Variety is the spice of life – even in the garden!

For me, one of the fun parts of having my own garden is all the variety you can grow, even if you don’t have a lot of room to work with.  You don’t have a plant a bunch of one thing to be successful, in fact, if your garden size is limited, I encourage you not to.  I suggest you can get the most out of a small garden by planting a bunch of different types of things. That way, you don’t end up with a huge surplus of one type of produce that is ready to harvest all at once – unless you want to, of course.  By planting lots of different things, that all ripen at different rates, you can get a steady flow of produce from the garden to your table.  Once the growing season is well underway and things start to be ready for harvest, you can have, at least, one ingredient from the garden at every meal.  And that, my friends, is worth all the digging.

When I say “different types of things,” I mean, not only planting several varieties of something like peppers, but also to plant every kind of fruit and veggie you like, that you can possibly cram into the space you have. Don’t get so focused on growing tomatoes that you miss out on lettuce, and melons, berries…oh goodness, I good add to this list for days.  As I have found in my small space, with a little planning and some creative vertical supports, you can grow an amazing variety of produce.  Don’t be afraid to try new things, and don’t feel limited by the selection at the local nursery.  Go online – there are SO many seed stores online that sell, not only seed packets, but also plants.  Grow purple carrots and orange cauliflower.  Try all the different types of kale.  If it’s rated for your zone, go for it!  All the variety is fun…and if you don’t like something, or all your squash gets destroyed by pests or weather, you only lost a tiny portion of the garden.

Not convinced?  Need a little more motivation to put on your gloves, grab a shovel and start digging?  Alrighty then…lets chat for a moment about the kind of variety I know for a fact you can get out of a small garden like mine.  As I mentioned in my earlier post, I have roughly 200 square feet of in-ground garden, two six-foot long sheep troughs, and a three-foot round metal tub for all my planting.  Now I am going to share with you all the variety you can squeeze out of that kind of space.

This year my garden yielded:

Lots of Leaf Lettuces

Greens: Kale, Chard, and Beet greens (plus the beets are awesome too)

A wonderful variety of beautiful tomatoes!

EggplantSo many squashes!

String Beans, Sugar Snap Peas, and Soybeans, oh my!

Okra – oh how I love okra

Melons – Cantaloupe and cucumbers

Onions

Peppers, peppers, peppers

Sunflowers – will be harvesting seeds any day now!

A wide variety of herbs – only a few pictured here

And last, but certainly not least….berries!

See what you can do with even a small garden?  Remember, all this came out of roughly 200 square feet of space.  Look out in your backyard and consider where you can squeeze in a garden, or what you can do to make great use of the garden space you already have.  If I can do it, you can do it.  I hope this visual display of all the bounty a home garden can produce has motivated you to grab a pair of gloves and a shovel…and get digging.