Vegetable Garden Ideas For Backyard

Line Your Plot With Jungle

A striking seating space from Urban Oasis: Tranquil Outdoor Spaces at Home

Create a jungle-inspired oasis in your backyard to make you feel as if you’re in some far-flung destination. Ferns and tree ferns are great choices, but you’ll find plenty more top picks in our guide to the best tropical garden plants.

We love the leafy fronds surrounding this sectional sofa from a project published in Urban Oasis: Tranquil Outdoor Spaces at Home . Naturally, you can complete the vibe with on-theme backyard garden decor ideas like these cushions, and perhaps a fruity drink in hand.

Learn From Beautiful Kitchen Garden Designs

There are so many beautifully designed kitchen gardens and potagers throughout history to draw inspirations from. The majestic vegetable garden above was designed by George Washington at Mt Vernon.

We can use these timeless garden layout designs in our own gardens. Keep in mind that garden beds do not have to be rectangles and squares. You can use curved shapes in your garden designs like in this garden above.

Small Vegetable Garden Ideas

Nothing beats the satisfaction of harvesting your first ripe tomato or pulling up your first carrot from the soil edibles can be grown in the smallest of plots and now is the perfect time to have a go.

By incorporating a vegetable garden into your small garden ideas, you can increase the productivity of your space while still retaining a characterful and abundant garden scheme.It is also a great way to engage the younger generation when gardening with children. So take advantage of your tiny spaces to grow delicious options that will add a special homegrown flavor to your meals.

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Backyard Vegetable Garden Ideas That Save On Space But Dont Skimp On The Bounty

Lets set the stage here. The best space-saving backyard vegetable garden ideas wont help you one lick if you dont have good soil. You can work with limitations on sunlight. You can plant herbs like rosemary that dont need a ton of water. But if your soil is compact and devoid of nutrients, you wont have a whole lot of luck with your garden.

There are plenty of easy ways to fix that. A little tilling to loosen the soil and a bit of compost to add nutrients might be all you need to bring new life to your garden. But that has to be first on your list. Now onto those space-maximizing ideas

Backyard Vegetable Garden Ideas For Beginners

If youre on the hunt for vegetable garden ideas, look no further. Sowing vegetable garden ideas is an easy DIY projectwhether its an herb garden or an edible flower gardenand you dont have to have a green thumb to be successful.

There are plenty of beginner-friendly projects that make it easy to nurture and harvest your favorite foods, like lettuce, tomatoes, or cucumbers, in a matter of months. Just think, if you plant tomato seeds in May, you could be eating delicious salad by late summer. There is nothing in the world as fresh, crisp, and tasty as a vegetable plucked and devoured in the same minute, says Allison Vallin Kostovick, gardener and founder of Finch + Folly Farm in New Gloucester, Maine.

Still, before you start digging up soil and thinking up other backyard updates, consider these quick tips for best results.

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Incorporate Fruit Trees Into Your Vegetable Garden

Most vegetable plants are fairly small and low to the ground, meaning your vegetable patch can lack the architectural beauty of other areas of your garden. Adding the best fruit trees is a great way to add height and structure to your vegetable garden ideas, providing both visual interest and a more diverse crop.

Espalier fruit trees are a particularly great choice for walled gardens as they add character as well as being beneficial for the fruit trees. One of our favorite garden wall ideas, the heat from the wall helps to encourage the tree to grow and fruit, often much better than were it standing in the middle of your plot. There are lots of trees to espalier including some of the best fast-growing fruit trees.

Whether you grow them in the ground, pots or as espaliers against a wall, fruit trees also diversify your veg plot, encouraging wildlife and pollinators into your vegetable garden, helping to control pests.

If you’re adding fruit trees to your vegetable garden ideas, be sure you know how to plant fruit trees and how to prune fruit trees to keep them healthy and productive.

How Do You Start A Small Vegetable Garden For Beginners

It is easy to start a small vegetable garden there are plenty of small vegetable garden ideas to get your started and before long you can be enjoying the taste and flavor of your own homegrown crops.

To grow well and be productive, vegetable and fruit plants ideally need:

• at least six hours of sunlight a day
• an open spot for good air circulation
• protection from strong winds
• soil that is loose, rich and drains well

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Start With Sun And Shade When Creating Vegetable Garden Layout And Designs

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Most vegetables grow best in full sun. Not all open areas in a garden will be sunny. A tall tree or building can cast several hundred feet of shade when the sun is lower in the year from late fall through early spring.

