5 Easy Vegetables to Grow in a Tiny Garden This Summer

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Growing your own vegetables is one of the most rewarding things you can do with an outdoor space. There is a magic in picking a salad leaf or a handful of beans that you grew yourself — a connection to the food you eat that no amount of farmers market shopping can replicate. And you need far less space than you think. These 5 vegetables are perfectly suited to small gardens, raised beds, and containers.

1. Salad Leaves

If you only grow one thing in a small space, make it salad leaves. A single container of mixed salad — lettuce, rocket, mustard greens, spinach — can supply fresh salad for two people several times a week throughout spring and summer. Sow little and often (a small pinch of seed every 2-3 weeks) for a continuous supply. Use the “cut and come again” method — harvest just the outer leaves and the plant will regrow. For the complete step-by-step, see how to grow salad leaves in containers for a cut-and-come-again harvest. A window box or any container at least 15cm deep works perfectly.

2. Radishes

Radishes are one of gardening’s great satisfactions — sow them today and you can harvest them in just 3-4 weeks. They are perfect for filling gaps between slower-growing plants, for keeping children interested in gardening, and for producing a quick, rewarding result when you need one. Sow directly into the soil or container where they are to grow and keep them well-watered. Dry conditions cause them to become pithy and too hot to eat.

3. Courgettes (Zucchini)

A single courgette plant will produce far more fruit than most families can eat, making it one of the most productive vegetables you can grow. Plant one or two plants in a sunny spot, water regularly, and harvest the fruits when they are young and small (around 10-15cm long). Leaving them to grow into marrows reduces the plant’s energy and production. The flowers are edible too — stuff them with ricotta and herbs for one of summer’s great culinary treats.

4. Runner Beans

Runner beans are one of the most productive crops you can grow per square foot of ground. A single wigwam of 6-8 plants trained up 2-meter canes will produce kilograms of beans throughout summer from a footprint of just 60cm square. Sow seeds directly into the ground after the last frost, water well to establish, then watch them race up their supports. Pick the beans every 2-3 days at the height of the season — leaving them to mature on the plant quickly reduces production.

5. Herbs

Herbs deserve a special mention in any small-space vegetable garden. They take up almost no space, cost almost nothing to grow, and the difference in flavor between a fresh herb picked seconds before cooking and a dried one from a jar is enormous. The easiest herbs to grow include basil (essential for summer cooking, needs warmth and shelter), chives (incredibly easy, perennial, and useful in so many dishes), mint (plant in its own pot to prevent spreading), parsley (slow to germinate but very productive), and thyme and rosemary (Mediterranean herbs that thrive in poor dry soil and are near indestructible).

A single terracotta pot planted with three or four herbs on a kitchen windowsill is one of the most practical and beautiful things you can do in a small space.

Getting Started: The Simplest Approach

If you are new to growing your own, start with just one container and one crop this year. A large pot of salad leaves on a sunny doorstep requires almost no setup, costs almost nothing, and will give you fresh salad every week for months. Once you experience that first harvest, you will want to grow more. And that is how it always starts.