Psst! Here’s a secret we hope you won’t keep to yourself: You can grow an organic garden brimming with delicious herbs, juicy tomatoes, and other luscious veggies even if you only have a few sunny feet to spare. A patio, balcony, or even just a front step is enough space to grow your own food. First order of business: Choose whether you want to grow in containers or a small raised bed.
Planting in pots is the simplest way to go. Whether you have room for just a single container or a whole cluster, you can grow culinary herbs for the kitchen, ingredients for a salad, or your favorite beefsteak tomatoes for BLTs. Yum!
1. Fill the container ⅓ full of Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics® All Purpose Container Mix. Made from organic and natural ingredients, including aged compost, this light, fluffy mix gives plant roots a seriously nurturing environment. Plus, you’ll end up with twice the harvest (vs. unfed plants)!
2. Remove plants from their original pots (or if your Bonnie Plants® are in biodegradable pots, just remove the outer wrap) and place them in the new container. Be sure to check the spacing requirements on the plant tags.
3. Fill the rest of the pot with more potting mix, stopping about an inch below the rim of the container to leave room for watering.
4. Water well right after planting. If you planted your small-space organic garden in self-watering containers, you’ll want to check the reservoirs regularly to make sure they stay full. Otherwise, check daily and water when the top inch of soil is dry.
5. A month after planting, feed plants with Miracle Gro® Performance Organics® All Purpose Plant Nutrition Granules, which is specially designed to keep both plants and beneficial soil microbes happy by providing just the right nutrients for great growth. Repeat every 6 weeks during the growing season, making sure to follow label directions.
If you have a small yard or patio that gets a good daily dose of sunlight—think 6 hours or more, in case you ever want to grow “full sun” plants like tomatoes and peppers—you probably have enough room for a small organic raised bed garden. The easiest way to create one is to buy a kit online (the Miracle-Gro® Elevated Garden Bed is a great choice for decks and patios), or follow the instructions in our How to Build a Simple Raised Bed article.
1. Fill the bed with Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics® Raised Bed Mix. This will give you a just-right blend of fluff (so that oxygen can reach the plants’ roots) and density (for plant support). Both the soil and the container mix contain compost, which is full of microorganisms that help feed the soil and nourish your plants.
2. Plant each of your Bonnie Plants® to the depth noted on the plant tag. Vining plants, such as peas and cucumbers, and tall plants like tomatoes should be planted along the north side of the garden bed so they hog all sunlight.
3. Follow steps 4 and 5 in the section above.
Whether you plant your small space organic garden in containers or a raised bed, know that you when you follow these tips, your harvest will be anything but small! To find out more about growing an organic garden, check out our How to Grow an Organic Garden article.
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