No space?

Aspiring gardeners without an established garden space have transformed areas such as front or back lawns, the south edge of a building, patios, small and large containers large window boxes, vacant lots--even rooftops--into lush, food-producing spaces.

Some people may have access to an established community garden. 

Others might consider organizing and participating in an informal neighborhood garden located on someone else's land.

Ideas for finding space & growing more food in the space you have

Space-saving strategies Covers a variety of space-saving techniques for increasing yields in small garden spaces: vertical cropping, intercropping, succession planting, rasied-bed gardening, and intensive planting. A good chart on planting spacing for maximum production.

Intensive Gardening Get more food from a given space.

Intensive Gardening Methods Covers space-saving strategies such as vertical cropping, interplanting, succession planting, and more.

Raised beds Useful for locations without good soil, or where natural soil doesn't offer enough light.

Container Vegetable Gardening All the basics, including charts on container size and good varieties for containter culture.

Even plastic bottles! Repurpose milk and soda bottles into salad gardens.

Container Gardening Problems?

Rooftop (or anywhere) Container Gardening Check out this Flickr slideshow of a Chicago "greenroof" food garden; then read a detailed explanation of how they do it, or visit their blog for all kinds of information.

Make a self-watering container A simple how-to from the extraordinary Chicago urban rooftop gardeners

"Edible landscaping" has become a hot trend nationwide. Many fruits and veggies fit into almost any ornamental planting scheme.

No time?

The average American spends more than four hours a day watching TV.

• Many folks could carve half an hour of gardening time before and after work and a couple of extra hours each weekend.
  
• Bone up on techniques such as mulching (see below) and drip irrigation, which save labor and benefit plants.
• Many gardeners worry about how the garden will fare when they go on vacation. In tough economic times like these, some folks should consider vacationing in the garden rather than going away.
  
  Consider it a working vacation that delivers the health-promoting benefits of spending time in the natural world. not to mention a bounty of gourmet vegetables. You'll avoid the expense and the stresses of going away: packing, waiting in lines, the time spent getting there and getting back.

 

The trick? Organizing your vacation time to incorporate several three-and four-day weekends throughout the growing season, then using the time to create a lush, private food-producing space.

Daily exercisers: Turn your gardening activities into workouts

How to use your garden for the exercise you need Blog post by Dan Hickey, former editor of NationalGardening, covers the comprehensive range of exercise techniques and benefits of gardening activities; also the risks for sedentary people.

Gardening for Your Bones Research shows that ordinary gardening activities are effective for preventing bone loss.

Photo credits: Center page, Kathy Martin, Skippy's Vegetable Garden Used with permission.
Above left, Samuel Mann. Some rights reserved.