Containers
Raised Beds
Keyhole Gardens
One of the great things about container gardening is the ability to grow almost any vegetable and many varieties of fruit, given the right conditions and space enough for an appropriately-sized container. Container gardens are also extremely space efficient as every ounce of soil in your container will count as no growing space will be wasted underfoot as you care for and harvest your plants. Another great thing about container gardening is your ability as the gardener to chase the sun if necessary, as containers can be moved throughout the day. If you have no time to be moving containers whilst life carries on around you, plant for the amount of sun you have.
If your gardening space is big enough for raised beds, they can be a great way to maximize space and effort. Not only can raised beds accommodate more plants per square foot, but gardening in a raised bed greatly reduces the need to weed. It also makes
Keyhole gardens are designed to maximize space by eliminating the need for walkways as found in traditional row gardening or with raised beds. The design is also intended to be drought-resistant and deliver nutrients via compost throughout the entire growing season. Keyhole gardens are a raised style bed that take the rough shape of a circle with a "keyhole" shaped path allowing access to the entire garden. In the centre of the circle is a vertical tunnel that houses many layers of compost. As the compost breaks down, it delivers nutrients and moisture directly to the bed. Certainly an efficient way to grow, keyhole gardens can be constructed with many different materials. If you have space for a circle roughly eight to 10 feet in diameter, you can use whatever appropriate materials are easily accessible. Try corrugated siding, cedar posts, landscaping rock, bricks or any combination thereof.
Vertical Gardening
Ah, vertical gardening. There are so many ways to grow upwards - from a traditional trellis to a recycled pallet planter to a hanging hydroponic window garden. The options for vertical gardening are vast and require only some creativity. So which edibles lend themselves to vertical gardening? Here's just a few to get you started: •Tomatoes; •Winter squash and melons; •Peas and pole beans; •Cucumbers; •Asian greens, salad greens, strawberries and kitchen herbs; •Potatoes. Yup, even potatoes will grow vertically if provided with the right container to do so
The Edible Landscape and Permascaping
The art of edible permascaping involves planting food-bearing perennials in areas where ornamentals would traditionally take up space. In fact, many popular ornamentals are edible, so turning your landscape into a food-bearing paradise is easier than it might sounds. Lawns, for instance, can easily be transformed into garden plots, flowering perennial gardens can often accommodate plants that are both beautiful edible, and even forested areas on your property can produce food (and in some cases might already have something wild worth harvesting).
weeds much easier to uproot throughout the season, which can be a real blessing for your back. A raised bed is ideally 18 - 24 inches deep, but if you are building your raised beds on top of existing earth you will have some leeway here. I have successfully gardened in boxes built over earth with only one foot of soil depth.
Summer 2017 pei-living.ca
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