Best Vegetables to Grow in Small Spaces

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With suburban sprawl and an increase in urban living, space for gardening is at a premium.

Fortunately, there’s a solution for the lack of ground space in the vegetable garden: Grow up instead of out. And spring is an excellent time to start.

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Many vegetables come as climbers, trailers or bush growers. Green beans are a good example, with seeds for bush beans and pole beans. Climbers naturally twine up a trellis, while trailing plants need help to start climbing. Tomatoes are an example of plants that naturally trail, but we force them to climb by tying or bracing them to a cage, stake or other support.

Trellising edible plants makes it easy to harvest them because you can readily see the vegetables, and you don’t have to bend over to search for them.

See more: Easy Peasy Summer Annuals For the Garden

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Trellis Foundation

What plants climb can be anything with a small enough grid. A braced or framed piece of fence wire with a 4-by-4-inch grid works well because the open space is large enough to get your hand through to harvest the goodies. Some gardeners fashion a string grid, which you can also buy at garden centers.

You can make a tepee-type structure or arched walkway with bamboo stakes. Pole beans are a popular selection, and it also makes a fun space for kids to delve into gardening.

Climbing veggies also work when grown on an obelisk amid perennials, annuals or shrubs.

See more: How Vines Add Vertical Interest to the Garden

Tips and Tricks for Success

The following three varieties discussed in this column are easy to grow from seed, which allows you to do succession plantings of veggies such as green beans, meaning you can extend the harvest season by planting every few weeks.

Seed packets give all the info needed to grow the vegetables, including the plant’s mature size. Grow plants in full sun – six or more hours of direct sun a day – and where water is easily accessible.

Harvest plants on a regular basis. Picking the ripe veggies tricks plants into producing more.

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Green Beans

Green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) are one of those plants that practically grow if you just say “dirt.” The seeds look like beans, which makes them a manageable size to plant. They germinate quickly, and pole beans know how to climb, so no tying up required.

Because you’re trellising, go for the more colorful, showy beans, which come in many more colors than green. There are yellow, white, various shades of purple and red, or pink splotchy (Dragon’s Tongue) varieties. Kids especially like the colorful beans, most of which turn green when cooked.

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Cucumbers

Cucumbers (Cucumis sativus) are naturally trailing plants that come in all sizes and flavors, from tiny gherkins to large green or red ones. Cucumber beetles can be a major pest for these plants, so consider a row cover or something similar to keep the beetles away, especially early in the season. Green Light is a high-yield variety to consider.

Winter Squash

The trendiest fall and winter dishes are made with delicious winter squash (Cucurbita spp.). Vitamin-rich winter squash is naturally a trailing plant, so it will need to be tied to a structure to climb. Plant breeders have developed several dwarf varieties to try, including Goldilocks, Honey Bear, Honey Baby and Butterscotch. Winter squash usually can be stored for several months when harvested and cured properly. Purdue Extension’s FoodLink provides additional details at https://tinyurl.com/uf7b25yx.

See more: Learn How to Avoid Common Basil and Impatiens Diseases

About the Author: A popular speaker, Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp blogs at hoosiergardener.com. Sign up for her free, award-winning monthly newsletter eepurl.com/gkfb91.