Small-Space Gardening: 5 Tips for Growing More

Good luck with your new garden! The most important thing to keep in mind when transplanting your seedlings outside is to harden them off. They will need a week or so to acclimate to outdoor conditions before you plant them so each day expose them to a little more light and wind. Bring them in at night at first then leave them out all night if the weather is warm enough. Tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, and eggplant need nights in the 50s or above. To keep your plot productive replant the carrots as you harvest and the cilantro will need to be replanted at intervals to keep it growing. The other vegetables should give you summerlong fruits. For garden plans check out the online garden planner on this website. It adapts to your location and can give you specific planting advice.

We would not recommend using plain sawdust under the soil. Sawdust is low in nitrogen and is not going to help much as a fertilizer. It will instead absorb nitrogen as it decomposes and will take it away from your plants. It also encourages fungi in the soil. You can mix the sawdust with aged manure or leave it on the compost pile and use it next year when it is decomposed.

Are you asking whether you should rototill the lawn to remove the sod, or rototill after you have removed the sod? There are several strategies to removing sod, one being to rototill the grass into the soil. Advantages include: incorporating that organic matter (grass) into the soil, keeping nutrients. Disadvantages include: weeds -- exposing weed seeds and perhaps chopping up underground runners of certain weeds that encourage their regrowth.

If, however, you have already removed the sod, such as using a sod cutter or digging with a spade, then you can till the soil to break it up, and then till in organic matter, such as compost or aged manure. (Removing the sod will remove those nutrients from the grass, and will remove topsoil, so it is important to replenish it with soil amendments.) It is also a good idea to test the soil pH at this time and add what is needed to balance it. Rake the soil to remove rocks and debris, then let it sit for a week or two before planting.

There are also no-till ways to smother the grass, or block out light, such as by laying down cardboard and newspaper, and then adding a thick layer of soil amendments on top. This is good for the soil, as it keeps its nutrients and topsoil, however, takes months before the bed would be ready for planting.

It sounds like you may have a drainage problem and your plants are getting water-logged. You could also try adding pea gravel at the bottom of the bed for better drainage or drill some holes all around the bottom. Good luck.

We haven’t grown in galvanized steel beds personally, but they are increasingly popular and will last for longer than wood.

Plant your tallest plants in the north since the sun rises in the east and works it's way around the south and towards the west where it sets. You can also plant taller plants in the west as they will not shade the rest of the garden since the sun is setting on that side in the evening. Hope this helps.

Hi Enoch,

If this is your first garden we suggest the you build a raised bed that is rectangle or a square. This way you can place it so that you can grow the taller (or vining veggies) on the north or backside and the shorter plants in the front.

See drawing at www.almanac.com/image/raised-bed-garden as an example.

Hi Heather, Gardening has many variables including climate and timing for each type of veggies so there's no magic button. However, here are a couple key resources:

Your planting dates for each crop:
http://www.almanac.com/plantingtable

Companion planting chart:
http://www.almanac.com/content/plant-companions-list-ten-...

Garden planner (free trial):

http://gardenplanner.almanac.com/

Use the garden planner to check out other gardeners' plans for ideas. Also, it WILL tell you when two plans should not be planted together and that's really the main concern. 

The sand in your soil mix should help with the drainage. Adding compost and/or aged manure to the bed will add nutrients and help with the drainage. If your soil is moist hold back on watering. Let the soil dry out between waterings. Some vegetables (for example lettuce, spinach, peas, and kale) like cool weather. If your daytime temperatures have been high these vegetables will not grow well.

Hi Laura,
To figure out how space the right number of vegetables in your raised garden, try our free online Garden Planner here:
gardenplanner.almanac.com
Raised gardens are usually a great solution for rainy, wet weather. This way, the beds won't suffer from wet soil. Adding lots of organic matter such as partially rotting straw or compost also helps. If wet weather is a common issue, consider planting vegetables with short growing cycles such as tomatoes, peas, radishes, potatoes, beans, and carrots.

You can include manure in your mix but make sure that it is extremely well-rotted and the animals that produced it were from organic systems; many gardeners have had whole crops killed off by using manure from animals grazed on land sprayed with herbicides.

Make sure that when you add sand you mix it with soil or compost, as using sand on its own can form a hard-packed layer. Mixed with other materials however it helps to open up the soil and improve the structure, making it more free-draining.

Some people (especially square foot gardeners) also add vermiculite or perlite to their raised bed mixes, but if you have access to leafmold this is a much more economical option, and will also help to improve the soil structure.

Hi Deborah,

Wow, that's a lot of vegetables. Any vegetable that vines will benefit from a trellis. Squashes may get a little heavy and you may need to give them extra support on the trellis. Peas and beans that are not bush types should also have something to climb on. Artichokes don't usually need a trellis. You need to check your seed package or look online to see how big or tall each variety will grow. Good luck! It sounds like you have a great start to a productive vegetable garden.

You may want to speak to your local cooperative extension to get their on-the-ground perspective. To us, a raised garden bed provides much better moisture control. Either way, you'll need shade cloth for the afternoons. We have a few great book suggestions here: http://www.almanac.com/store/garden-outdoor/books

You do need 6 to 8 hours of sun for vegetables to grow. It's the heat that can be a problem in Texas. You can consider: providing some shade on the south or southwest side to protect the veggies from afternoon sun. You should avoid overhead shade or structures that block sunlight. Mulch generously and water with drip hose at the base of the plants. Make sure that the soil stays moist (NOT wet) or soggy. This keeps the root environment cool.
Also, use heat-tolerant varieties for your area! Check out some online resources from Texas A&M (http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/vegetable/ and http://plantdiseasehandbook.tamu.edu ).

Yes the Rasied garden beds are awesome this is my very first time with any garden of any kind and I have 8 Garden beds filled with all kinds of veggies and alot of them are from seeds thet I start in the little growing pods first then I plant them in the rasied beds my beds are 4 feet by 4 feet and I filled all of them with compost and top soil and I have noticed since I have started all of this some of the soil have dissapeared is this normal???Do I need to refill the beds up but they are all full of the produce what do I do???

You need at least 6 hours of direct sun, but more is better.The more sun the more and better crops.

The more sun the better I get between 5 to 6 hours a day sunlight and mine are doing just great I have 8 Raised veggies beds...I live in Sarasota Fl and this is my very first time doing any kind of gardening...Good Luck I hope this helps you but I am certainly a newbie LOL