When I started planting in my little tiny garden I needed ideas for creating a small garden space on a budget. I quickly learned how to maximize the space that we had and decided that there were going to be a lot of rules that I break in the garden.
Recently I listened to a podcast where the guest seemed to discourage the host from trying her hand at gardening on a micro scale. I was so annoyed. I wanted to call up the host and tell her “plant the green beans in a pot! Put them in a sunny spot on your balcony and find them something to grow up!”
What’s with the gatekeeping on gardening!? It seems to me we should be encouraging everyone to grow something that can nourish their bodies. If you have access to dirt, you can garden! Here is permission to start a garden and break rules along the way.
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Here are some rules I break in the garden to make my life easier:
I do not abide by spacing recommendations / requirements
I once read that you can fit more into raised garden boxes. The specifics escape me, but I think it had something to do with controlling the soil, the density of fertilizer, and water retention. Who knows, but I ran with it. Vegetables are planted almost on top of each other in my raised beds and most things thrive, especially plants that do better in colder weather. The over crowding helps shade the roots so your cold crops have a better time growing once the heat ramps up.
Weeds schmeeds
Okay this may be part of my lazy gardener series, but weeds just don’t really bother me…. I finally stopped pulling the clover from the pathways and it has taken over. While it may be considered a weed in some gardens I love it! Clover brings in the bees and suppresses the weeds I don’t want. Unless a weed is in a garden box or taking over the strawberry patch I usually just let it do its thing, and wait til next spring to (maybe) get on top of weeding.
I don’t follow a Watering Schedule
Maybe this isn’t a rule, but I see a lot of “water your ____ 2 inches a week”. Okay, I don’t know how you measure your water, someone please explain that to me, but I really let the plants & the weather tell me when to water. I do have these handy terra cotta watering spikes that I push into the ground next to the base of plants that need a lot of water. They go right into the soil, you fill up an empty bottle (hello, reuse those empty wine bottles!) and put it right into the spike to keep your thirsty plants consistently watered. NOTE: I prefer to use these in pots / containers that I keep on my back deck as slugs do like to hide out in them in the day when the tops are dried out. You can grab some for yourself right here!
Once plants are mature they will typically look droopy before they die, but if your plants are still seedlings they do need constant water. Since I do a lot of successive sowing this means I have seedlings in with mature plants a lot of the time. Even with different water requirements I’ve never had a mature plant die or any sort of big issue from overwatering.
I don’t pull plants that have gone to seed
Unless I have something I want to plant where the current plant is I let them do their thing. Over the last year I have been experimenting with what goes to seed well enough for me to collect the seeds and replant. I’m currently experimenting with my lettuce seeds that bolted in the heat, and the other day I picked off the fuzz and VOILA! There were perfect little lettuce seeds ready for September planting. So many plants can replant themselves and it is fun to see what volunteer plants sprout come spring.
Dill & chamomile have spread themselves throughout my garden on their own, as have tomatoes and I have a friend who has a volunteer pumpkin thriving in her yard this year! My herbs are left to go to seed because the bees love the flowers, and you can harvest the seeds. I love collecting cilantro seeds and dill seeds for cooking and planting. Seeing a beet or radish decide to bolt and then turn into an alien plant with hundreds of seeds on it is so exciting! Radish seed pods are quite tasty as well! This is one of the rules I break in the garden that is ideal for gardening on a budget. If you can grow and collect your own seeds you’re gonna save yourself some money!
I grow a lot of things vertically
Okay maybe not technically a rule, but definitely something that made my grandma raise her eyebrows. Every year I grow something new up a trellis or bamboo. My first adventure into odd vertical gardening was zucchini. How does one grow plenty of zucchini without sacrificing a ton of space in the garden? Up a bamboo shoot, of course! This worked much better than expected and my little zucchini tree produced plenty of zucchini throughout the summer. With such good luck I decided to try growing lots of other things vertically. I had a butternut squash around our chicken run that decided to grow up over the wire and it did great! If something takes up a lot of space in the garden figuring out how to grow it up is a great way to keep your small space garden a little tidier.
Gardens shouldn’t have rules, sometimes things work without explanation, so I have found it’s best to try everything. Maybe some of the rules I break in the garden can inspire you to do some rebel gardening of your own. Your garden, your rules. Hope to see you in the garden soon!
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