As spring approaches, it is time to start thinking about yard work. Some routine yard work is not terribly exciting, but when it comes to starting the garden for the year, gardeners typically perk up. There are a few decisions about your garden, such as what crops to plant, that need to be made before you start working the soil. Many favorite crops, such as watermelon, take up large amounts of space whereas others, such as carrots, take only a small amount. The trick is to organize your limited garden space to raise all of your garden favorites.
There are a couple of ways to deal with limited garden space. One solution might be to till more of the backyard and increase the size of your garden. Fortunately, there are other ways to include all of the crops that you want in the space that you have. One technique is called intercropping. Intercropping is growing more than one crop in the same row, which reduces the need for extra space. To reduce competition between the crops in the intercrop row, fewer plants of each crop are grown. Using wider rows allows you to grow both crops in the same row and to keep the desired plant density of each crop.
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When using intercropping, be sure to consider which crops to plant together. Two crops that emerge at the same time without greatly reducing their yields make good companions for intercropping. For example, onions require a limited amount of space in the row for leaves, allowing room for the radishes to grow. By the time the onion bulbs start expanding, the radishes will be harvested. The row of onions and radishes can be widened to accommodate the amount of each that you want to raise.
Another way to ensure successful intercropping is by coordinating the timing of planting and harvesting. It is not a good idea to plant two crops together that both require a long growing season because there will be a prolonged period of competition between the two crops. Such competition probably will reduce yields. For example, carrots and beets would compete very hard against each other during the growing season, but a successful example of noncompetitive crops would be leaf lettuce and transplanted cabbage. Both lettuce and cabbage are cool-season plants and are planted early in the season. At maturity, cabbage plants are very large. To meet their space requirements, cabbage seedlings are typically planted 2 feet apart within the row. To fully use available garden space, leaf lettuce can be planted in the vacant areas between the small cabbage seedlings. The leaf lettuce will be harvested before the cabbage requires the space.
Harvest is another aspect that should be taken into account when choosing the crops to combine. If the harvest of one crop makes the harvest of the other very difficult, or damages the growth of the other, then they do not make a very good match. Two crops that work well together are radishes and spinach. Radishes and spinach are both cool-season crops. But radishes mature in 20 to 25 days and spinach takes 40 to 45 days to mature. The foliage of spinach and radishes is distinct, so identifying them isn't difficult and the harvest of the two vegetables occurs weeks apart.
These ideas are not the only ones for conserving space in the garden and definitely are not foolproof.
Other space-saving techniques include succession planting, square foot gardening and the use of trellises or fences. The best way to find out how productive a small garden can be is to have fun trying different combinations.
Some things will work and others may not. Hang on to the good ideas and keep experimenting.
For more information on intercropping and space-saving techniques in your garden, read Iowa State University (ISU) Extension publication "Small Plot Vegetable Gardening" (PM 870A). This bulletin is available on the Web at http://www.extension.iastate.edu/Publications/PM870A.pdf or by contacting an ISU Extension county office.
