Growing Your Own Food: Planning a Tabletop Garden

by Mandi on March 31, 2011

growing your own food

my tabletop garden

This is the year.

I am determined to grow at least a small portion of our produce this summer. I’ve tried and failed several years in a row for one reason or another, but this is the year. I can feel it.

To make it happen, I’ve recruited Mike Lieberman from Urban Organic Gardener to be my go-to guy for all things gardening. Having someone to answer my questions along the way will definitely help, as proven by his first piece of advice:

Start small.

You see, every time I start dreaming about planting a garden, the same thing happens. First, I think about the delicious tomatoes that I’ll be able to pick from my own backyard. Then I start thinking about how expensive cucumbers are these day and I add them to my list. Next comes winter squash. Strawberries. Zucchini. Summer squash. Carrots. Green beans. Peas. Canteloupe. And…

Well, you get the picture.

Mike convinced me that starting small and doing it well is much more valuable than starting big and failing, and I’ve decided to take his advice.

growing your own food

my tabletop garden

My husband built a 4×2 tabletop garden for me following Frugal Dad’s plans, and we’ll divide it into eight 1×1 foot squares once it’s filled. I’m going to use the soil mix recommended by Mel Bartholomew — the creator of the square-foot gardening method — which is 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite and 1/3 compost.

In those squares, I plan to plant:

  • roma tomatoes
  • grape tomatoes
  • strawberries (x2)
  • winter squash
  • zucchini
  • cucumber
  • marigolds
    **because I have an extra square and they help keep pests away

I’ve also decided to just purchase starter plants this time. Although I really, really enjoy the process of starting plants from seeds, I want to be realistic, and I think skipping that step may be better for us this time.

Mike offers tons of information about starting with seeds at his blog, though, so if you’re ready for that step,  be sure to read through his how-to guides!

Each week, I’ll share our progress — including challenges and successes — here on Green Your Way, and I hope it will inspire some of you to take the plunge and grow some of your own food as well.

If you have any questions, I’m sure Mike would be happy to answer them, so be sure to leave those in the comments and I’ll pass them along to him!

Do you have a garden? If so, how did you get started? If not, is it something you’ve thought about doing?


  • shris

    Hm.

    As a semi experienced back yard gardener, I can tell you you’re not leaving enough room between plants if you put cucumber and zucchini and tomatoes in a 1×1 square each..

    Cucumbers in my garden two years ago…each plant spread out with six foot long tendrils trying to root.
    Tomatoes in cages were 3 feet in diameter–even the grape tomatoes–sometimes four feet..
    Zucchini have individual *leaves* that are more than 1×1..and they spread to about four feet across or more when full grown..
    Strawberries can spread too, if you let them. And winter squash get even bigger than summer squash plants, I think.

    Maybe I’m not training my plants properly, but I’m thinking you’re going to need to transplant your stuff farther apart after a month or two so they’ll all get sun and you’ll be able to see your produce to pick it.. :)

    Gotta plan for the fully grown size of your plants if you’re going to have good success.. I haven’t read the book about square foot gardening, is there a way to keep a big plant from getting big? Or are you supposed to let them trail over the side?

    • Josh

      I came here to say the same thing. 1×1 is not enough for vined plants, and you have 5(!!) different ones. When I put 4 tomato plants in my full in-the-ground garden, they dominated the entire garden. The vined plants will overrun everything else. If you cage or tie up your tomatoes (like you should), there’s a good chance it’ll drown out the sun to the other plants, and planting strawberries close to other fruits is usually a bad idea.

      • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

        Thanks for your input; I guess I have more reading to do. But I know
        for sure that people grow these plants in a square foot garden, and
        even when I did a quick Google search for square foot planting charts,
        it says things like 1 tomato plant per square, 2 cucumbers per square.
        So I’m not sure if maybe the space requirements are different Ina
        square foot gardening?

        I’ll definitely be looking into it more!

        • http://mommysmiddleground.blogspot.com Jessie

          You can probably do it if you plan carefully. Put the zuccini, winter squash, and cucumber at the edge so it can overhang. Maybe put a few tomato cages in the ground for them to trail down onto and to support the fruit. Put the tomatoes at the back where they can use the house for support and they won’t shade the smaller plants as much. Make sure to stake the tomatoes really well to keep them as upright as you can so they don’t overhang the other plants too much. You don’t have to plant them exactly in the middle of the 1′ square, plant them toward the back edge, the roots will spread where they need to go. Strawberries and marigolds are pretty small, so you can allot 6″ there and use the extra space for spread from the other veggies.

          • http://wanderluck.wordpress.com/ Kate

            Careful planning is always your friend in intensive and square foot gardening! Grouping your vined veggies together on a trellis – why not build a ladder support of 2×4′s and 1×8′s, or heavy twine on one of the long sides for a climbing wall? – could minimize shading of your shorter plants and a hostile takeover of the bed. I’d also like to suggest dwarf varieties that may further minimize vine and leaf spread.

            We’ll be doing intensive gardening on a larger scale this year – we have a 50×25′ plot mapped out, and I’ve been given the “go-ahead” to do it my way. I’m planning a combination of methods to make small beds-within-a-bed so we can reach the beds and the plants without climbing over tomatoes or bush beans. Am already looking forward to lasagna gardening for 2012!

          • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

            Thanks, Kate & Jessie — I really liked both of your suggestions and will keep those in mind as I try to figure out the best way to do this!!

          • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

            And Kate, your garden sounds AMAZING!

          • http://profiles.google.com/adriggers April Driggers

            I would LOVE to be able to do this… since we just had our last frost (I HOPE) perhaps we can add this to the to do list for an upcomign weekend when we don’t have any baseball games. We tried a garden (and growing the seeds on our own) a couple of years ago but the only “plot” we had was the side of the house and well, since THAT side doesn’t have gutters on it..when the rain came, it moved half of the stuff and so we didn’t know WHAT was growing WHERE. That and being on the side of the house, it didn’t get nearly the amount of sun it needed.

            I’d like to do this and add some kind of trellis to ONE side of our fence so that the viney plants can take over but my husband would probably have a cow with the thought of somethign shady destroying the grass beneath it. I’m like… we don’t walk onTHAT part of the grass ANYWAY! Maybe I’ll have my mom come over and help me do this and then he’ll just have to accept it! Ha!!!

            Thanks for the inspiration!!!

          • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

            Any luck convincing your husband, April?!

  • http://www.UrbanOrganicGardener.com Mike Lieberman

    Nice. Great job in getting started Mandi. You’ll figure things out as you go along. Keep good notes (which you are doing by blogging about it) and see what works.

    What I’ve learned is that there is no “right” way. Do and learn from your own experience. If some plants don’t make it or you pack in too much, you learned a valuable lesson there that you can use moving forward.

    Look forward to reading about your progress.

    • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

      Thanks, Mike! I think the “no right way” is the part that’s hard for me. I like exact instructions with no gray area, but gardening seems to be a lot like cooking, where each person develops their own style and personality!

      • http://www.UrbanOrganicGardener.com Mike Lieberman

        It certainly is the challenge. With all the books and advice that you are going to receive from various sources, there is lots of differing viewpoints and methods. That unto itself is overwhelming, which is why I believe that you should just do and figure it out as you go.

        When I first started, I was looking for the perfect scenario too. I spent 3 weeks doing nothing, but researching and chasing my tail. I was getting nowhere. Once I started, some of that anxiousness subsided, I killed a few plants and haven’t turned back.

        You got this!

      • http://www.UrbanOrganicGardener.com Mike Lieberman

        It certainly is the challenge. With all the books and advice that you are going to receive from various sources, there is lots of differing viewpoints and methods. That unto itself is overwhelming, which is why I believe that you should just do and figure it out as you go.

        When I first started, I was looking for the perfect scenario too. I spent 3 weeks doing nothing, but researching and chasing my tail. I was getting nowhere. Once I started, some of that anxiousness subsided, I killed a few plants and haven’t turned back.

        You got this!

  • Jewel7138

    This is great!! I have a condo with a small porch and right now my tomatoes are in planter which worked and they are still alive, but would love to do the method that you are doing so I can get more going. I have been looking for suggestions and tips and I think your post did just that. Thanks!!

  • Jewel7138

    Question-When planting the items you had listed did you place your plants in specific spots based on growing size or just whichever plant you grabbed that’s where you put them?

    • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

      Hey Jewel! I have not planted anything yet; however, I am planning to look at the growing needs of each of those to map out where I plant them!

  • Crttnchrist

    Can I ask a question? Are you getting non-GMO plants? If so, where? ….that’s one reason that I wanted to get seeds this year was to avoid GMO plants/seeds.

    • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

      I’m not specifically focusing on non-GMO plants at this time. I’m taking baby steps as we make changes, and that’s still down the road for me.

  • Anonymous

    This is an awesome idea! I have heard of container gardening and raised beds, but this looks doable for most people who would like to garden but don’t have space. I have a brown thumb and have never had much luck (not really tried!). I did finally buy a basil and parsley plant, so nice to use fresh off the plant when cooking!
    I may have to look into at least planting one or two tomato plants, we eat lots of tomatoes!
    I will be sharing this post as it is a great idea!
    Bernice
    Getting more work done in less time

    • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

      Oh, fresh herbs — that’s on my someday list too!

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  • Amy

    That looks like the size of my strawberry patch itself!

    • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

      I had a huge strawberry patch two years ago, but I couldn’t keep up with it.
      So I’m starting small this time instead!

    • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

      I had a huge strawberry patch two years ago, but I couldn’t keep up with it.
      So I’m starting small this time instead!

  • http://twitter.com/AmyLNorton Amy L Norton

    I sure wish Sean would come make some of those for me! LOL! Looks good, Mandi. As a fellow gardening fail over here, I am also feeling *this* is the year :)

    • http://yourway.net Mandi @ Life Your Way

      Here’s hoping for both of us!

  • Michelle

    I really like your tabletop garden and may try to convince my husband to build one :) My mom normally does a big garden and I also love shopping at the farmers market so I haven’t tried one at my home yet although I think it would be great. Best of luck and I’m looking forward to hearing about your progress!

  • Michelle

    I really like your tabletop garden and may try to convince my husband to build one :) My mom normally does a big garden and I also love shopping at the farmers market so I haven’t tried one at my home yet although I think it would be great. Best of luck and I’m looking forward to hearing about your progress!

  • Annette

    I love mike leiberman’s site! Been following him for a while. We are doing our first garden this year. Good luck.

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