The Best Edible Plants for Small Spaces

As a child I was introduced to horticulture in our family garden. Little did I know how much of an impact this activity would make on my life. Many mornings and afternoons were spent in the garden amongst the heady scent of compost and soil, with dirty knees and fingernails encased in soil, sweaty brows, drinking our well water straight from the hose. To me there is still no better feeling than picking a sun warmed, ripe tomato, going inside the kitchen, cutting it open, drizzling olive oil, and sprinkling salt and pepper on it. Just smelling landscapers putting mulch or compost down brings me right back to my childhood garden, even though I’ve done plenty of mulching myself since that time.

The Magic of Nostalgia

My childhood home was directly against a hiking path, and we would trek up the mountain, each step making my family more giddy in anticipation what was to come: amongst the sassafras and oak trees, we could pick wild blueberries, wineberries, and blackberries straight from the bushes. Not many made it back to the house, or into our berry picking baskets. We had to be sure to get there early in the season, before the black bears got to them! The bears never bothered us though, as we were loud enough for them to hear us from far away and keep their distance.

Over the years, I’ve been fortunate enough to get to experiment with many different options for growing edible plants: hydroponic towers, container gardening, raised beds, and your standard garden plot. A lot of people do have very strong opinions about each of these, but I’ve come to the conclusion that while your preference for one of these methods may be stronger than the others, you must agree that there is still no better way to get your food than fresh, and knowing exactly how it was grown.

In this current season of our lives, my own family and I have traded a yard in for a balcony: a balcony that is the perfect amount of space for what we need to grow now to keep fresh produce on the table. We have two tomato plants – a cherry tomato and a slicing tomato - and two pepper plants – one spicy and one sweet-, along with plenty of herbs (chives, dill, mint, thyme, and both Italian and Thai basil), and flowers galore... all on our small balcony. As a mother it feels wonderful to be able to grow food for our family from our balcony, and we have turned what was the blank, empty canvas of our balcony into our relaxing outdoor oasis.

Any person who begins a garden by sowing the seed, and then waters and tends to the plot, is a person who is then able to nourish their bodies with fresh fruit. When this happens with a child, it creates a child who values hard work, nature, and being outdoors in wild spaces.

Help your children and other family members learn this important life skill with my plant recommendations for small space edible gardening below.

Adding to Your Space

Do not be deterred from having a garden if you have a small space. Too many people think they can’t have a garden without a large plot of land. Even if you have a small space, you can absolutely still have an edible garden that yields great results. Do you have such a space where you are wanting to grow edible plants, but aren’t sure what kinds of plants will work?

Without further ado, here are some plant options that you can grow, with full confidence that they will thrive:

1. Small but Mighty: You can plant intentionally smaller trees like this Dwarf Peach. Do you enjoy peach based desserts? Then this dwarf peach tree is exactly what you want to grow in your small space. As it is a dwarf tree, most people find that the taste of the fruits from this peach are better suited for processing into jams or preserves, or fresh pies, instead of eating them fresh off the tree. Fresh preserves on buttered toast or biscuits – yum! Just get your fresh eating peaches from a local farmers market or farmstand.

2. Endless Herbs: Set up an herb garden. It is always disappointing to open a sealed pack of herbs just to find that they have already turned brown, or worse – began to mold. Having an herb garden is truly an easy thing to do that will require little maintenance from you; just be sure that you give it water routinely. Growing an herb garden can be done in the smallest of spaces: all you need is a windowsill to grow your fresh herbs. So, if you do not have space for larger container plants, this is still a great idea to still enjoy gardening and freshly cut herbs. You can use your cultivated herbs for nearly all your meals: chives with scrambled eggs, parsley for tabbouleh, mint for a refreshing cup of tea, and tarragon or thyme for chicken or fish dishes. Plant your herb garden in terracotta, plastic pots, or metal pots -- but just be sure that whatever vessel you choose for your new garden has enough adequate drainage holes and a layer of rocks at the bottom to avoid the problems that come with waterlogged soil. You will not want your herb roots to rot.

3. Grape Lovers Unite: Do you have room for a trellis on your garden pathway? This is the perfect space to grow a grape vine! These grapes will give you beautiful, dark purple grapes that you can pick and eat straight off the vine. With its large green leaves, this vine will add great beauty to your garden. The leaves can be used to make some delicious dolmas, too.

4. Go Horizontal: Your wall is the perfect location to grow an espaliered fruit tree. You can grow apples, pears, apricots, or peaches with this method. Look into the horizontal cordon method – an excellent way to use non dwarf fruit tree varieties to produce fresh fruit for your family.

5. “Berry” Delicious: All you need is a small space to grow the very delicious mulberry. Prune back this tree in order to keep them short and manageable, and to pick the fruit easily. The fruits are not very shelf stable, making them hard to ship, and best enjoyed quickly once picked from the tree. Be sure to cut the tree back in a timely manner, or it will quickly grow and become hard to harvest the fruits.

Small Space Edible Gardening

Every person should take the time to learn how to grow their own food at some point in their life. It is incredibly a rewarding process, with visual (and delicious) results. And it can be done in truly any space no matter how small, from a windowsill to a balcony, to a small backyard garden plot, to a large farm.

Try out growing these edible plants and let us know how your small space -- and eating habits – have been transformed! Follow us and tag us in our social media.