A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 Miniature veggie garden

This year I'd like to plant a miniature vegetable garden with low plants. Something only about 6 X 6 with a small little scarecrow. Just to add something cute to a bare area.

I'm in zone 4 with a short gardening season. Any ideas on something different and fun to grow in 5 or 6 small rows?

I also need to know of a variety of short sunflowers to add with my scarecrow.

I have seen in catalogs, a short sunflowers for pots. I bet those would be cute. Or you could use marigolds.

I don't do a big veggie garden. Here in the summer veggies are cheap and road side stands are everywhere. So I just plant what I really really like. I usually do a few tomatoe plants and some orka and bell pepper. And flowers in the rest of it to help with the weeds.


a small patch for salad stuff would look cute, lattuce, carrots, radishes. tomatoes. All grow pretty small.

But I think the big question is what kind of veggie do you like?

Tamara,
Companion planting is a real bonus for small gardens...
Like if you grew a tomato plant, you can grow something short and quick growing under it as
the tomato plant is growing bigger,
and then after that's harvested, you can plant something like lettuce that is smaller and needs shade or cooler conditions to grow in..
Or something that grows tall like a sunflower can also be a support of a edible sweet pea...
That also helps the sunflower grow better because the pea puts nitrogen back into the soil which the sunflower needs to grow...Or even a pretty morning glory growing up the stem looks pretty and covers the gangly stem of the sunflower.

Weezie

Tamara,

Do you intend to do the vegetable gardening in raised bed or in containers?

The ideal size for a raised bed is 4ft.wide X 8ft. long or longer depending on available space. Four feet wide is suggested so that you can reach the center from either side of the bed. However, a 6ft. X 6ft. will do as well, you just have to grow your arms a little longer.

Interplanting [intercropping] is probably the best for the raised bed with some fast maturing vegetables in a short season. Interplanting or intercropping can help keep the insect, disease, and weed problems under control. The overlapping canopies of the vegetables help conserve moisture.

Here's a list of some vegetables with approximate harvest time and planting spacing. Spacing is center to center [apart] of same vegetable.

Beets..................45-65 days...4"-6"
Chicory................65 days......6"-12"
Cress[water]...........50 days......2"-4"
Carrots................30-40 days...2"-3"
Kale...................55-75 days...15"-18"
Kohlrabi...............45-60 days...6"-9"
Lettuce................40-90 days...12"-24"
Mustard green..........35-40 days...6"-9"
peppers................60-90 days...12"-15"
Radish.................22-70 days...2"-3"
Roquette...............40 days......4"-6"
Spinach................40-65 days...4"-6"
Swiss Chard............50-60 days...6"-9"
Turnips................30-60 days...4"-6"

Choice of Herbs, such as Basil, Chives, Bunching onions, Coriander, Parsley, etc..

These requires a lot of space:

Beans..................50-100 days...4"-6"
Cabbage................50-100 days...15"-18"
Eggplants..............60-95 days....18"-24"
Okra...................55-65 days....12"-18"
Squash.................50-65 days....12"-18"
Tomato.................50-90 days....18"-24"

There are more vegetables to choose from, but like the others said, the selection depends on what vegetables you prefer. plant vegetables North to South to allow maximum exposure to the sun as it moves east to west.

Sample: 4' X 8' raised bed
North.....................................South
------------------------------------------------
Tomatoes-Parsely-Chives-Basil-Zucchini

Tomatoes-Lettuce-Carrots-Onions-Zucchihi

Tomatoes-peppers-Eggplants-Zucchini

Tomatoes-Pole Beans-Pole Beans-Zucchini
------------------------------------------------

Sample: 4' X 8' raised bed
North.....................................South
------------------------------------------------
Carrots-Spinach-Chicory-Radish-Parsley

Carrots-Spinach-Chicory-Radish-Parsley

Mustard-Lettuce-broccoli-Onions-Chives

Mustard-Lettuce-Broccoli-Onions-Chives
-------------------------------------------------

If using round/tapered containers, 1, 5, 10, 15 gal. pots will do. Flat/rectangular containers with a minimum of 6" depth will be okay for water cress, most herbs and other shallow rooted vegetables.

The table will probably not show up as intended.

Hope this helps.

"If using round/tapered containers, 1, 5, 10, 15 gal. pots will do. Flat/rectangular containers with a minimum of 6" depth will be okay for water cress, most herbs and other shallow rooted vegetables."

I too love patio gardening, Papito.

You might want to check out the Thompson&morgon website, I have the paper catalog but the web is the same. They have a whole page for Mini/baby veggies.

Thanx for sharing a great site, Cedar.

Hello,

I live in small country named Bosnia and Herzegovina. I visited US 8 times in last 6 years, and I would like to ask some help on this nice web page.
I try to help people in agriculture in my country. One of the things I'm trying to do is to find some new crops which people could grow here. In US I saw baby carrots and it seems to me a perfect crop like a new product here: We don't have it here at all.
But, I don't know where to find seeds and at least some literature, or help how to grow it. So, please, give me advise.
Thank you soooo much.

Sanja, here is the website address they were discussing earlier. Hopefully it will be able to help you. http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/uk/en Good luck with your endeavor.

Tamara,

We tried to put small plants in our 6 yr old's potager this year so he would be able to harvest, weed, water everything himself, except for the tallest part of the 6' bean teepee in the middle of his (4) 4'x4' raised beds.

Bed 1: Basil-Gigante d'Italia, 4 plants, 1 in each corner, Dwarf Marigolds in between the basil, Whippersnapper tomato in the middle (determinate plant, grows to 2', covered in blossoms and early cherries), planted Teddybear Sunflowers too close to the Whippersnapper, should have ideally replaced the Marigolds with the Teddybear Sunflowers..live & learn.

Bed 2: Dwarf Red Nasturtiums framing the bed at the edges, Papaya Pear Summer Squash in the middle (compact habit, doesn't "overwhelm" like some squash plants can do, fruit are 2"x3" when ripe)

Bed 3: Atomic Red, Cosmic Purple, Lunar White Carrots in rows, followed by Chioggia, Cylindra, and Golden Beets, Chives in 2 corners, Catnip in 1 corner

Bed 4: Purple Cabbage, Purple Cauliflower, Bok Choi in rows

In 1 corner of all 4 beds: Scarlet Runner and Asian Long Beans, Little Marvel English Peas, Sweet Peas..these train up a 6' bean teepee and each corner of all 4 beds has a triangular seat, so the Munchkin can climb in there and have a private little hideaway all his own.

Even if you don't have a Munchkin of your own, growing Munchkin veggies is a fun idea and keeps the kid in you ;o)

Buona fortuna,
Julianna

I planted 8'x8', two kinds of tomatoes, green peppers, celery, onions, and bean pods. The sunflowers were cut off by grubs. I never got the chance to make my scarecrow, I'll do that as a project over the winter. Next year I'll expand with more choices and smaller rows.

Father in law almost died around planting time, so there was no time to really plan and plant.