Having a small garden doesn’t have to mean small harvests. In fact, small, well managed and tended gardens are often more productive than their larger, occasionally neglected counterparts. Using a few basic principles, you can grow sizable harvests from a small plot or even a few raised beds. 

Focus on Soil Health

Good production begins with good soil. If you want big harvests, work to build soil that’s fertile, rich in organic matter, and well-draining. One of the fastest ways to accomplish this is by bringing in finished compost. While compost can be pricey, it may be worth the initial investment. 

Top dress existing beds with a couple of inches of finished compost or use it to create new beds. You can fill raised beds or use the popular no-dig method. Lay a thick layer of cardboard onto the sod and then cover the cardboard with a thick layer of compost. 

There are also several ways to build good soil over time. These include making compost at home, growing cover crops, using mulch, and amending your soil as needed. Here are a few guides to help you build healthy soil:

• Getting a Soil Test
• Understanding Your Soil Test
• Make Your Own Compost
• Spring Cover Crops
• Winter Cover Crops
• Beginner’s Guide to No-Dig Gardening

Grow Vertically in Your Small Garden

Vining plants like cucumbers, winter squash, pole beans, Malabar spinach, and tomatoes are all high yielding crops, but when left to their own devices, they sprawl throughout the garden, taking up valuable real estate. Keeping these crops properly trellised saves space and makes them easier to tend and harvest. 

There are several options for trellising plants. We love making cattle panel tunnels for pole beans. They’re easy to harvest from and a lot of fun, too. You can also use panels or fencing in a traditional layout. 

A method called the Florida weave, which uses twine and fence posts, is an ideal, economical option for keeping rows of tomatoes tidy. 

If you’re working with heavy crops like winter squash and melons, you’ll need to make a sturdy trellis. Those from large fence posts or A-frame style trellises are good choices. The fruit may need extra support. You can tie old fabric or pantyhose to the trellis beneath the fruit as a sort of makeshift hammock to take some of its weight. 

• Vertical Gardening: The Beginner’s Guide to Trellising Plants
• How to Build a Bean Tunnel

Succession Plant

If you want to maximize productivity, you need to keep planting. Few crops are productive for the whole growing season. 

In spring, we love to plan and pair a cool weather crop with a warm weather one. For example, we’ll plant snap peas on a trellis in early spring. After the chance of frost has passed, we sow Malabar spinach beneath the peas. As the peas finish up for the season, the heat-loving spinach begins to climb. 

In summer, we continue successions of quick growing crops. Bush snap beans, sweet corn, and summer squash mature fairly quickly are great for planting in small batches every few weeks to get a longer harvest period. 

In late summer and fall, we sneak in the final rounds of those summer crops and then sow more of the cool season crops for late fall and winter harvest. Some good options for fall include beets, carrots, lettuce, collards, rutabagas, and turnips. 

Tips for succession planting from expert Pam Dawling (author of Sustainable Market Farming):

• Summer Succession Crop Planting: Avoid Gluts & Shortages
• Last Chance Sowings
• SESE Candy Carrots & Sweet Roots

Use Season Extension in Your Small Garden

Using the shoulder seasons of spring and fall can significantly increase your production, especially in the Southeast where summer temperatures are often too high for cool season crops to thrive. 

Use succession planting to start plants early and late. To make the most of these cooler periods, have season extension ready to go.

Cold frames, indoor seed starting set ups, low tunnels, and high tunnels can help you start transplants and cool season crops earlier. Use your season extension to harden off transplants or sow cool weather crops like lettuce, which can you can harvest before replacing them with summer crops like tomatoes. 

Low tunnels and shade cloth can also allow you to keep spring, cool season crops thriving further into summer. These help keep the soil cool and provide a bit of relief for sensitive crops like spinach, lettuce, and spring radishes which will bolt or get woody when the temperatures rise.

Row cover or even old sheets can help you keep summer crops like tomatoes safe from early light frosts for a little longer. You can also sow additional cool season crops in low tunnels, high tunnels, or cold frames in the late summer or early fall to harvest through the winter. 

Keep Detailed Records

Keeping a detailed garden record can allow you to catch patterns in your garden over time, narrow down the most high yielding varieties, and prevent future mistakes. 

Many gardeners still enjoy using a physical journal for record keeping, but you could also use a spreadsheet or gardening app.

Note important events, harvests, and problems. Some things to track include:

• First and last frost dates
• Pest and disease issues
• Selected varieties
• Planting dates
• Harvest dates
• Harvest quantities

Make the most of your small space with these five gardening tips. Happy gardening!

We test all our seeds for germination rates before they’re scooped into packets and sent to fill spring gardens across the United States. Some native flowers and herbs can be finicky, but germination rates are higher than 80% or even better for most vegetable crops. However, there are many factors that can affect how well seeds germinate in potting trays or in the garden. Conditions like temperature, moisture, and light can all affect the speed or rate at which your seeds germinate. 

