Intensive Gardening Methods – A Learning Series for the Small Space Gardener

Do you want to get the most out of your small garden space? Do you plant only once the last frost date has passed and call it good?

If you really want to get the most out of your garden space and extend your growing season so you have fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs to eat throughout the year, then you need to use intensive gardening methods. Intensive gardening gives you a number of ways to achieve your goal of producing more produce for longer periods of time.

For the next several weeks, we will be posting a Learning Series on Intensive Gardening Methods starting with (1) succession gardening, followed by the (2) benefits of raised garden beds, (3) vertical gardening, (4) inter-planting or companion planting and, (5) finally, how to plan and utilize all the intensive garden techniques available to you so you can have the most glorious, productive garden possible.

Sneak Peek of What’s Coming in our Intensive Gardening Learning Series:

Succession gardening allows you to plant multiple crops in the same space by mixing cool weather vegetables with warm weather vegetables or by mixing fast-maturing varieties with slow-maturing varieties. Imagine having lettuce and peas before you even start to plant your normal spring garden. Many of these cool weather vegetables can be planted before the last frost of spring and can be harvested after the first frost of fall. More details on succession gardening in our post next Friday, January 14^th. 

Intensive gardening involves using raised garden beds to help control the soil conditions and separate different types of vegetables. The soil in the raised garden beds usually warms up much sooner than the surrounding ground, allowing you to plant earlier. More details on the benefits of raised garden beds on January 21^st’s post.

Of course, nothing utilizes the space better than planting vegetables that can grow vertically, leaving ground space for other vegetable plants. Since they don’t sit on the soil, vertically growing vegetables tend to be healthier, resulting in a higher yield. You will learn more in the post coming January 28^th.

Companion planting involves the knowledge of what plants benefit by growing in the vicinity of another plant, and which plants inhibit another’s growth. Companion plants may attract beneficial insects, prevent harmful insects from gaining a foothold, enhance the flavor of a vegetable or add nutrients and support to the soil and other plants. You will learn more in the post coming February 4^th. 

And finally the last post on February 11^th will take all the knowledge gained from these techniques to give you the groundwork to plan out an entire garden from very early spring, if not the end of winter, and well into fall.

Intensive gardening methods or techniques are à la carte and can be chosen to suit an individual’s specific needs. In addition, one may decide to use only one or two techniques at first and then add more intensive gardening methods to increase your garden success each year.

If you don’t currently subscribe to our blog, be sure to subscribe now so you don’t miss out!

For more in-depth information on Intensive Gardening Methods and Techniques, see a more comprehensive article on our site.