Quick Raised Vegetable Gardens for Small Spaces!

It doesn't always matter where you live, you can grow fresh veggies at home even if you have a small space.

This article mainly covers a 4x9 space, or two 4x4 premade garden beds, with about 1 ft between, but don't let even that size stop you. You can always opt for a hanging veggie garden along a fence or even potted planting for your veggies. Try a potted garden on a patio! Don't let size dictate your options for healthy fresh eating.

Besides size, the main things to focus on are sunny locations, and watering needs. But other than that, you can easily have your own fresh vegetables in no time!

Before you run off buying supplies, first check your location.

Some vegetables will tolerate lower light conditions, but not many. It's best to find the sunniest spot in your yard, on your balcony, or patio and place it there.

If you don't have 4x9 feet of space to sacrifice, consider using only one 4x4 bed or two in different spots.

Since you're constructing a raised garden, soil conditions are not a huge issue, you'll be using high-quality soil. Most vegetables want 6-8 hours of full sun daily. So if you don't have this kind of sun, this may not be the project you're looking for. Or...if you don't have full sun in such a space, get out those plant containers and do a potted vegetable garden instead! Consider hanging buckets, bags, or Topsy Turvys on a fence or shepherds hook. Those can easily be moved into the Sun!

• A shovel
• A level
• A garden hoe
• garden weed fabric, sand or pebbles (optional).
• (2) 4x4 raised beds -we used a premade Lifetime Raised Garden Bed Kit, cost vs. time, it just made more sense for us. Also, these are made of composite, so no maintenance, easy to relocate, and will never rot!
• 16-20 (1-1/2 cubic ft. bags of high quality potting soil, or vegetable garden soil, about 7-9 per 4x4 space)
• Seeds of your choice (great starters-various lettuces, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, squash, peas) Oh, your taste buds will sing and rejoice!
• Raised tents or covers to protect your veggies from animals
• Vegetable garden stakes or markers (optional)

Once your garden beds arrive in the mail, or are constructed, start the prep of your space, this should be done in early spring depending on your location and climate. We live in northern Ohio, so we started in May.

You will want to measure the space where you are placing them and level the ground. After that is done, it's really just a matter of placing your beds in the designated spot.

You can also lay down "no weed" gardening fabric or even a layer of sand or small pebbles to help prevent weeds from growing up and into your beds. We didn't bother doing this because the space we chose did not have good soil, so nothing was growing out of it.

Place your beds into the location you've chosen, double check that they are level, and begin filling with dirt.

Once your dirt is filled up, plant the seeds you've chosen according to the packaging. Our beds kind of got thrown together because we had some "little helpers". We decided an over yielding garden was fine for our first attempt.

When your seeds are in, give them a gentle pat of dirt and a nice drink of water. Water daily until you see sprouts. Then water as needed, and remove weeds if they pop up!

The included tent with the kit we bought was wonderful. It's doing a great job keeping pests out and created a nice warm greenhouse effect for all those baby sprouts!

We were super excited to get our beds growing. This was the first time we've had space for fresh vegetables!

This is a simple DIY project that any novice can accomplish. No green thumb needed! And your family could realistically expect multiple harvests which cut down on your produce expense! Not to mention it's all fresh and homegrown, it can't really get any better than that!

Feed your garden with fresh compost as needed for many years of nutrient packed soil!