A small space can come to life with the right mix of heights, fun objects, and fine-foliage plants
Have a small yard or garden? Less – maybe a patio or balcony? Driveway? No space is too small or oddly-shaped for a bit of garden, and you’d be surprised how with a few design tricks you’ll see you have more growing space than you imagined.
Professional garden designers Rebecca Sweet and Susan Morrison give us tips to deal with all of those pesky problems. By selecting plants of different heights, you add depth to a shallow bed. Break up a flat wall by training select plants up a trellis and interspersing garden art and found objects. Wall container planters and planting pockets create growing space out of seemingly nothing.
Have a long, narrow space like a side yard? With raised beds and clustered containers, you add height and interest to break up the corridor. If you have a large property, there may still be smaller areas within that seem awkward for planting, and these same techniques will work for you as well.
This lush oasis is just a strip a few containers deep at the perimeter of a parking lot
In this episode we also meet Baylor Chapman, a floral designer in San Francisco who sources organic flowers locally when she can, and grows the rest in a truly unique parking lot garden in the city. While she told us what it was like gardening under these conditions, we saw bees and butterflies and ladybugs galore, even in a parking lot in an industrial area surrounded by warehouses and a car repair shop!
Finally, Chef Nathan reminisces on gardening with his grandfather while making up a fantastically-fresh green bean vegetable salad with tuna and Dijon vinaigrette.
Read Joe’s production blog post about this episode.
For more information on the plantable wall pockets seen in this episode, visit Woolly Pockets.
About GGWTV
Growing A Greener World is a national gardening series on Public Television that features organic gardening, green living and farm to table cooking. Each episode focuses on compelling and inspirational people making a difference through gardening. This gardening series covers everything from edible gardening and sustainable agriculture to seasonal cooking and preserving the harvest.
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Kind of surprised to see someone planted an invasive plant (Wisteria) in their garden.
I suspect it was American wisteria Bob, which is not invasive.
Hi Joe I can’t find one of the project I joined just wondering could you possibly help by putting up so I can save it thanks ken
Hi Joe looks like my time zone is different to you it’s one fifty five here
Pm
Hi Joe mulching my roses haw far out from the Bush iv gone about one foot six this is the first time I’ve done this we had a bit of snow
Hi Joe brought a David Austin rose the pilgrim Auswalker on the David Austin label says shrub or climber I brought this hopefully as a shrub if it says shrub first dose it mean it’s a shrub garden center didn’t know please help
In my garden to day digging up the old bunny stocks found about six white grubs with light brown head I squish them looks like I may have to treat the borders wot can I youse do you think Joe thanks ken
There is a white maggot in between two leaves that are stuck to gether wot can it be is bin to wet with rain it’s eating the new shoots
Hi wot is the best thing to get rid of green algae apart from digging it in at the moment its only in patches
Raining all week one of my tube standard roses still budding do I need to de bud it or just leave it
Since December 2015 iv Bin putting Banner skin cut up around the roses I have Bin told the potassium is good for them am I doing it to early please advise thanks
Since December 2015 iv Bin putting Banner skin cut up around the roses I have Bin told the potassium is good for them am I doing it to early please advise thanks
One of my rose Bushes for some reason the leaves have gone lime green with red vain line’s it’s only bush that’s like it
It’s Sunday afternoon 1245pm raining I’m in to roses it’s December quite mild I’m going to try route growth on them wen is it the best time to much and which one
Most time of year is a good time for mulching Ken so I’d do that now. Use any kind of natural wood mulch or shredded leaves. Apply about a 2-3 inch layer. Check our website again and type in “mulch” into the search field for much more information.
Hi I have a small garden about 50×20 feet I’m south east of uk I have a bit of a problem powdery mildew especially on the roses wot can I use
Be sure to check our search field on the website by typing in your keywords. If you type in “powdery mildew” you will get several results, including this article: https://www.growingagreenerworld.com/controlling-or-eliminating-powdery-mildew/
Just caught the tail end of an episode on The Edible Schoolyard. It is inpirational to see folks share and infirm with others their love of gardening! If we continue along this trajectory, we might educate enough people about the impact Big Ag has on soil depletion. And of course mire folks will be getting better nutrition from crops grown using age old practices of working WITH nature vs assaulting it while demanding more from a dwindling resource- soil.
Will you please check video 214 Growing in small spaces. The video gets stuck at 3:47 and will not proceed past that point.
Thank you
Shirley
Will do Shirley. Thanks for letting us know. We’ll let you know when we get this resolved. Should be by Monday.
Kudos! Great show…as always. Chef Nathan showed the container holder that you can put on a fence…What was that and where can I get them!! Very interesting,
I like the video very interesting and well done! Thanks for share!
Now you know I love your shares and this segment featuring Susan L Morrison and Rebecca Sweet authors of Garden Up! was especially wonderful to view as they featured Authentic Haven Brand Natural Brew Teas on page 86. I say what better way to Garden Up! then to feed the soil with 100% natural Soil nutrients <|;-) Looking forward to your next segment Annie
Mabuhay!
Another fantastic, thought-inspiring episode. I can watch this episode over and over again. In the program, whey they said “no soil”…one really has no excuse anymore or whatsoever not to be able to plant. But in cases like this, would they ever use pesticides (would there be a chance) in keeping their garden healthy. This is just a conjecture, that most people especially with small spaces to garden would have the tendency to think that its going to be more meticulous or high-maintenance. But i guess to, that most people (like moi) are not really aware (yet) on what type of plants that can be low or high maintenance. Anyway, this has inspired me to look at my garden in another perspective. (trying to create a natural garden in a tropical clime) especially materials that are lying around in the area like old metal window frames etc. I love you GGWTV. Godbless you always.