Vegetable Garden Planning – Intensive Gardening Series Finale

I’ve been spending so much time planning our own garden this year, especially with all the seeds we’re starting indoors this year, that this post is a few days later than promised. Sorry about that. Trying to squeeze everything in our small yard does take some time and effort, but well worth it at harvest time and each year gets easier once you get the hang of it.

If you have followed along throughout the Intensive Gardening Series, you already know what types of things to consider when planning your garden. It may seem daunting, but hang in there – we’ll take it step by step.  I’ll go through the main areas of consideration and I’ll also introduce a tool to help in your planning as well. No matter how much you want to just get out and start growing stuff, you will create a greater yield by taking the time to plan your garden layout first.

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:

How to prune tomato plants for bigger, healthier tomatoes

One of my neighbors asked me if she should prune her tomatoes since a gardener friend of hers told her to. If you have indeterminate tomato plants, then the answer is yes. In case you’re not familiar with determinate vs. indeterminate plants, determinate means the plant grows to a predetermined size for that particular plant variety, bears fruit and then grows no more. Whereas indeterminate means the plant will continue to grow and bear fruit until frost.

One main reason your tomato plants should be pruned is to allow adequate air flow around and throughout the plant, which inhibits the development of some common diseases. A second reason you would consider pruning is to minimize the amount of wasted energy the plant spends on non-fruiting branches and maximize the plant’s resources to the branches that are producing fruit. This will result in healthier branches that will produce bigger tomatoes. So now that we’ve answered the question on whether you should, let’s find out when and how?

Why isn’t my garden growing well?

I’ve heard this question asked by several people as of late. They all have variances in their garden setup – some are planting straight in ground, some in raised beds – some have tons of sunlight, while others have a limited amount – some started with seed while others bought starts. But one thing I’m hearing quite commonly is, “I bought some great veggie soil mix and had it trucked in. So I know that’s not the problem.” Wrong. This could very well be the problem.

High Yield, Small Space – Container Gardening At It’s Best

Self-Contained Garden System

When you have a limited amount of space to grow vine crops, such as tomatoes, peas or beans, you have to get creative – or get the EarthBox Gardening Kit.