How to Start a Small-Space Garden

Everybody love to have a small vegetable garden of their own, but most of us do not have enough space for gardening at home.

In this instructable we will see how we can grow vegetables and other plants in whatever space available in containers organically.

Initially start with few containers and then you can expand once you become expert. Let us start with about 10 containers, for which you need the following items

• 10 pieces of UV treated Poly bags : These bags are very strong poly bags and can withstand any climate like sun and rain. They are specially made for gardening and can last for four to five years. You can just expand open up the bags and press the bottom to form a square shape. The size of poly bags I have here are 20 cm x 20 cm x 30 cm
• 5 Kilograms of Cocopeat : They are treated organic waste from coconut fibre and are available in compressed blocks. You just take out a small piece and put it in water. It will absorb lot of water and expand to about 10 times in size. They do not have any nutrients and minerals rewired by plants to grow but helps in keeping moisture in containers and prevent the soil from getting compacted inside containers. We will use 500 grams of cocopeat in each bag
• 5 Kilograms of Vermicompost : Compost made with earth worms. They will provide all nutrients and minerals required by the plants to grow. We will mix 500 grams of vermicompost in each bag
• Seeds : Seeds of different kind of vegetables like Brinjal, Ladies finger, Cabbage, Cauliflower etcetera.

There is no need to search for these items in the market. They are available in most of the online stores and you can order them as per your requirement

• In addition you also require soil for gardening which you can collect locally

In the following steps we will see how we have prepare these items and mix together for one Poly bag

• Break the compressed block and take out about 500 grams. Here I have weighed 250 grams twice in a small weighing scale
• Place the cocopeat in a bucket and add about 3 to 4 litres of water. Cocopeat will absorb water and expand inside the bucket

• Dig out and collect soil from garden or from near by areas where it is allowed. You need a small bucket of soil (about half a cu.ft) for each bag

• Place the soil in a pan or tray wide enough for mixing
• Weigh 500 grams of vermicompost and add with soil and mix
• Add a handful of soaked cocopeat to the pan and mix well. Keep the rest of the cocopeat in the bucket

• Open up the poly bag, press and fold it inside to form the square shape
• First fill the bottom of poly bag with soaked cocopeat
• Then fill the bag with soil mix to about 3/4th height of the bag

• Now you can sow seeds of your favourite vegetables in the bags.
• Here in this bag, I have planted ladies finger seeds

• I have filled all the ten bags with cocopeat, soil and vermicompost. I have also sowed other vegetable seeds like Brinjal, Chilli, Radish and few others in other poly bags
• Shifted all the poly bags to the terrace and placed them where they will get enough sunlight.

You can place each bag in any place you find on your home, like window sill or balcony. Place the bags on a tray or plate to collect seeping water from the bags. Water regularly. The seeds will germinate with in a week as seen in last two pictures

Once the plants are grown, you can collect your own organic vegetables regularly