Especially for new gardeners, these factors can be tricky to control. That’s why we’ve put together a few simple tips to improve and speed up your germination:

Pre-soak seeds for better germination.

Pre-soaking seeds can give seeds a head start by softening the seed coat and allowing the seed to absorb moisture. 

This can be helpful for many large-seed crops, giving them a head start on germination. However, you can overdo it. Generally, we soak seeds from 2 to 12 hours. Smaller seeds like tomatoes and peppers are on the lower end with large, hard seeds like nasturtiums on the high end. 

Crops that benefit from soaking:

• English Peas
• Snow/Snap Peas
• Sweet Peas
• Beets
• Tomatoes
• Winter Squash
• Morning Glories
• Beans
• Pumpkins
• Corn
• Swiss Chard
• Nasturtiums

Avoid soaking most of the small-seeded crops like lettuce, carrots, radishes, arugula, celery, cress, mustard, and spinach. If you’re in doubt, look into a specific crop’s requirements before soaking. 

Read all the specific crop instructions.

Most vegetable crops are fairly straightforward to sow. Seeds like beans, sweet corn, and tomatoes can all be pushed into moist soil at a depth about twice the diameter of the seed. Kept moist and warm, they’ll germinate fairly quickly.

Unfortunately, not all seeds are so forgiving. In the growing instructions, you’ll notice that our Old Fashioned Vining and Balcony Petunias require light to germinate. Growers will need to press them into the surface of the soil and be vigilant about keeping them moist.

If you glance at any of the echinacea’s directions, you’ll find they require cold stratification. This period of cold, moist conditions coming and going signals to the seeds that winter has come and gone and it’s time to break germination. 

A few plants even benefit from scarification or physical damage to the seed coat. Growers can nick the seed’s outer surface with a nail file, sharp knife, or sandpaper.  

Carefully reading instructions for these finicky varieties can save you a whole lot of time and heartache. 

Fun fact: some plant seeds even benefit from fire or smoke. These species, like the Ponderosa Pine, evolved in places where fire was a natural part of the ecosystem. 

Ensure the seeds have good contact with the soil.

Seeds that don’t have good contact with the soil will often dry out or fail to root. When planting seeds indoors, firmly press seed mixing trays or containers. If your seeds need light, press them firmly into the soil.

When direct sowing, firmly press the soil over your seeds. Rake in broadcasted seeds to help ensure they get good contact. 

Keep the soil at the right temperature.

Soil temperature is critical in seed starting, that’s why you’ll find temperature requirements right under the variety description here on the website or in our growing guides. 

Some seeds like tomatoes, peppers, sweet corn, eggplants, and summer squash all need warm soil temperature to germinate and thrive. Soil that’s too cool can slow germination. In outdoor plantings like with seed corn, the seed may even rot before it germinates if the soil is too cold. 

When planting these warmth-loving seeds indoors, we recommend keeping them in a warm spot, like near a wood stove or heater, while they germinate. Heat mats are also incredibly helpful though they can be pricey. 

Other seeds do well with relatively cool soil. These include cabbage, broccoli, snap peas, English peas, spinach, and lettuce. They often germinate well indoors and during the spring. Direct sowing them in the middle of summer for a fall crop can be problematic. While the temperatures are high, we use row cover to shade and cool the soil or move to indoor sowing. In hot weather, setting flats into the fridge for a couple days after sowing can jump-start germination. 

Keep the soil consistently moist for good germination.

Moisture plays a key role in germination. While plants can handle drying out occasionally even as seedlings, germinating seeds cannot. Always keep the soil evenly moist but not soggy and avoid letting it dry out. Setting a timer can be a helpful reminder.

Containers with proper drainage holes are essential to about over watering. Some growers find that humidity domes over their seed trays helpful. These clear plastic domes hold in moisture and warm air. 

Need more seed starting advice? Read our full guide to starting seeds indoors.

Perennial crops come with many benefits. For starters, you only need to plant these crops once, then enjoy the benefits for years to come. They also are among the earliest crops that you’ll harvest each spring. Their well-developed root system gives them a head start as the weather warms. Last, those roots may also make them particularly resilient to erosion, drought, and extreme weather. Unfortunately, many perennials can be pricey. That’s why we’ve put together a list of perennials you can easily start from seeds and bulbs.

What is a Perennial Crop?

Perennial crops or perennials are those that grow year after year. They include large, woody crops like peach trees and small herbaceous plants, like strawberries or thyme. Some die back in the fall and return each spring, while others are present year-round.

Perennials differ from annuals, which must be planted each year, and biennials which have a two-year life cycle.

