Best Way to Plan a Mini Vegetable Plot in Your Small Garden

In a small garden, you will not have room for a conventional vegetable plot. Instead, you could have a mini-vegetable plot full of baby vegetables. Baby vegetables are often preferred for their appearance and tenderness, and if you buy them from a supermarket, they are more expensive than normal-sized vegetables.

You will be surprised at how much you can fit into a mini-vegetable plot: rows of root vegetables are just 15cm apart, and leafy crops such as cabbages, cauliflowers and lettuces are just 15cm apart each way.

Baby vegetables can be grown in the following three ways:

• Grow conventional varieties, but pick them while they are young This works for root crops such as beetroot, carrots (use an early variety), kohl rabi, leeks, parsnips and turnips.
• Grow dwarf varieties, for example of cabbages and lettuces, which will not grow larger even if allowed more space.
• Grow vegetables at closer spacings than normal. This technique was first developed for producing baby cauliflowers, but it works well with calabrese and all types of cabbages, too.

Although these techniques will work with most varieties, it is worth looking for varieties sold specifically for mini-vegetable production. Often, a combination of all three techniques works best: start with a suitable variety, grow it at a close spacing, and harvest when young and tender.

Other vegetables, such as courgettes and dwarf French beans, are picked small and sold as baby vegetables, but the plants take up as much space as conventional varieties. Cucumbers with naturally small fruit and cherry tomatoes also grow on normal-sized plants.

To make your mini-vegetable bed neater, consider edging it with boards. This will raise it above the surrounding garden, and enable you to improve the soil by adding organic matter and cut down on watering.

Best for baby vegetables

• Beetroot
• Cabbage
• Calabrese
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Kohl rabi
• Leeks
• Lettuce
• Onions
• Parsnips
• Turnips