Guest Post by Aaron Turpen of  AaronsEnvironmental.com

If you’re cramped for space and don’t have a lot of room for gardening or planting, you probably think you’ll be consigned to grocery store shopping forever.  That’s not true, though, as there are a lot of garden veggies that you can easily grow, even in a cramped space.

Your first step is to decide what you want to grow and then choose appropriate containers and space to grow them in.  For this little list of popular veggies, I’ve narrowed it to the easiest to grow and care for as well as those that are very space-conscious and won’t require a ton of room.

Before you begin planting, though, you might consider sprouting as your first step.  Sprouting is easy, fun, and extremely economical and is a good first introduction to gardening.  I’ve written an Instructable that will help you: http://www.instructables.com/id/Easy-Sprouting-For-Healthy-Eating-and-Fun/

Now on to the standard vegetables.  The most common gardening choices for home-grown vegetables are tomatoes, salad greens, zucchini, cucumbers, peas, snap beans, squash, and asparagus.  Generally in that order.

For indoor growing, almost all of these will do well, though the yield of some of these crops is lower (per plant) than others, which is a consideration if you’re hoping to maximize your small or indoor garden’s output.

For higher yield, in terms of dollars and pounds, tomatoes probably top the list with salad greens, peas and beans, and asparagus coming in next.  The larger fruits like the squashes, cukes, and so forth will usually only yield one or two edibles per plant, but that doesn’t mean they’re any less useful.  Just be aware that if you’re indoor gardening with limited space, you probably will want to minimize your use of these plants in favor of others.

You’ll need containers for those plants too.  Luckily, I have an Instructable for making your own, which could save you a considerable amount of money.  There’s nothing wrong with going to buy containers at the garden store, of course, but if you’re on a budget, your money is better spent on good soil and seeds.  So you can make your own if you’d like: http://www.instructables.com/id/Making-Your-Own-Home-Garden-Containers-From-Plasti/

Tomatoes
Growing tomatoes is the most popular small gardening endeavor.  They are surprisingly easy to care for, so long as you begin with healthy stock.  For home gardening, I recommend traditional (aka “heritage”) types.  These usually have a relatively large yield and are generally rot-resistant.

Hybrid styles like the “Beefsteak” and Big Berthas are very high-yielding plants made up of two heritage strains mixed.  Cherry tomatoe choices abound as well and are also very productive.

For a tomato plant, you need a container that sits very stably, but it doesn’t need to be overly large.  6-8 inches in diameter and about a foot deep will suffice, but you will need very good soil.  I recommend potting soil or high-nutrient seed-starting soil for tomatoes.

While tomatoes can start from seed, they are usually purchased as small greenhouse-grown plants ready to transplant.  For a first-timer, I’d recommend going with these instead of seeds.

Salad Greens (Lettuces)
If you plan to grow salad greens in your small kitchen garden, I’d recommend you go with red-leaf lettuce and spinach.  Most loose-leaf varieties of lettuce are good too, but I prefer red leaf for its great taste and because, like spinach, you can take cuttings from it at an early age and eat off the plant for almost the whole growing season.

These will start as seeds.  Pick a small container of about 4-5 inches in diameter and about that tall.  Plant 2-3 seeds per container and, when they sprout through the soil, choose the strongest-looking of them and pull (cull) the other two.

The soil doesn’t need to be particularly nutrient-rich, just balanced, so any good garden soil will be fine.  After about a month, you’ll be able to begin cutting off the lower leaves of your plants to eat them.  Nothing beats “baby spinach!”

Beans and Peas
Much like lettuce, these plants are easy to grow and will be started from seeds.  Start in the same way as above, but choose a slightly sturdier container.  These plants will need something to “crawl” on as well.  A trellis, sticks, chicken wire, etc. will work fine.  When the plants reach about 2-3 inches in height, install your trellis or move the plant over to it so they can begin attaching themselves to the support.

Unlike lettuce, also, you won’t be able to harvest these until they’re done.  Most strains have a great yield, though, so expect an abundance from each plant.

Asparagus
This you will buy as a cutting, but you’ll only need to do this once.  Asparagus is one of my favorites and is a year-round plant, so if you grow it indoors, you can literally take cuttings several times a year.  Your container should be 6-8 inches in diameter and at least that deep.

Your real concern here is soil.  Like tomatoes, use the richest you can get.  The better the soil, the less effort it will take over the years to keep the plants doing well.  As soon as the “buds” appear at the tops of the plants, you can think about taking cuttings.  I wait until the stalks are about as thick around as my pinkie finger and don’t take more than 2/3 of them at any time.

With indoor growing, under good conditions, these little plants will put out 3-4 cuttings of about 2 servings each.  With good soil and light conditions, they’ll do even more.

Gourds, Cukes, Etc.
With these, you’ll need very sturdy containers with plenty of room.  Plant the seeds, cull (as above), but keep them off-of-center in the pot.  When the fruit appears and gets heavy enough to lay on the ground, gently move it towards the center of the pot to level out the weight in the container.

Good soil is a must for most of these plants, but premium soil isn’t required.  They’re very easy to care for.

Hopefully, this little guide has given you an idea of how easily growing indoors can be.  Even if you can only do a couple of tomato plants or a few salad greens, you’ll greatly improve your diet by doing so.

Good luck and have fun!

Note from kelly (admin):   As I make no secret that I am against GMO foods, diseases, etc I feel it a necessity to buy untainted seeds and plant and cook my own food at home.  With a lot of lettuce and vege, cooking is not even needed.   Aaron is not only someone I came to admire and respect, to me he’s an authority in conservation of environment, a gardening expert, and he is also a Director of an Animal Rescue (and a good family man).    [ Conservation protects animals and the foods you eat, and protects your health.  ]

Please feel free to ask Aaron anything concerning this info-packed article.  No question is too difficult for him and he always respond!

Aaron’s also written the Roundup Challenge Update.   So check it out if you have not!