Gardening in Small Spaces and Giveaway

Gardening is one of our favourite hobbies. In the past years, we have passionately done a variety of DIY projects and improved our gardening to become a backyard oasis. We have built a variety of different gardening structures, put in a pond with aquatic plants, made spaces for birds, planted fruit trees, invested in different types of perennials over the years, and more. When it comes to growing vegetables, we usually buy transplants from garden centres and put in a few seeds directly in the garden.

Since last summer as we spent majority of our time in the backyard instead of travelling, we have taken our gardening enthusiasm up a notch. We started our vegetable and herb plants from seeds indoors in winter under grow lights and added another long raised bed for vegetables.

We have also read multiple gardening books to gain knowledge as the care for each vegetable is different. The Prairie Gardener's Go-To for Small Spaces by Janet Melrose and Sheryl Normandeau is a useful book for anyone looking to make the most out their gardening space. I agree with the authors that "to garden successfully in a small space demands a little extra gardening know-how and some specialized techniques." Working in a small space means choosing what to plant and which ones to leave out. This book gives an insight on the different types of containers, growing media to use in containers and raised beds, fertilizers and water, square foot gardening, successive plants, catch cropping, vertical gardening, herbs and edible flowers for container growing, small tree options and more.

This year we used the square foot gardening method introduced by Mel Bartholomew, which is also mentioned in this book. We are finding this method helps keep the garden organized and maximizes how we use the space. 

Due to space restrictions, we put a lot of the vegetable plants in fabric growing pots. This is a convenient way to help rotate the plants. Putting these pots away in winter after a wash is easier. 

We learned a lot of tips from this book such as how to fill a large container without investing in a lot of soil, how to rotate and use the growing medium in containers and overwinter it, taking indoor plants out in the summer and bringing it indoors, and more. 

The book is written in a question and answer type of format. It is separated into four sections, container gardens, raise beds, small plots and potage stamp sized yards, and vertical gardening. This book gives a lot of knowledge and answers many questions that come up every season.

Giveaway:
If you live in Canada and would like to win a copy of this book The Prairie Gardener's Go-To for Small Spaces enter the giveaway using the giveaway tool. This giveaway ends on July 20th. Please leave comments and follow my social media networks to be eligible to win.

Update: The winner is Florence

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