Gardening
can be so relaxing. Planting seeds and
seedlings, nurturing them, and reaping the harvest of gorgeous blooms and fresh
veggies. You may think that you need
acres of land, or at least a huge backyard, to grow plants, but you can have a
full, lush garden in a surprisingly small amount of space.
Containers
are the key. If you have a tiny yard, a
patio only big enough for a bistro table and 2 chairs, or even a sunny
windowsill or two, you have room for a garden!
Many kinds of fruits, veggies, and flowering plants thrive happily in
containers. You can find containers of
any shape, size, and color with or without drainage holes, using potting soil,
dirt from your yard, or sand and you can find a plant happy to grow in it. Take a trip to your local home improvement
store, flea market, or scout out local garage sales to find terrific
containers. An old paint can? Soup cans? Old goldfish bowl? Heck, an old rusty wheelbarrow or chair
missing its seat? All good, whimsical containers. Good old standby terracotta
pots are very inexpensive and can be stacked inside each other to grow multiple
levels of plants in a small amount of floor space. Put the plants that vine and droop in the
bottom, such as strawberries, sweet potato vine, ivy, or good old pothos and
the tallest in the top pot. If you are
including veggies, add a frame at the top for easy picking of beans, cucumbers,
or squash.
You
can grow an entire salad in your containers.
Many varieties of lettuce do very well in containers, as do radishes,
peppers, and any herb you can imagine. Herbs are the home gardener's best
friend. Get 1 wide pot and some good
potting soil and you can plant several different herbs in it all together. Basil, chives, parsley, cilantro, mint,
oregano, thyme, sage, dill - even catnip for your furry friends - are all happy
growing together in 1 container. And the
best thing about herbs is they thrive and grow even better as you use the
leaves. As you cut them off, they grow
even more, so you really only need 1 of each type of herb to have plenty of
fresh goodness for your meals, and probably enough to share as well. It's
actually best to always grow some herbs in a container, like mint, spearmint,
and catnip, otherwise they will take over the rest or your garden, your yard,
your neighborhood… Well, you get the
picture.
Even
if you have been a plant killer with a not so green thumb in the past, growing
a succulent container garden is easy.
Make sure you have good drainage in your pot and basically ignore the
plants. You say that didn't work very
well with your spider plant? Well,
succulents do best when left to their own devices. They don't need much water, like being in a
sunny spot, and don't grow very fast, so they don't need much maintenance. Cactuses come in all shapes and sizes, as do
aloes and other succulents. Add some
pretty pebbles around the plants, and check the soil once every few weeks. If it is bone dry, water until the soil is
nice and moist, not a muddy swamp, and
you are good to go. You are a
successful gardener!
Don't
let your small space deter you from enjoying plants. They clean the air in your home, they provide
you with yummy things to eat and beautiful leaves and flowers to look at and
are a lot easier than you think to live with and take care of. Why not give it a try - you may find you have
a green thumb after all!
photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/badalley/8784783928/">Bad Alley</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>
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