Always choose the most sunny location you can for a kitchen garden, where plants can get at least 5-6 hours of direct sun per day, especially between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Usually the south, south west, or south east side of a house is great for a veggie garden on northern hemisphere.

What direction should vegetable garden rows run? Typically the garden gets more sun exposure when rows are running north south direction.

Sometimes we can not do so, such as in this sloped garden. A good alternative is to plant shorter plants such as cabbage, onion, or zucchini on the south side of a garden bed, and taller plants such as pole bean, fava bean, tomato etc on the north side so the taller plants wont shade the shorter plants.

Embrace Companion Planting Ideas

Traditional vegetable garden ideas see the crops separated from the floral areas of the garden, however, this is not necessarily the best approach in terms of maximizing yield.

Instead, integrating blooms amongst your crop is a great way to embrace companion planting and, if you plant flowers that attract bees, will help to increase the number of pollinators to your crops.

Also take inspiration from kitchen garden ideas as this historical garden style will help you to create the perfect low-maintenance plot, achieving the right balance of vegetables and blooms. Even if you don’t want all your backyard ideas to be focused on vegetable garden ideas, there are still lots of top tips for planning a kitchen garden that will help your vegetable garden ideas to thrive.

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Opt For A Multifunctional Greenhouse

Greenhouse ideas form an essential part of the vegetable garden, letting you start off as many seedlings as your heart desires, without the challenge of predicting the frost or worrying about where they are going to live. The benefits are not just felt at the start of the growing season, either, as even an unheated greenhouse can delay the effects of frost by several weeks, letting you maximise the yield of crops such as picking fresh tomatoes well into fall.

However, when it comes to planning a greenhouse for your small vegetable garden ideas, you will inevitably be faced with the need for compromise the most common being between a shed and a greenhouse. Both have benefits but often the necessity of a shed’s storage potential will outweigh the botanical benefits of a greenhouse. This does not have to be the case, though. If youre struggling to choose between a greenhouse and others shed ideas then consider a design that combines both elements. Here, the shed lets you store all your gardening tools out of sight while the adjoining lean-to greenhouse gives you plenty of space to raise your crops, making it a clever, compact solution for more petite spaces.

Once you’ve got your greenhouse up and running, discover the best food to grow in a greenhouse to help you on your way.

Create A Small Vegetable Garden In A Window Box

Window and planter box ideas are most suited to low-growing kitchen garden edibles, such as herbs and salad leaves, and need to suit the conditions that prevail at your window.

Planting recipes to try include a mix of different mints, strawberries interspersed with parsley, or a one-stop salad garden with micro greens, salad leaves, chives, basil and edible flowers.

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Inject Some Fun To A Small Yard With Herringbone Paving

‘If you’re looking for something more fun, choose from a range of different colored paving stone slabs,’ says Johanna Elvidge, ‘or try herringbone or basket weave layouts for a dash of personality and interest.’

‘For a sleek finish which lengthens your patio, create lines with longer, thinner paving slabs in alternating rows.’

Use Long Paving Slabs To Stretch The Feeling Of Space

When it comes to how to lay a patio, Johanna Elvidge feels the shape of pavers can greatly impact the look of a small garden. ‘For a sleek finish which lengthens your patio, create lines with longer, thinner paving slabs in alternating rows.’

Robert Morley agrees: ‘The size and shape of a thin oblong tile makes it a perfect choice if youre looking to cheat the feeling of space. I would suggest 18x36in as the optimal size, to really emphasize the space and all that your garden has to offer.’

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Use Containers For A Vegetable Garden In Even The Smallest Spaces

If you’re wondering ‘what vegetables grow well in containers?’ Then you’ll be glad to know that most vegetables will grow well as part of container gardening ideas, so long as they are big enough. Salad vegetables, carrots, onions and tomatoes all grow well particularly well in containers though.

‘A couple of pots of cut-and-come again leaves will give you fresh salads for months. Other stars of the kitchen container garden include chard and kale, structural plants such as globe artichokes,’ says Aaron Bertlesen, vegetable garden and chef at Great Dixter . ‘Plant edible flowers, such as scented-leaf pelargoniums, in pots. The variety Attar of Roses makes a wonderfully fragrant sorbet.’

Use Trellis & Structures In A Vegetable Garden Layout

Another garden structure to consider is garden fencing, which can keep out deer and rabbits, and act as a trellis for climbing plants like beans and cucumbers.

This simple and attractive raised bed garden is by Homefront Farmers.

