How should my garden grow? :)

**perSue** · 12-12-2008, 10:16 AM

Okay, I'm by no means an expert gardener... so I thought I'd ask ya'll for some advice.

I have a small "garden" in front of my bay window... it's about 7 feet wide and 3.5 feet deep.
It gets morning/early afternoon sun and that's pretty much it, as it's covered from above by a balcony.

I have grown successfully flowers, radishes, pumpkins (but not enough room), jalapenos... i've attempted to grow a lot more things... but this is all I remember actually growing & tasting like they should.

So... what would you recommend to me that I would be able to grow here?

thanks for any advice.

**madhen** · 12-12-2008, 10:30 AM

Hi perSue,

It would be a lot easier if you listed what you want to try in there, rather than getting a long list of stuff you may have no interest in. And are you talking about growing something in there right now? If so, I'd like to know how many hours of direct sunlight it gets and what the temp lows and avgs are. For example, you state you grew pumpkins there. Was that in the summer, or did you grow them out of season successfully?

That said, f you had success with pumpkins, you should have success with most squash plants. Flowers are up and down the scale - some need a lot of sun and some don't. Most tomatoes need heat and a lot of sun.

What you might want to do is check out some gardening catalogues that give you a good description of the requirements of each of the plants/seeds they sell. I think Johnny's does a good job, and Territorial Seed Company is fantastic about giving you a detailed paragraph about each seed available, including what all of its requirements are, time to harvest, how to store the produce, etc.

**perSue** · 12-12-2008, 08:42 PM

well i'd like anything edible

i didnt much care for the pumpkins as they took over not just the whole of the garden but started to try to take over the grass

so if it's super viny, i'm thinking not a good idea.

i'm looking for spring/summer next year... i grow herbs in my kitchen & tomatoes too... so that's taken care of.

anyway, as far as sun, from sun-up to about 1 or 2pm... then it's just "daylight" but not direct til dusk.

I'll start looking at a few nursery catalogs & see what i can find... thanks madhen!

**dilligaf** · 12-12-2008, 08:53 PM

grow yerself a nice salad bar in there..

**TexasPeanut** · 12-12-2008, 09:00 PM

I second trying the squash plants. You might can even try some bush green beans, they grow fairly easily and with at least the amount of sun you get they should do okay. They also take up very little room compared to pole green beans. Give cucumbers a try, but I would suggest maybe trying the pickling size just so they won't take up too much room growing. To us they taste better than the larger ones and are crispier. Zucchini could probably do alright in there.

Honestly I would say since seeds really aren't that expensive just pick up a few that you think you might enjoy and give it a try and see if they grow.

**madhen** · 12-12-2008, 09:17 PM

Territorial has a website that has all the information on the seeds, so it is a good place to start (but dangerous for frugalistas).

Zucchini will also quickly overwhelm an area. Most squash and melon plants will; however, if you are willing to spend a little time with them, you can train them up trellises (that you can make with PVC pipe and string) to give your other plants more room.

I love fruits, so I would probably have strawberries and such growing there. Strawberries are cool because they produce runners, so you end up with more strawberries every year! Same with blackberries.

If you want veggies, beans are a great bang for your buck, as mentioned by Texas Peanut. So are peas, and you can start peas early, harvest them, and then use the bare spot for later fall veggies. Potatoes are fun, as well, and pretty easy to grow. Garlic, onions, most root veggies would do fine and don't take up tons of room.

Broccoli and cauliflower are fun and easy, but aren't as easy to preserve as most of the ones I've mentioned. You could blanche and freeze. The other thing I don't like about broccoli and cauliflower is that you wait a long time for a relatively small amount of food.

I love fresh artichokes, although the same complaint re: little food for a lot of effort applies. Half the time, I let the plant go to seed, only because artichoke flowers are so beautiful!!

No garden is complete without flowers, though.

You could plant violas - I think they are edible!

**madhen** · 12-12-2008, 09:20 PM

Another option, totally out of the ballpark, but maybe something to consider, would be to plant a few dwarf fruit trees there. You wouldn't be able to have a garden, but in a year or two, you'd be harvesting bushels of peaches, cherries, or whatever you decide to love the most.

**hestlauss** · 12-15-2008, 01:01 AM

For ideas on how to make the most of your small gardening area I recommend the following books: How to Grow More Vegetables: And Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine By John Jeavons, Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, and
The Postage Stamp Garden Book by Duane G. Newcomb.

I would also look at planting those veggies that are most expensive to purchase at the store and which are the most productive. I plant a lot of salad greens and bok choy because those would normally cost more than my budgeted amount and they grow very fast where I live.