Small plot, high yield gardening

General Tips

Rabbit manure is easy to collect and apply; rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

3 rabbits make 3 wheelbarrows of manure per year. 500 sq ft garden - 1 rabbit

Nitrogen is the only plant nutrient that leaches out of the soil bed. In a wet summer, make sure you add compost or manure.

Raised beds help the garden: easier to put in full sun, gives you control of growing medium, easier to work, improves drainage, easier to control grass and weeds, effective defence against crawling insects, slugs, and snails, effective defence against burrowing animals, easy to make fence around garden beds, neat, economical.

Layout rows in east-west axis.

Use members of allium family on perimeter of garden (white onions, yellow onions, shallots, leeks, garlic, garlic chives).

Buy from seeds catalogues

• Use the winter to research. Often get free gifts with orders and not as confusing as being in a busy store.

Plant using a gardeners yardstick.

1’ x 3’ board that is 12’ long. Mark it at 6, 10, and 12 inch intervals.

Use board as a brace and drag a stick in the ground for planting.

Companion Plants

• Satolines and Artemisias are effective companion plants.
• Also Holy Basil, Lavender, lemon balm, lemon thyme, Mexican marigold, mugwort, pennyroyal mint, pyrethrum, scented geranium, southern wood, tansy

Cutting garden

• china asters, cosmos, dahlia, gladioli, cleome, Larkspur, lisianthus, blue salvia, snapdragons, sunflowers, zinnias
• Herbs: dwarf basil, sweet marjoram, greek oregano, parsley, winter savoury, sage, lemon thyme, coriander/cilantro, try variety Delfino.
• Mints tolerate shade.
• Dill try fern leaf and bouquet.
• Leverage, French tarragon
• Salad burnet, lemon verbena

How to Plant for High Yield

• Plant pea seeds in pairs. Helps if one does not germinate. Plant 1” deep at 4-6” intervals. Feed radish tops to the rabbits.
• Brassicas should be put in 18” or 24” apart in a row no closer than 3” to allow for air circulation and prevent pests.
• Carrots - put rows no more than 6” apart.
• Do not seed with radishes - it is a pain to weed out the radishes.
• Beans - need warm soil so wait until the week before last spring frost. Plant rows 15-18” apart no more than 11/2” deep. Plant in pairs. Hill the bean plants when they are 12” high.
• Peppers: Anaheim - green, mildly hot. Start from seedlings. Plant 24” 24” apart. Side dress in 8 weeks. Anchos are red, poblanos are green. Tomatilos no need to stake.
• Green frying peppers are more productive. Totally tomatoes of Randolph, Wisconsin.
• Tomatoes Growers Supply Company of Fort Myers, Florida.
• Pair of 6’1” x 1” redwood stakes side by side 6” from the plant. Force them apart 12” into a y shape. At 3’ from ground level, tack a crossbar about 15” long of the same material.
• Put cucumbers in 1 week after tomatoes. They are more set back by cold.
• Use wire with 4” x 4” mesh. Plant them at 2’ intervals, about 6” from the fence. Cucumbers do poorly if too much wetness.
• Potatoes - 4-6” deep at 12” intervals. Rows 30” apart.
• Use marginal area to plant potatoes and corn, but require a big area. Not good for raised beds.
• Grow comfrey in an out-of-the-way place. Harvest its leaves for use as a catalyst in the composter.
• Jerusalem artichoke - grow 6 to 8’ high and make an excellent windbreak.
• Rhubard 1” deep and 3” apart. Needs compost.
• Cold frame - clear southern exposure to get maximum sun in spring and fall.
• Seed starting: 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 perlite, 1/3 sterile soil.
• Onions and leeks: 1/4 soil, 1/4 peat, 1/4 perlite, 1/4 sand

Bibliographical Information

Sal Gilbertie and Larry Sheehan

ISBN 978-1-58008-037-8