There’s More Than One Way to Start a Garden

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You can start a garden anywhere and I think the best way to kick off 2024 is to show you how I maximize the smallest spaces. You know that expression “There’s more than one way to skin a cat”? It sounds terrible, I know. Where it originated is beyond me. But it’s true. Not the skinning the cat part but the idea that there’s no one way to do anything. Unless you’re a mathematician dealing in the finite. So when it comes to starting a garden, if you do it one way and your friend does it another and you both arrive at similar outcomes, is either wrong? Certainly not!

Let’s say you grow your dahlias in a container and I grow them in a garden bed, we’ll both have gorgeous dahlias sometime in August if not sooner, as long as we provide the necessary ingredients. Sun, water, soil, fertilizer, patience and endless curiosity. That’s it! I find the patience part the most difficult. The rest is gravy.

My point is, we can start a garden using what we have. Whether it’s a small balcony, a postage stamp patio or deck, a suburban backyard (that’s me) or a back forty, you can grow something and grow it well. Which is why I’d like to show you all the ways I grow to make the most of the my space. From grow bags to raised beds to a soon-to-be developed sideyard, I find ways to grow anything and you can too. As long as you accept that failure is part of the game and not everything will live and thrive, you’re on your way. Perhaps 2024 is the year you add “gardening” to your repertoire!

Modular Metal Raised Beds

There are several on the market and all have drop-and-go appeal. Simply assemble, drop in place, fill with soil and start a garden. I have three Vego Garden raised beds in my vegetable garden and I love them. Installation is a piece of cake, they’re very affordable compared to what it costs to build wooden raised beds these days, they look good and Vego Garden raised beds are made in Texas. The beds are available in several colors, heights and configurations. For 2024, the modern raised bed is the newest member of their raised bed lineup and is ideal for anyone who prefers a sleeker profile. No matter which container you choose, you can start a garden anywhere and grow anything in them. Flowers, veg, herbs – the possibilities are endless.

Cedar Raised Beds

The raised beds pictured above were a Mother’s Day gift from my husband. He built them at the height of Covid, before the cost of cedar planks went through the roof. At four feet wide and eight feet long, they’re accessible from all sides which makes planting, harvesting and weeding easy and less challenging on the back. They replaced a long bed he built many years ago which helped him come up with a plan to build them bigger and stronger than the original. The vegetable has evolved as all gardens do but you can see how it started here.

Rabbits are a constant problem in my garden so my husband built the beds high enough (or so we thought) to prevent them from nesting inside. The yard slopes so the beds are about 17″ in front and 24″ in back. Unfortunately, the lower height on the one side is jumpable. I found a nest of babies dug into the roots of one of my chive plants this past summer. I’ve tried all sorts of rabbit repellants and Plantskydd is the only one that works. Click here to learn how I use it in the garden.

Start a Garden in a Whiskey Barrel

When I was very little, my dad cut down a big tree in our backyard and he left the stump which had a “V” shape. It was the perfect perch for two whiskey barrels, one high and one low. At the time it seemed really high and I don’t recall how he got the barrels up there but I always thought it was the coolest thing. He grew tomatoes in them and they were drenched in sun all day long. I wish I had a picture of it. Like I said, I was little so I don’t remember how they turned out but the point is, you can start a garden anywhere. Even on an old tree stump!

Whiskey barrels are great because they’re deep and a big planter is always better. They dry out slower which means you won’t have to water as frequently as you might with a smaller container. Add an inexpensive obelisk or build one from bamboo canes to take advantage of vertical space. I’ve grown peas, beans, tomatillos and cherry tomatoes in my whiskey barrel. They don’t come with drainage so I always drill five half-inch holes in the bottom to ensure water runs through it.

Grow Anything in a Grow Bag

I’m a big fan of grow bags, specifically Smart Pots. Like my Vego beds, the bags are made in America, Oklahoma to be exact, and I think that’s pretty cool. My first experiment with Smart Pots began with a Chicago Hardy Fig tree and when that died last year, I was left with an empty 15-gallon grow bag and that presented another opportunity. We’ll call the death a result of benign neglect and certainly not caused by the grow bag. I didn’t water it enough during the dormant season. It’s easy to forget when the plant is out of site, tucked away in the basement.

I’ve never grown potatoes in my garden and I’ve always wanted to grow purple potatoes, especially ones that hold their color when mashed. How fun would it be to serve your littles purple mashed potatoes?! Mine are grown and they still loved the color and the taste. So I planted Magic Molly seed potatoes in the Smart Pot. I wasn’t sure how many to plant in a bag this size so I went to the Smart Pot website where they have a blog post about what fruits and veg they recommend for each pot size as well as how many seeds or starts to plant per bag. Based on their recommendation, I dropped in five seed potatoes and they took off.

My Smart Pot potato harvest reel was a hit on Instagram…

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A post shared by Heather Varkalis | Small Space Gardener (@heatherhereshegrows)

I love Smart Pots because they’re lightweight, reusable and air prune the roots growing inside. Root girdling is common in container grown plants. It doesn’t happen in Smart Pots because once roots grow to the edge of the bag, smaller roots develop at the end of the bigger root, forming a fibrous network throughout the bag. In a plastic pot, the root continues to grow and circles the container. As it circles, it gets longer, lengthening the distance between the end of the root and the plant. Nutrient uptake slows and plant growth may stall out or die.

EarthBoxes are Perfect for Balconies and Small Spaces

If the only growing space you have is narrow and quite small, consider Earthboxes. For my first go with them, I experimented with something that I thought was obnoxiously huge. Sweet corn. And much to my surprise it loved small space life. So it just goes to show that you can start a garden anywhere, no matter how big or small the space.

The kit comes with planting plans so you’ll know how many seeds to plant per box based on the crop. While many containers tend to dry out quickly at the peak of summer, the water reservoir at the base of the EarthBox ensures plant roots have a constant supply of water. Instead of daily watering, I’m watering twice a week.

I like the set-up so much that I bought my parents an Earthbox system that included a trellis and castors. Last summer they grew cherry tomatoes and basil. They loved it.

Less Watering, More Enjoying

Last summer, Proven Winners gifted me two Aquapots Lite containers from their newest collection. I chose the Urban Courtyard design in the charcoal color. Not only are they incredibly lightweight, the pots come with an insert that makes them self-watering too. Instead of watering on the daily, you may be watering just once a week depending on the amount of sunlight your container receives.

I love mangave and you can read more about this incredible cross between an agave and a manfreda here. My Silver Fox mangave was outgrowing it’s small container so I replanted it in the Aquapot, surrounding it with Safari Sky South African Phlox. Both plants thrived in the container as you can see from the above photos.

Whatever you choose to grow in the Aquapot – flowers, veg, herbs – just be sure all the plants have the same water and light requirements.

A Final Word on Starting a Garden

Go for it! Just remember, no matter what you start a garden in, go as big as you possibly can. The bigger the container, the better your plants will grow and the less effort they’ll require. More soil volume equals better moisture retention.

Whatever vessel you choose, make sure it has drainage. And whether you’ll be planting a single geranium or a mixed planting in a bed or large vessel, be sure you’re combining plants with similar light and water requirements.

Most importantly, have fun and be prepared for failure. Sometimes it’s grower error, other times Mother Nature needed a laugh. She can be a real pistol.

Here’s what I’ve been up to lately on YouTube…