Joy of Gardening - Compact Gardens

Yes, individuals living in apartments and condominiums can still enjoy gardening through practices like edible landscaping, which utilizes small spaces to grow both vegetables and flowers. Container gardening is also an option, allowing them to grow a variety of vegetables in pots or boxes, even if they don't have traditional garden space.

A condominium garden is the practice of creating a small, compact garden within the limited outdoor space available to a condominium owner. This type of garden often includes a mixture of flowers and vegetables, arranged to make the most of the tight space and provide aesthetic beauty as well as produce.

When planting a tree or shrub in a small garden, start with a large planting hole, mix the soil with organic material like peat moss or compost, set the shrub in the hole with the root ball even with ground level, add organic material to support root growth, water well, and mulch with materials like shredded bark to conserve moisture and suppress weeds.

Vegetable plants can be grown effectively in containers by ensuring they have proper soil mix, adequate nutrients from added fertilizer, and sufficient water. Containers should also provide good drainage. Determinate varieties of vegetables like dwarf tomatoes are well-suited for container gardening due to their limited growth size.

Vegetables that are suitable for growing in container gardens include determinate tomato varieties, leaf lettuce, onions, peppers, and even root crops like potatoes. There are also dwarf varieties of larger vegetables, like Bush whopper cucumbers, specifically bred for container gardening.

An herb garden can be easily integrated into a small living space by planting a variety of herbs in individual pots or containers. These can be arranged in a way that takes advantage of the space, such as using an improvised pyramid structure or utilizing unusual containers like chimney tiles for a kitchen door herb garden.

Yes, container gardening can continue into the colder months by moving the potted plants indoors to a location with sufficient light, such as a south-facing window. This allows for an extended growing period and the continued enjoyment of fresh produce.