5 Ways to Grow More Fruits and Vegetables in Less Space—Even if You Don’t Have a Yard

You may be having grand dreams of a fancy potager garden that’ll let you harvest dinner nightly from your garden. But if your garden space is tiny—or nonexistent—you may think you’ll be lucky to get a strawberry or tomato or two from your garden. Not so fast! Even the smallest vegetable and fruit gardens can produce a generous harvest if you’re smart about planning every square inch.

Try these expert-approved techniques to make the most of your small garden.

Think Vertically

It’s probably no surprise that when square footage is limited, looking up is your best plan. Trellising can be a game changer to help you grow more in less space. “Climbing crops like cucumbers, beans, or certain types of squash are great to grow up a trellis and free up space in your garden beds,” says Carly Mercer, gardening expert at Love & Carrots. “If you’re diligent about staking and tying up, you can sow things like bush beans, beets, or carrots fairly close to other crop—we’ll often just run twine between two stakes to keep their foliage up and off any nearby plants.”

Another option that’s especially great for a balcony or patio garden: planters. Try strawberry pots or other vertical tower-style planters that place plants at different levels within the structure—they’re great for herbs, strawberries, greens, and other smaller plants. And hanging baskets or planters can also handle small crops.

Make sure that the plants you choose are container-friendly if you’re planting in containers—they’ll be more likely to thrive in tighter spaces.

Choose Fruits and Veggies That You Can Harvest Repeatedly

You can make the most of every space in your garden when you choose plants that let you harvest from them over and over again. Think everbearing strawberries versus June-bearing varieties, or indeterminate vs. determinate tomatoes.

“Crops that you can harvest continually, like kale, basil, cucumbers, and peppers, will provide a much bigger yield over the course of a season than a crop that you plant, wait for it to mature, and harvest once, like carrots, potatoes, beets, or melons.”

Plant Under Crops

One clever gardening technique? Interplant small crops you can harvest quickly under longer-growing plants to extend your season and maximize your output. “By sowing quicker-growing crops under crops that will eventually be taller, you can get a harvest before the taller crops shade things out. An example is sowing arugula under kale,” Mercer says. “By the time the kale is big enough to shade it out, you’ve likely harvested the arugula once or twice and it’s time to remove it. Lettuce or cilantro under tomatoes is also another example of this technique. Scallions are an easy crop to interplant with just about anything.”

Avoid Squeezing Too Much in a Single Space

Overcrowding may seem like you’re maximizing every inch of your garden space, but if you’re not careful, you could be defeating the purpose. “Ultimately, overcrowding can lead to higher pest or disease pressure, or weaker or stressed plants that end up producing less,” Mercer says. Make sure that you’re giving your plants room to grow, and that any plants you place together make good companion plants.

Focus on Your Favorites

If you’re planting a small-space garden, Mercer advises choosing just three to five crops to focus on, so you get a significant harvest of fruits, vegetables, and herbs that you love. Then see how they fare. “After your first season, you’ll have a much better sense of how much space each plant takes up, and can prioritize your staples, and will know how much room you have to experiment!”