Beginnings are very often a time for great enthusiasm. When we start something new, we often want to jump in with both feet and do everything all at once! While that’s a great emotional rush, it can result in frustrations later on. Gardeners are particularly prone with this—new gardeners or veteran gardeners starting a new season often bite off much more than they can chew. In some ways that’s just part of the learning process; finding the right size garden for you is often experimental and experiential. But in order to save you some frustration, we’ll offer some suggestions for answering “how big should my garden be?” and “what size garden is right for me?” Let’s dig in!
We’ll start with the first factor determining garden size: the size and nature of your garden space. Indoor gardeners who may have a windowsill or a plant shelf to work with will have to plan quite differently than someone with a vast, well-lit outdoor space. So before you start planning your perfect garden, take some time to get to know your space, how much room you’d like to devote to a garden, and the conditions present in your space. Making a plan from the beginning can help answer questions later on and give you a road map for where you’d like to go.
Once space, light, water, and soil have been taken into account, we’ll look at what kind of garden you’d like to have. A small veggie garden can range from a few plants and herbs in containers to a 100 square foot/10 square meter plot in a yard. Likewise, a landscaping garden can be a few planters on a patio or in a front yard or a landscaped bed similar in size to the veggie garden mentioned above. If you’re brand new to gardening, we do suggest starting relatively small and then scaling up from there. You can add more as you go, but taking on too much from the start can lead to frustration and turn you away from a really rewarding hobby.
So how many plants go into a small garden? For veggies, the general rule of thumb is to begin with up to 12-15 veggie plants per person, which for a solo gardener is a pretty manageable garden size and one that with a little creativity will fit in most outdoor garden spaces. Indoor gardeners may wish to consider something smaller scale—a container herb garden and a couple of tomato or pepper plants in a part of the house that gets plenty of light (or supplemented with a grow light as needed). You can expand from there either over the course of the season or in the seasons to come. For landscape gardeners the math is a little different, as landscape gardening has a different set of goals. Some landscape gardeners are happy with a small flower bed or some hanging planters, others prefer to tend the shrubs and trees in their space, still others like to blend decorative gardening with native plant gardening, wildflowers, or edible landscaping. The good news is that landscape gardens tend to require less daily attention than veggie gardens—but that does depend on conditions and obviously you can spend as much time with your plants as your lifestyle permits!
We’ve hinted at this last consideration all through this blog but our final suggestion would be to consider the plants you’d like to grow and how much time you’d like to spend caring for them. Different plants require different levels of care—which will vary additionally depending on your climate and the needs of your individual space. In order to get the best gardening experience for you, you may want to do a bit of research, talk to a local nursery or garden club, and get to know your space in order to determine what plants will be the best fit for both your garden and your time and abilities as a gardener. You can check out our past blog entries for some information that might help, or reach out to us directly and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
Gardening is for everyone, as we so often say, and there’s a garden that’s right for you and your space. By picking the right size and type of garden for you, you can build a hobby that will reward you for years to come. Let us know what your gardens and garden plans are looking like—Gardzen is all about community and we love to hear from you!
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