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Q. Partly because food prices seem to be ever increasing, I am seeking ideas for making the most efficient use possible of the area we have for growing vegetables. I’d appreciate some space saving tips.
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A. High prices, shrinking lot sizes and limited access to community garden spaces make this a top-of-mind issue for many, if not most, home gardeners at the start of a new growing season. It is one I rethink every year as I review my rough draft of planting placements on each of my four vegetable plots.
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My favourite tactic for freeing up ground space is to grow everything possible vertically, using lengths of wire fencing that I reposition each spring. I train snow and shelling peas, cucumbers, climbing summer squash, pole and runner beans, and vining tomatoes on the wire. I plant on both sides of the wire and grow along the vine bases an assortment of leafy greens (lettuce, endive).
These and other fast-growing leafy greens also do well in the dappled shade of young squash and broccoli plants.
Another space saving method is block planting, as an alternative to single, well-spaced rows. I grow carrots, beets, leeks, onions and bok choy in blocks of closely spaced rows, making the block plantings 120 cm wide for easy reaching into the block centres.
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A plot space can grow more than one crop over a season, with one planting taking the place of another after the initial crop has been harvested. When my early planting of shelling peas has been harvested in July, I seed snow peas in their place along with leafy greens on the shady side of the peas. Bush beans usually follow the July garlic harvest. This, in gardening terms, is called succession.
Where space is limited, consider growing compact varieties. There are compact versions of almost every vegetable these days. You can find them by looking through print and online seed company listings and looking for symbols indicating container-friendly varieties.
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