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ONE

Finding Space to Grow Vegetables Wherever You Live

Creative gardeners will always find places to grow things (even rooftops and fire escapes!), but if you are busy commuting from dawn to dusk, your creative juices and gardening time can be very limited. Where you live and the amount of time you can devote to growing even one tomato plant are crucial to vegetable garden success. So our first chapter will look at the very practical issue of deciding what you can grow and where, not to mention how much you want to grow. It all starts with assessing your living space.

Do you live where space for plants is an issue? In small properties like apartments, condos or townhomes, it is possible to grow at least some of your own vegetables. I’ve done it successfully in my own apartment-living days and quickly learned to make the most of what I had. When you know how your space can be adapted, you will find that you can grow more than you thought.

Small properties are a relative thing, and growing space ranges from an apartment window box to a small backyard. For a larger property, your growing space can be a set of small raised beds placed close to the home, giving you an old-fashioned kitchen garden. Containers can go anywhere but are ideal on decks and patios, as well as porches and balconies. For small backyards, raised beds are perfect.

There is always a play-off between what you want to grow and what you have the room for, as well as the time that you have to care for it. Small plots provide an amazing amount of produce, particularly for a single person or downsizing seniors. However, a family with a couple of teenagers will need more than a few containers to satisfy the appetites of everyone. The trick is to figure out what space you have and start with a few things that you frequently buy from the farm market or supermarket. Some things, like potatoes and raspberries, take up considerably more space per pound of produce than tomatoes or peppers.

But even if you have all the room you need, there is a good case for making just a modest, well planned, productive yet easy to maintain vegetable garden.

Finding Garden Space in Apartments and Condominiums

Most of us have lived in an apartment or condominium at some time in our lives. If you are currently living in one and think that it means you can’t grow veggies, let’s take a look at the possibilities.

Newer Apartments

Apartments can be large, but most are small and compact, often with no outdoor space at all. With the exception of apartments that were created from large, older homes, a modern apartment building is purposely built to optimize space inside and maximize units per building. They are blocky to look at, but usually have plenty of windows. If there is a patio or balcony, it likely comes off the living area and is accessed via a sliding patio door. Access to enough light for growing, either indoors or out, is key.

Orientation and light. South- or west-oriented windows, patios or balconies do best. With windows that face east or north, you are going to need to supplement the natural light – especially if you plan on starting vegetables indoors from seed.

If you are fortunate enough to have a patio on the south side of your building, the options for growing increase significantly because you can “spill” over the edge of the patio; if instead you have a balcony, you’ll need to stay within its boundaries.

Apartment rules. Just having the space and orientation might not be enough to give you the go-ahead to garden on a patio or balcony; many new apartment complexes rely on uniformity both inside and outside. Hanging baskets from railings or windows might be deemed “untidy.” Additionally, if you have a ground floor patio, the landscape crew that sprays weed killers and lawn treatment does not want to run the risk of your consuming contaminated food – so rules are imposed to ban growing edibles in the ground surrounding the patio, or even on the patio. For this situation, there are some good options for growing indoors, which I’ll show you later in the book. But if, for whatever reason, you are not able to grow indoors, I recommend finding a community garden nearby where you can grow your vegetables. I talk about community gardens below.

Older apartment buildings. Older city apartments come in all sizes and configurations, but at the very least, you will always find a window in the main living quarters. True, basement apartments don’t admit much light; however, assuming the orientation is favorable, you can grow near these windows. What about windowsills? These can be a bonus in older buildings. If you are willing to move your sofa and mementos to one side, you can create a stable surface on a windowsill for your small containers and plants.

Condominiums and townhomes. Although these are generally larger than apartments, the rules of the development are frequently stringent and can go as far as forbidding any containers on the patio, with the same rationale as the apartment buildings use. The good news is that, regardless of the orientation of the unit, there will most likely be some decent direct sunlight somewhere during the day. And if you have some outside space that allows for small gardens and container planting, you should have good growing options, beyond growing your plants inside.

