Leveraging Your Space Efficiently

After determining if a plant will grow and thrive in your climate, you’ll need to assess whether or not you can devote the square footage to it that it needs to thrive. Certain vining crops can take over your entire backyard if you let them, snuffing out everything else in their wake. Luffa gourd vines can grow up to 30’ (9m) long, making them extremely difficult to manage in small spaces. For this reason, I do not grow pumpkin or vining squash like butternut in my small urban backyard. The space/yield ratio is just not favorable. Although they can be grown vertically (refer to Chapter 5), I would rather grow high-yield crops that do not take up a large footprint in my small backyard. However, I will certainly grow pumpkins and squash at my allotment plot or on larger pieces of land to which I have access from year to year.