Gardening is fun, healthy and can save money by growing your own food. Reading all the garden magazines in the early spring can be frustrating with all the pictures of huge areas people have to garden as if we all have that much space. Most of us do not have much space at all and some only have a patio. Here are a couple of ideas for small areas where you can garden.

In an area that is for example 7 feet by 7 feet you can really grow quite a bit in there. Go out and look at your area and picture what can go where. Get a seed and plant catalog from Burpee. Start selecting which vegetables you are going to want. Grow only what everyone likes to eat and make a list of those vegetables. Get out some paper and pencil and draw up some ideas of where you want to put the vegetables

Sometimes we do not have a choice where in the yard to plan the garden and other times we have the choice. When planning the garden make sure you take note of where the trees are and where the sun will be throughout the garden season, the sun will change a lot from first planting to mid fall. The garden should get at least 8 to 10 hours of sun per day. Peppers like good hot full sun while greens, lettuce and spinach do not need that much. When you plan your garden think about the plants and how big they will be in mid summer, you don’t want your tomato plants shadowing your pepper or other plants.

Here is an example chart of a garden that is 7’ by 7’ and some possible plants. I used this plant spacing chart. When you have limited space for a vegetable garden, you want to get as much food as you will be using. In this example I put in three tomato plants. One could be the big beefsteak type for sandwiches and another could be the cherry tomato for salads and the third could be a Roma tomato for soups and sauces. If you don’t like tomatoes, that would be a lot of room for squash or cucumbers. The peppers take up a lot of room as well, but there are so many different kinds of peppers and uses. The sweet red and or green bell pepper for stuffed peppers, the Poblano peppers for chili rellenos and there are many others. The pole beans can be supported on a fence or trellis.

The spacing is pretty tight in this garden but this should leave enough room for paths. Each year can be different, one year the tomatoes grow very thick and not so tall and others they are tall and slender, the same with the pepper plants. You will learn a great deal about your garden and spacing after the first year and make adjustments for the next season. Spacing around tomatoes is important, as they need airflow and the breeze to blow through them. You can use tomato cages for the tomatoes, I have found that bamboo poles and some green garden tape that stretches works well for making your own cages.

If you put herbs in your garden, remember that some are perennials and come back year after year. They also spread out and their seeds can start plants all over the garden, dill is especially bad at this so pick or cut the flowers before they go to seed on the herbs.

If you should get too many tomatoes out of the garden, you can cook them into a paste and freeze it until you want to make sauce or tomato soup with the recipe listed below. You can freeze the peppers as well.

Gardening with no space

If you have no dirt at all you can still plant some vegetables and herbs using pots if you have any uncovered areas. You can use plastic to the clay terra-cotta pots, which come in different sizes, designs and shapes. The clay pots tend to dry out faster in the hot summer sun but they seem to allow better air circulation. You will have to water these at least once a day and probably twice a day when its hot and windy. You can even plant a tomato plant in one of these, you will just have to tie it somewhere or once it gets tall it can easily blow over.

More gardening tips:

• Steps to starting a vegetable garden
• Starting plants from seeds
• How to make your own compost
• How to grow a butterfly garden
• Homemade tomato soup recipe