Dealing with covenants and restrictions. Questions to look at include “Is the outside space common?” If your only personal exterior space is a patio, then placing raised beds on the surrounding grass will not be allowed. But if your unit is organized with dividing panels that delineate at least some outside space for which you are responsible, then you are safe to use it as you please as long as your covenants permit that use. More lenient developments do indeed allow you to use containers and raised beds; others need to be persuaded that the use is within reason. There are even some developments that have their own community gardens.

If you’re looking for a condo or townhouse… Taking a walk around different developments will give you an idea of what people are doing, but it is critical to read all the rules before you sign the contract.

A Front Yard Vegetable Garden

Milutin Calukovic was born in the former Yugoslavia. Growing vegetables was something his family had always done. Today, he lives in New Jersey, where his back garden is surrounded with trees and is too shady to grow healthy vegetables. Determined to have a vegetable garden, he turned to the front of the house where there was plenty of sunny space. His first step after site selection was to get some good healthy soil for the plants, which included lots of compost material. The garden occupies the area within the curve of his driveway and has an attractive wood edging. He grows lots of tomatoes, peppers and squash, giving his family plenty for eating fresh and for storing.

Finding Garden Space in Urban and Suburban Homes

Developments from pre-1980 are less likely to have a large book of covenants, whereas gated developments from post-2000 prefer a uniform look for both houses and gardens. Living here can be great, but you do need to know the rules. Many a resident has been taken to task for straying into the realm of “unacceptable under the covenant” and a fence or compost pile has to be removed.

Homes without covenant restrictions. The earlier homes and developments, plus some rural homes, have few if any covenants. Here, you might find gardeners tilling up lawns for vegetables, homeowners growing fruit and vegetables in the front garden, and compost piles in full view of the road.

Styles of urban and suburban houses are as different as the people who live in them. They are usually owner-occupied rather than rented. This leads to a sense of pride in the individual properties as well as the community or neighborhood as a whole – and of course, getting on well with your neighbors is vital for a pleasant and peaceful life. That said, the urge to grow some vegetables has become such a normal part of life today that you will likely find at least some neighbors with a vegetable garden. Traditionally, these gardens are at the back of the property where raised beds jostle with sand pits and gym sets for space.

A large number of developments are placed on cleared land with ample space to grow both on patios and decks and in the back garden. The downside to the clear view across such developments is that neighborhood cats, dogs, children and deer have a tendency to disregard property lines and trample your young seedlings unless a fence or hedge is placed to deter them. In these neighborhoods, it is conventional to put the vegetables in the back of the property.

Too much shade? But what if you live in a wooded development where the homes are spaced to maximize privacy and enjoyment of nature? Being able to see nature – from birds to deer – is a bonus to wooded lots. The downside is that vegetables do not grow well in wooded areas, and unless there is some cleared space, you will have issues with light. If your wooded area is only at the back and covenants are lenient or nonexistent, the sunny front garden becomes a great place for some vegetables.

Vegetable gardening in your front yard. For a garden in full view of the street, the design and size will be as important as what you grow. Careful planning and starting gradually will allay any concerns from neighbors. It is also very possible that by growing “out front” – visible to neighbors walking their dogs and mothers taking young children for a stroll – you will find yourself making friends with more people than if your veggie garden is tucked away in the backyard.

There are even more benefits than just fresh produce when you grow your vegetables in the front: It has been said that when one person is seen gardening near the road, a neighbor sees the garden and starts one of his or her own! It is important, of course, that you keep your front yard vegetable garden neat and cared for.

If you’d prefer to be more conventional and have a backyard vegetable garden, but you’re prevented because of trees or some other property feature that gives too much shade – here again, the best option may be a community garden. Meeting others from the neighborhood in a community garden allows you to increase the amount you can grow, and also creates a pleasant social environment to grow with other likeminded neighbors.

Older in-town homes. These can offer you some of the most flexibility. You can pretty much do as you please as long as the local township does not have regulations. Wide, sunny porches and pretty picket fences allow for container growing, window boxes, raised beds and in-ground growing. The only criteria to consider are the amount of sun that the proposed vegetable garden will get and keeping the landscape as a whole in tune with the age and style of the property.

