Finding Your Gardening Style

If you are interested in raising your own produce or flowers for personal use, you are not alone. In hard times everyone turns to growing something in a garden in order to cut cost or save a dime. But not everyone is in a situation with enough yard to create a garden. It is ok, because there are different gardening styles from yards to pots to balconies and window sills. Every person's gardening style is according to their own ability, interest, needs, and desires. Follow suggestions to find your gardening style for the coming spring and grow something you love.

The Home Yard
A normal community home site provides ground for growing your own garden. Begin by choosing a section of the yard you want to change into the garden area. It should receive full sunshine and not interrupt the flow of your current landscape. An area about 12' by 12' is large enough to grow a good producing garden for one family. In this type of garden you are going to plant your vegetables and produce in rows 1 food apart. Choose produce your family will eat. A good choice is tomatoes, onions, lettuce, green beans, celery, and other low growing crops for the beginner.

If you would like to use less yard space and still produce an abundant of produce, then square foot gardening is for you. Create a 4' by 4' square with raised boards or cement blocks. Fill with dirt and growing soil. You can plant each type of plant in a one foot square section. This method produces a high yield in a small space and is very attractive. It is a good choice for smaller yards or a grower that wants to use limited yard space.

The Patio Garden
For many people a garden is going to be confined to a patio or deck. This is great, because it is the perfect choice for container gardening. With several colorful or large pots, you can grow vegetables and flowers. Growing choices are lettuce, tomatoes, pot peas, onions, strawberries, and other wonderful tasting plants. Plant flowers among several onion plants and produce a combination of beautiful flowers with edible plants in between. Use one large container to grow a combination of different lettuce plants for a complete salad. It will provide fresh salad greens for many weeks and is very pretty to look at.

The Balcony Garden
When your only available space is an apartment balcony for growing a garden, take heart. It is a great space for a small garden of beauty and fine taste. Invest in small containers that hang over the outside of the balcony railing. Use only small ones so they remain light weight. Next invest in a few containers for the balcony corners to hold produce or flowers. Plant small onions in one of the railing containers and strawberries in the rest of the railing containers. It produces a very pretty plant structure with a salad and desert variety. For the containers in the corners of your balcony plant cherry tomatoes and let them climb the railing. Use soft gardening twine to keep them in place as the grow upward.

Use the other containers to grow a variety of salad greens. Different types of lettuce, spinach, kale, watercress, and herbs will make complete salad meals throughout the growing season. With a good supply of strawberries and cherry tomatoes growing in colorful array, you can create a very small produce business to the neighbors. Not only will it provide pretty edibles for you, it can provide enough profit for next years seeds and a couple of dinners out on the town.

The Window Sill Gardener
Large city lifestyles are not always the best for finding land to grow a large garden. But a window sill garden will grow small produce and herbs, your food bill add variety for dinners and desert. Place an open through bookcase or stand next to the window. This will provide extra space for your plants. Use a window in the sunniest part of the home. Containers should be small and at uneven levels so the smaller ones in the front do not block the sun from the larger ones in the back.

Line the window sill and shelves with foil so the sun will reflect as much light as possible on to the plants and provide a more intense growing combination. A garden of this type will grow baby spinach, lettuce, scallion onions, and herbs like basil, lavender, thyme, chives, and parsley. You can create a good basic salad or use any of the plants mentioned in soups.

Another lesser known option is window farming. This is hydroponics gardening and the plants are grown in water. There is no dirt involved. You can create a window farm with empty, plastic soda bottles. It is a great way to provide a green growing environment for the green movement and provide beauty and food for yourself and your family. With window farming you can even grow a continuing supply of green beans. Window farming really adds a new style and décor beauty to every window.

Which gardening style will fit your life? Choose one and grow something tasty and cut the grocery bill this season by using your own gardening style for good food. It is a great way to provide extra food for the larder and the taste of freshness to your meals.