Trellises are functional garden structures that make a garden more productive. They can also be really beautiful in an edible garden. Check out these 24 best DIY garden trellis ideas and tutorials here!

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Amazing Ideas For Growing A Vegetable Garden In Your Backyard

Filed Under: Inspiration

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After visiting a farm-to-table Airbnb in Washington, we got inspired to put together this article of fabulous ideas for growing a vegetable garden. The wonderful thing about vegetable and herb gardens is they can be grown anywhere. You can put them in containers on your front porch, patio, or balcony or plant them in your backyard.

They can be in raised beds or wooden/plastic barrels, in galvanized troughs, or a fenced-in garden to keep away the bunnies and deer. It is exciting to plant seeds in the soil and watch your vegetables grow. They taste fresh and delicious compared to buying in the grocery store, not to mention the money you save to feed your family.

You can plant vegetables in the spring and in the fall. Tomatoes, peppers, corn, and zucchini are just some of the delicious seeds to plant for the spring. Ideal crops to grow in the fall includes spinach, lettuce, Swiss chard, carrots, radishes, kale, parsnips, turnips, leeks, fennel, Chinese cabbage, and cauliflower.

If you live in a warmer winter climate, vegetables such as Swiss chard may continue to produce into the winter months. Have a look below at our collection of DIY ideas to plan your own vegetable/herb garden, to help create one that is attractive and edible.

Tell Us: Do you have a vegetable garden in your backyard and if so, what do you have planted? Please let us know in the Comments!

Vegetable Garden Ideas And Examples

Below are more photo examples showcasing many backyard vegetable garden ideas and concepts.

This vegetable garden uses a number of small raised garden beds to grow vegetables separately. Some vegetables need different care, so keeping them organized like this is always a good idea.

Here is a simple raised garden bed with an irrigation system in place. These kinds of accessories can add to the cost of building your garden but can save lots of labor time in the long run

This garden consists of two square raised garden beds. These are great for yards with a bit of space. Source: Zillow Digs

These raised garden beds have a rustic appeal and are equipped with some irrigation systems. Raised garden beds are useful for keeping crops organized and can reduce bending, making the work a bit easier.

Here is a lovely vegetable garden with a seat for resting after a long day tending to the crops. You can sit here and enjoy the fruits and vegetables of your labor.

Here is an elevated planter that is great for a small vegetable garden. If you have a number of small vegetable plants, and are growing for personal use, this is ideal, as it is mobile, simple and the height makes it easier to manage. Source: Zillow Digs

Here is a nice vegetable garden with thin and manageable strips of planting area separated by wood chips. Wood chips make great footpaths between planting areas. They add a rustic and natural appeal to your garden.

Farmhouse Landscape by Boston PhotographersDanielle Sykes

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How Much Should I Plant

If you have never grown a certain vegetable before, you may wonder how many plants to grow. The first year that I gardened, I planted an entire packet of zucchini seeds.

In case you didnt know, zucchini may be the most productive plant in the world. I was overwhelmed by more than one hundred zucchinis that summer. It was complete zucchini madness. I stuffed zucchini into every dish I could think of and still had so many that I was giving them away to anyone who stopped by.

It was so crazy that I wrote an article about how to eat zucchini in 87 different ways!

To feed the average family of four, this is an approximate guide to how many plants you would want to have. Keep in mind that there is no accounting for personal taste. If you really love something or want extra for preserving, plant extra!

Succession planting refers to the practice of planting a small number of seeds at one time and then returning to plant more later. This spreads out the harvest so that you are not inundated by a huge volume of one type of vegetable in a short period of time.

Keep in mind that there can be a big difference in how productive a plant is depending on the exact variety you choose. There is a reason Sweet Million tomatoes have the word million in the name. Moneymaker and Mortgage Lifter are other particularly productive varieties.

Once youre growing enough vegetables for your family, consider growing some for your animals, too!

Create A Productive Living Wall

Growing plants vertically is a great way to maximize the productivity of your plot. However, you aren’t just limited to growing cucumbers or growing runner beans on trellises though there are lots of trellis ideas to help inspire you.

Living wall ideas provide a great opportunity to make the most of all your available space. They also offer a great way to add vegetables to your patio or small garden ideas. These living planters are hung against a wall or fence and feature individual pockets into which you can plant your crops.

Obviously, this would not work for all vegetables especially not root vegetables or those with long roots however, leafy vegetables such as rocket, cut and come again lettuce, spinach or even small cherry tomatoes are great choices for your vegetable garden ideas.

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