Older country homes. Homes along country roads are covenant-free and can come with large acreage. If you are into country living, these are wonderful homes to live in, but unless you are planning to create a self-sufficient homestead, you do not need to till up large areas to grow your vegetables. Small raised beds or gardens make maintenance fast and easy, allowing you the ability to raise some produce while still having the time to enjoy the family and the peaceful area.

Before You Start Your Garden

If you are currently living where you plan to make your downsized vegetable garden – or if you have the luxury of looking for another home that’s a perfect fit for the garden you envision – here are a few things to keep in mind. The first and most important is making sure your plants will have the right amount of light.

Follow the sun. Almost all vegetables need some sunshine to thrive. Some vegetables can cope with light shade, but your choices are much broader with at least five hours of sun every day. For heat-loving summer vegetables like tomatoes and peppers, afternoon sun is better than morning sun. Salad greens and winter vegetables can tolerate slightly less sun and grow well with just morning sun in most areas. A very shady balcony, deck or yard is going to be far less productive than a sunny area.

How much sun a location receives changes with the seasons. In mid-summer the angle of the sun to the ground is much higher than in winter. Consider what can happen when there is a line of trees nearby, or a neighboring building. They might block the low-angled rays of a winter sun, but the high summer sun can clear the tops, making the ground below sunny for summer vegetables. You should also be aware of the types of trees close to the place you plan for your garden. Are they deciduous? A deciduous tree drops its leaves in fall, which allows more sun through in the winter.

If you are evaluating your potential garden space during that time, you could mistakenly think that there will be light enough for your veggies come summer. But when the leaves come out in spring, you could be unpleasantly surprised to find the trees are blocking the sunlight, so a spot that was sunny in winter is now too shady to grow summer vegetables.

East-west is best. If you are house- or apartment-hunting, you will ideally want to see the location in summer so that you can assess the sunlight, but a general guide would be to find a home with an east-west orientation. Having morning sunlight streaming into kitchen windows and afternoon sun bathing your balconies and patios gives you optimum possibilities for your garden plans. On the other hand, a north-south orientation gives very little direct sun in the morning and afternoon. Likewise, an apartment unit on the north side of a building would be problematic for growing vegetables.

Having sun coming directly through a sunny window is particularly important for indoor growing, as well as for starting seeds. A room that is light enough for most people is generally not sufficiently bright for vegetables to thrive. The intensity of light decreases rapidly from a window to the center of a room. Modern window glazing impedes the rays coming in from the sun just as it keeps drafts and cold temperatures out of the room. Consequently, an apparently bright, sunny room that is lit by indirect sunlight may be pleasant to sit in and perfectly fine for many houseplants, but it is not bright enough for many vegetables, such as summer squash or eggplants.

Unless you have a bright, south-facing room with lots of window space, some supplemental light will be essential for indoor growing.

Apartment Growing

Asher Wittenberg is a young man starting his professional life in New York City, where he has an apartment. He enjoys cooking but found that essential fresh herbs were hard to find and expensive to buy. His mother, garden writer Nan Sterman, sent Asher some seeds so that he could grow fresh herbs on his sunny windowsill. The container is placed outside the window on a ledge that is about 8 inches deep, and he waters the garden by opening the window next to the garden. Now Asher is enjoying his first garden and harvesting fresh lettuce as well as basil and cilantro for his recipes.

Basil, cilantro and colorful lettuce fill the container.

This container of herbs sits comfortably on a ledge outside Asher’s window.

Water. For healthy growth, plants need consistent water. Since nature does not always provide that, the gardener will have to supplement where necessary. Outside containers are particularly hungry for water and dry out very quickly in the height of summer (see page 40 for container watering solutions). It goes without saying that an outside spigot is very helpful for watering both containers and the garden plot. Don’t place your garden area too far from the water source, because two or three hoses strung together produces a much lower stream of water than just a single hose. Think about getting one of the modern hoses that coil or roll into small bundles for neat storage; they take up much less space than a conventional hose. A timer on the hose to water at dawn is also useful but can be wasteful if the water comes on during a rainstorm, so keep an eye on the weather forecast and adjust the timer when necessary. Too much water can be as detrimental to a plant as too little.

