A Vegetable Garden for Everyone

While gardening in general can feel pretty overwhelming, the truth is, it really can be accessible to all. The trick is to start small and work with what you have. It’s important to think about what it is you want in or out of a vegetable garden. What foods do you love? What space do you have? Things like sunlight, space, and location will determine your parameters, while personal tastes decide the creative aspect of it.

Everyone should be growing something edible despite space allotment, because everyone needs to eat! Even with a windowsill alone, you can grow a flavorful selection of various microgreens to put atop salads, wraps, sandwiches, soups, and yes, butter boards.

No matter what edibles you choose, you can take comfort in knowing where your food comes from and that it is packed with more nutrients than those found at the grocery store. The pride that comes from growing something you can eat, cook, and feed your family and friends is priceless. Not only that, just growing something you would’ve bought at the grocery store reduces your carbon footprint. 

The space you have to grow in may be small, but your harvests can still be delicious and varied!

Design Ideas for a Small Garden in the Backyard

A small garden in your backyard can be fun to design! You will want to decide if this should be a focal point in your backyard or off to the side in more of a secret garden habit.

My Favorite Small Garden Layout Ideas

Regardless of where you put it, a simple and stunning design plan is the keyhole garden. It can be shaped like an upside down U so that you can access the beds from the outside perimeter or the center. The curvy shape adds interest in traditional boxy landscapes and lot sizes. If there's room, you could even place a water feature or bird bath at the center. 

The keyhole garden pictured below uses straight lines to fit into a small nook in the backyard. The entire garden is easily accessed from the center.

The best small garden design is the one that you will be drawn to frequently. If you are someone who prefers straight lines and more organization, a traditional plot layout is fabulous. Standardizing your aisles and designated planting areas will allow for you and your garden tools to enter and exit with ease. The tidiness of this garden style certainly makes it a place to feel good and relaxed in. 

The small backyard garden pictured below is tucked up against the wall so that there's still plenty of space in the yard for children to play on the grass.

Design Ideas for a Small Garden for the Balcony or Patio

When gardening on a patio or balcony, you will find pots and planters come in handy. This is really an opportunity to get creative. Unconventionally found objects like tubs, sinks, and vintage wares can be repurposed to hold plants, water, and even birdseed. 

Top Small Garden Vegetables to Grow on a Balcony or Patio

Some easy-to-grow, container-loving vegetables include greens, lettuces, and herbs. Edible flowers can quickly spruce things up too. With a deep enough pot, you can grow root vegetables like carrots, beets, turnips, and radishes. All of these can handle part sun since they thrive in the cooler seasons when day length is shorter. They're also easy to start from seed, so you can still have a full seed-to-harvest garden experience, even in an apartment.

In the picture below, a local restaurant takes advantage of the sunny edge of the patio with a narrow raised border garden on legs to grow herbs. We also converted the majority of a small strip of grass into a "petal plot", or a landscape filled with native plants and beautiful flowers for the pollinators.

My Favorite Small Garden Vegetables Ideas

You can—and should—still grow a wide variety of plants even in a small garden. Having a diverse variety of foods in your garden will not only entertain your palate, it will invite beneficial insects into your garden to do a lot of the pest control and pollinating for you.

Some excellent planting combinations include a border of garlic or onions, which repel cabbage flys, rabbits, and more, along with a mix of annual and perennial herbs. There are so many to choose from! Having a mix of both can offer interest year round.

Planting radishes in between your staple greens and lettuces maximizes space in any garden. This is called interplanting and can actually be done with a variety of vegetable or floral combinations. 

You'll be amazed at how many herbs, leafy greens, and root crops you can harvest from a small space, even on a balcony, a patio, or the corner of your backyard.

Get Creative with Your Small Garden and Have Fun!

Whatever you decide to grow in your vegetable garden, remember there are a world of possibilities no matter what your growing space looks like. In addition, you should have fun experimenting from season to season by mixing up your plantings or trying new-to-you plant varieties. Make notes of what you enjoy or dislike as well as what seems to be working for you. Your garden should be a reflection of you and your unique preferences. Have fun with it and happy gardening!

Lauren Child of Flower Child Heirlooms

Lauren became hooked on growing food, herbs, and flowers after tilling her first garden plot in 2007. Since then, she's become a backyard florist and founded Flower Child Heirlooms in 2018. By installing a series of "petal plots" in neighbors' yards, she's changing the face of urban gardening and expanding her flower farms to source her floral arrangements. Guests of Flower Child Heirlooms can purchase a la carte florals or opt to have a petal plot designed for their own space.

Lauren believes that gardening should be accessible to everyone—no matter how much space they have, whether they're growing in pots, containers, or the ground. She aims to teach gardening skills in a way that nurtures our curiosity and creativity.

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