we do have is on the deck. Rather than give up, we choose to be creative...

Here is a new bed that does get a lot of shade, but I noticed it gets sun in the early morning and in the evening... while certainly not ideal, we needed more room and since this was available, it became a bed. We put the stepping stones in to simplify using the bed... plus, I hate walking in the mud! :) 

 This little bed is next to a deck..... and between the deck and two paths... it was an obvious place for a bed.

Even in small areas, you will find that some plants will grow. I tend to experiment and if certain plants don't grow well in one place, I change things around.  My garden is pretty much always in some sort of transition.

This bed now has a blueberry bush in it and also hydrangea, along with other flowers, herbs and foods.

 Here is a bed in the back part of the garden... it has been part of the garden for a long time, but it is being re-purposed to be more useful... we planted strawberries in it... and have also grown onions, echinacea, yarrow and passionflower here.

Below is the same bed after  we had done some mulcing. We do not always mulch... especially purchased mulch, but it sure helps the garden to look nice, it helps conserve water and keeps fruit, like strawberries, cleaner.

 This was a bolder idea.... The triangular section was all grass, but  since it is bordered by 2 paths and it was an odd shape, I figured we could change it to a garden bed. My guys were reluctant, but it has now been there a few years and it is now a beautiful part of our yard.

We started out by digging up, putting compost and leaves and mixing it all together. Also, you can see that we set rocks into the ground as stepping stones.... I love having access to the beds, even when it is wet out.

This is the same bed... from another  view.

The first picture on this post shows a part of this same bed after it has a trellis and some things growing in it.

 Here you can see some more permanent beds by the picket fence... and there is also a collection of odd containers in the foreground. There are 2 wood drawers for asparagus, a pot for pineapple, 2 wood boxes for something...I don't remember what was in them this year, but I think it was sweet potatoes.... also a couple of other pots.

  Here is one of my herb beds tucked under the edge of a deck... it gets some afternoon sunlight. It is handy for picking and using basil when I cook.

Here we dug up the ground and formed a bed beside the house. It gets a lot of sun in the morning, but none in the afternoon. 

We planted tomatoes in this bed... this was our 2nd crop. The tomatoes actually did surprisingly well here... I only planted them here one year, since I practice crop rotation.

The fence is there to provide a bit of shade as the morning sun  was too hot for newly planted plants.

 Here are the regular raised garden beds...

 You can see lots of different beds and different kinds of beds... all in one picture. We fit a lot into our small city lot.... and yet it works. We have tried to preserve the small green yard for the kids to play on... and because it would look WAY too busy if everything was all garden.

Our yard has a lot in it, but it does look quite charming and for the most part, people like how it looks... this REALLY helps in the city... you don't want to alienate neighbors.

This bed was added this last year... right beside the driveway. It is little... and has mostly flowers in it..... but we also grew peppers in it and passionfruit.

 This is out in the back garden... we had moved the compost containers so this became a new bed.

 Another view of the same bed....  the part of the bed in the foreground was set off by a small decorative fence and now has flowers and herbs.... the rest of this area was the pumpkin patch and also had squash and lavender and flowers.

Here are the wood boxes.  There are so many possibilities for growing things. It is good to let go of the big farm garden ideas if you only have a small garden... those ideas will trip you up. No, there isn't room for lots of 25' long rows of this and that, BUT there is room for a lot more food, herbs and flowers than it looks like at first glance.

I have other ideas that we have tried or will try. Sometimes I plant in hanging pots.... I had an extra gutter and we would like to mount it where it will get sun, put drainage holes in it... and plant strawberries... this idea is something we have toyed with doing for the last couple of years now... and just recently, I saw this same idea on Pinterest, so someone else has tried it.  When sun is limited, this may help... we hope to try it one of these years.  We grow things in pots on the decks... in the sun. :)

One thing I have learned is that placing a garden bed near a driveway, deck, sidewalk, house or other stationary structure can help.... it cuts down on the mowing and trimming around it. My guys have taught me this. :)  It also helps to preserve the grass space and it makes things look less cluttered.

We have not done all of these things at once... like I said, we change things around... and add beds here and there different years... we can't do it all at once. I do try to add some new bed each year... or some new area.  Start small... look around with a new vision... and maybe you will find an area that will be perfect to tuck a plant in to... or a lot of plants.  :)  Thank you for visiting...

The Small Garden Series:
Small Garden-Part 1-Crop Rotation

Small Garden-Part 2- Growing UP

Small Garden-Part 3-More Beds


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