Sharing space with your vegetables. Your vegetable garden might end up competing for space with other things, like gym sets, sand pits and paddling pools – or a volleyball net and room to throw a soccer ball. For balconies and patios, you need to leave room for a chair or two and maybe a barbecue. Your enthusiasm for colorful, productive containers can be wonderful until the sheer number of containers makes it hard for you to turn around!

Finding balance. The reality is that you probably will not be able (or willing) to grow every vegetable you like to eat – whether you don’t have the time, energy or space, or you love some vegetables that take up too much room for a small home plot. I recommend growing some things at home, some things in a community garden, then using a farm stand or farmer’s market to supplement your homegrown produce. That way, you are optimizing your garden space. And don’t forget the value of exchanging garden produce with friends who also garden.

Rooftop Gardening

There has been a revolution in growing vegetables in less conventional spaces, and that includes rooftops. For a simple container, this is not a big deal as long as you can get water to the garden. More extensive rooftop gardens require careful planning and more than likely require permission as well. For apartment dwellers though, this can be a wonderful space to have a small garden – with abundant sunshine and no animals to create havoc when the crops are ripe (except for fruit-loving birds). Definitely worth looking into!

A Garage Does Double Duty

Carol Siracuse and Tom Palamusa live on a small urban plot that has neither sun nor room in the front or back to successfully grow all the vegetables that they wanted to use. Their solution was to create a garden on the roof of their garage. It is accessed with a library ladder and affectionately known as the vegetable library. In the three years since they started, the garden has expanded to 20 wooden boxes lined up along the supporting edge of the garage roof. The garden is watered primarily with a hose. Because the garage faces the driveway and road, Carol and Tom incorporate colorful flowers in among the vegetables.

Gaining Space by Vertical Growing

Vertical growing has been around as long as container growing. You have probably seen espaliered fruit trees in walled gardens or grape vines in greenhouses – both using the vertical plane to allow the tree or vine to grow in a protected environment. (Espalier is an ancient method of artistically pruning branches against a frame or wall to control growth.) More recently, though, the idea of using that vertical plane to grow vegetables, or to maximize the space on a patio, has taken on a new look. Tomatoes, which traditionally have been grown from the ground up and supported on stakes, continued that way until the “upside down” tomato bag came along, which strung the tomato on a support and let the plant grow down toward you for harvesting. If you like the idea of growing strawberries, they don’t always have to be in a strawberry pot – or even a space-saving pot, like the one shown here; they can be planted in a hanging basket or other non-traditional vertical container to free up more ground space for conventional containers. The same can be done with herbs.

Vining plants. Vining plants such as peas, beans, squash and melons also use the vertical plane, but will need to be supported. Besides conventional supports and cages, deck or balcony railings do just as fine a job. A bonus to vining plants is that you can grow them on a trellis to create a temporary privacy fence when you are living close to your neighbors.

Vertical growing systems. The trend toward growing vegetables on patios and balconies has spurred the industry to develop not just small-growing varieties but also vertical growing systems that will support several containers, one above the other.

Combining all these ideas provides a way to maximize the square footage of growing space while minimizing the square footage on the ground.

Square Foot Gardening

Back in 1981, retired engineer Mel Bartholomew revolutionized the home vegetable garden with his book Square Foot Gardening. His idea was that home vegetable gardening was not just a scaled-down version of farming and the guidelines for farming were not necessarily appropriate for the home gardener. Prior to his method of gardening, we were all encouraged to till up, clear stones from the area, rake flat then sow a 10-foot row of cabbage seed. When the cabbage seed germinated, we took most of the seedlings out so that the remaining cabbages could grow at one foot apart.

Square Foot Gardening disregards this wasteful idea and says that if you want five cabbages, you sow five seeds, each at one foot apart in a grid system. Most seed available to home gardeners has a very high germination rate, so each of the five cabbages is very likely to germinate and produce a great head of cabbage for your kitchen. When combined with a 4-foot-square garden space, Square Foot Gardening creates 16 one-foot cells.