However, many crops are perennial in their native area. For example, Thai Red Roselle is a frost-tender perennial. It will survive for many years in areas that don’t receive frost, usually zone 9 and warmer. 

There are also perennials that require a cold period to grow well and set blooms. The cold period during winter signals them it’s time to grow and produce another year. These include some hardy ornamentals like hostas and peonies. 

For this article, we’re going to focus on perennials that you can start from seeds or bulbs. Unlike trees and shrubs, perennials started from seed are affordable. 

Perennial Crops

There are a surprising number of perennials you can grow from seed. Below, you will find them organized by category, including vegetables, fruit, culinary herbs, medicinal herbs, and flowers. You will also find the USDA hardiness zones listed next to each crop.

Hardiness zones may vary with climate. Hardiness zones only take winter temperatures into account and elements like wind, snow, and rainfall also contribute to plant success. 

Certain cultivars may also have different requirements. For example, most rosemary is only hardy to zone 8 through 11. However, there are a couple cold hardy varieties that will grow in zone 7 and some gardeners even report success with them in 6b. Do you your reading before selecting a variety. 

Perennial Vegetables

Unless you live in the tropics, perennial vegetables usually fall into two basic categories: cold hardy greens or members of the onion family. Asparagus is one of the tasty exceptions, its sweet shoots offer one of the earliest harvests of the season. 

• Salad Burnet (4-8)
• Garden Sorrel (3-8)
• Asparagus (3-8)
• Egyptian Walking Onions (3-10)
• Bunching Onions (3-9)
• Potato Onions (3-9)
• Shallots (2-10)

To shop varieties of shallots, walking onions, and potato onions visit our perennial onion page.

Perennial Fruit

There are many perennial fruit crops, but few grow reliably from seed. While you can plant an apple seed or a peach pit, your new tree may not produce a similar tasting fruit. Growing these crops from seed is also time consuming. They take many years to mature. 

However, there is one “fruit” that’s easy to grow from seed. While not technically a fruit, people usually treat rhubarb as one, featuring it in crisps and sweet spring dishes. 

• Rhubarb (3-8)

If you’re on a mission to add more fruit to your garden, look around for neighbors and garden clubs selling or trading strawberry, raspberry, or blackberry starts. These are all easy to grow from the runners or shoots the plants put out and are another affordable way to expand your collection of perennials. 

Perennial Culinary Herbs

Perennial herbs provide incredible, fresh flavor to dishes year after year. Some of these double as medicinal herbs and also make excellent teas, tinctures, and lozenges. 

• Anise Hyssop (3-8)
• Chives (3-9)
• Garlic Chives (3-9)
• Fennel (6-10)
• French Tarragon (4-9)
• Lemon Balm (4-9)
• Loveage (3-10)
• Mexican Mint Marigold (8-10)
• Mint (3-8)
• Oregano (4-10)
• Rosemary (7-11)
• Sage (4-10)
• Sweet Woodruff (4-9)
• Thyme (5-9)

Perennial Medicinal Herbs

If you’re interested in herbal remedies, growing these perennial herbs is a great way to expand your practice. Some like catnip are so easy to grow you’ll need to keep them contained. Others like ginseng are woodland perennials that need special conditions to thrive. 

• Catnip (3-9)
• Ginseng (3-8)
• Horehound (3-10)
• Mullein (3-9)
• Skullcap (2-8)
• St. John’s Wort (5-9) 
• Valerian (4-9)

Flowers

Perennials are a great option for low maintenance, drought tolerant, flower beds and pollinator gardens. Many of these flowers are also edible and medicinal. Flowers like echinacea, yarrow, and lavender make excellent additions to teas and other herbal products. 

• Bee Balm or Monarda (3-9)
• Butterfly Weed (3-9)
• Echinacea or Coneflower (3-9)
• Feverfew (5-9)
• Goldenrod (2-8)
• Lavender (5-9)
• Rudbeckia (3-9)
• Soapwort (3-10)
• Yarrow (3-9)
• Violas or Johnny-Jump-Ups (3-8)

How Can I Get Other Perennials Affordably?

At Southern Exposure we specialize in seeds, but we know your gardens don’t stop there!

Unfortunately, larger perennials are the pricey parts of a garden. Depending on the age, size, and variety, perennial trees, shrubs, and vines can run anywhere from $20 to $200, especially once you take shipping into consideration.

To find the most affordable options, watch master gardeners and local organizations having sales or plant swaps near you. You can also connect with other gardeners through these organizations. Often, gardeners will share or swap cuttings, divisions, or shoots to help you get started. Crops that are easy to propagate or divide include figs, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, daylilies, elderberries, and horseradish.

If you can’t find options near you, shop bare root perennials online. Organizations like the Arbor Day Foundation offer affordable options for starting fruit trees, shrubs, vines, and nut crops.