Here’s an example of what you can fit into those 16 cells in a 4-foot square:

4 tomato plants

2 peppers

18 onions

32 carrots

24 lettuces

The Square Foot Gardening system was maybe a little before its time, but in the last decade the popularity of community gardens has made this simple system a standard way of gardening. You can continue adding these 4×4 modules as you have the room and energy to cultivate them. The system also encourages you to fix the grid onto the bed. You will find many community gardens with the grids in place throughout the growing season. After a year or two, you will be able to gauge the grid spacing without a grid, but it does stop over-planting, particularly if you are new to gardening.

Raised Beds. Raised beds work well with the Square Foot Garden philosophy for gardeners who prefer not to till. Whether your native soil is sand or clay, the raised bed will provide the best fertile environment for the plants. The advantage of the raised bed is that you fill it with a soil mix that is weed-free and very loose, which makes it perfect for roots to grow quickly, and easy to pull the odd weed out. Most raised beds are 4-10 inches deep – the greater depth being preferred for growing root crops such as carrots and potatoes. Your local lumber dealer will usually have 4, 6, 8, or 10-inch boards. (Smaller kits of 4×4-foot beds are generally 4-6 inches in depth.) See Chapter Two for lots more about raised beds.

Community Gardens

The interest in growing vegetables has also led to an increase in the number of community gardens with plots available for the local residents. Some require that you reside within the city limits; others are sited in enclosed communities with gardens just for the residents. A typical plot is about 4 feet wide and 8-10 feet in length. Combine these gardens with the Square Foot method of layout, and you can obtain a sizeable harvest that saves hundreds of dollars a year in fresh produce. Community gardens attract a cross section of the community, with a range of ages and backgrounds. They are a wonderful way to get to know other gardeners in your area and chat about different vegetables that you grow – and maybe swap some fresh produce as well. When gardeners of various ethnic origins grow vegetables from their homeland it benefits not only their family but also the other gardeners, who learn about a new vegetable, how it tastes and how to use it. This is a movement that is good for everyone involved.

Visit the American Community Garden Association (https://communitygarden.org/) to find a garden near you.

A Word about Farmers’ Markets and Community Supported Agriculture

Once you are growing a few of your own vegetables, you will start to notice that the freshness and flavor of the warm, just-picked tomato or melon is markedly different from the store-bought varieties. Of course, you cannot grow the whole of your weekly vegetables in a window box, but growing some at home and supplementing with a weekly visit to the farmers’ market is an excellent option. Just like community gardens, we have seen a sharp increase in the number of farm markets springing up in most suburban and even urban areas. The markets can be year-round or seasonal and the rules for selling vary from market to market. The first major crop to ripen in the fields is strawberries, marking the starting point for most seasonal markets – April in warmer areas to late May in colder regions. The end of the season brings us sweet corn and pumpkins and marks the closing of the seasonal markets – September or October for most locations.

Most of the vendors at the markets are the farmers who grow the produce. The variety of produce available from specialty vendors is amazing. If you enjoy heirloom beans or tomatoes, you are likely to find a farmer who also likes them too. And they are happy to share recipes and cooking tips, as well as growing tips if you are trying to grow some at home. Region-wide issues such damp, cool weather that delays or destroys your crop would also hit the local farmers, so talking to them about how they deal with the problems can be a big help.

It’s important to know how the produce is grown. Talking to the farmers will alert you to whether they are growing organically, naturally or using conventional chemical treatments. Most farmers are happy to share their methods with you, particularly if they are growing with as few chemicals as possible.

One popular way to make sure you get great fresh vegetables all through the summer regardless of what you grow is to enroll in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). A CSA farm grows a variety of mixed vegetables through the season and sells shares to the public. The share, or half share, is paid for in advance, and in return the farmer provides a box of produce each week for the shareholder. The shares can also include locally baked breads, eggs and meat. The share can be ready for pick-up at the farm or delivered to a convenient central location. Some farmers prefer to distribute the share boxes at the farm market.

CSA organizations allow the small farmer to fund and plan his or her growing season, knowing that they have a market for the produce. When unusual crops are included in the share, most will give recipes to help you use them. Many have Facebook pages and websites where you can see what is in this week’s share. Or chat with others who are part of the same CSA and find out what they made with the produce. Open days at the farm are also advertised so that you can see the farm working and celebrate the season with your own farmer. ■