You might want to manage the 10x10 by breaking it up into 2 4x10 plots leaving a 2x10 path down the middle (or a 2x8 and putting a plant or two at the end of the pathway since access is the only concern doing this).

You can double-row two 10' plots with a tiny bit of room for movement to harvest.

It seems like a waste, but it makes things easier when everything is tall/wide and in need of harvest.

nc-crn is right about the need for access. It's false economy not to provide aisles.

Your challenge will be to set priorities. Even those who have two or three times that area have the same dilemma of choosing what to grow. Crowding is not a satisfactory solution. Neither is planting insignificant amounts of each item. You have to bite the bullet and decide to leave some things for another year. Make a plan on paper and plug in vegetables until is is filled.

Jim

You could have some fun and go vertical. One year when I was working at a community garden, we got some $8 garden arbors at the discount store and planted grean beans around them. They grew all over it and some cucumbers that we planted near by grew up it too. The green beans were much easier to pick that way.

You could probably squeeze most of what you want to grow on a 10' x 10' plot, depending on what a "few more" might be. However, cucumbers, tomatoes and eggplant can take a lot of room, so if you can do 10' x 20', why not?

You want to leave plenty of room for paths in your bed. I think two 4' x 10' beds, with a 2' path is a good way to divide the area.

With a 10' x 20' bed, you could have a wider 3' path across and down, dividing the space into four equal beds...each, 3 1/2 ' x 8 1/2'...not a bad size for a garden. This would give you a little more room and you wouldn't have to put the plants so close together. You'd also have a little extra space forflowers and herbs, as someone else suggested.

Square foot gardening is a good suggestion, but they often plant some things a little too close together. You might want to check the potager forum. There are many pictures of smaller, but beautiful gardens. There are also many examples of vertical planting, on trellises and obelisks.

It sounds like your new garden is going to be a lot of fun! I hope you take pictures :)

i am no expert, as I only started last year, but the plot you are being offered is more space than I had last year, and as a beginner, was more than enough, I started off thinking I needed more but then realised what a lot I needed to learn, before I had more space, I managed a huge amount of things, with always using the space, and using a lot of Mini veggies, which suited my family, I had some amazing failures, and some amazing successes, for instance given last summer I really should have, had a lot of cabbage and broccoli, NO broccoli and cabbages where the size that each just did a meal...with lots of other veg.. tomatoes, amazing I must have been one of the few to escape the late blight? I had a very good harvest, despite my earlier mishandling of my seedlings! 10 plants out of 40 survived due to my really not knowing, damping off most of them, so I would say start small, but I didn't agree with the choose a few veg..I did everything I liked, plus a large number of I like the sound of that.. I did the Sq ft garden thing that allowed me to experiment
Sq ft is easy but I doubt if you are feeding a herd it would work, but for a small family it does work, in my experience.
read, read and ask, ask, I got better and better results as the year went on, start small, and build, on your knowledge, better than trying to fly without wings, it will only lead to you losing high and then crashing and burning :-) and giving up
this year I am almost doubling my space :-) but I go in better armed through experience and knowledge, but I think I will still be on the forums says Why?? What?? How?? my greater space is roughly what you have bit bigger? 2 bed 8 x 4 last year, and I have 6 beds to go in 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 foot. although I am thinking of doubling 2 of them up, as they are 8 inches deep but i want Potatoes and and parsnips..YUM!
good luck and fun, but don't overwhelm yourself

Thanks all.
Anney--I am growing veggies for 3 adults.
I did get a plot today 10x10 and GOD am I exited!:). I just cannot wait till the end of March, when the garden opens. I live in row homes and my deck will be over crowded with container gardening each summer. This time around I may give some break to my deck and put a swing for a change!!!

Anna

Anna,

You can fit a lot in a 10x10 plot, especially if you TRELLIS as one previous person said! Pole beans, cucumbers, and tomatoes can all be grown vertically. I have a little of everything--bamboo, recycled tree branches, spirally metal supports--and I can fit so much more that way... and as a bonus, your trellised plants will give you some nice shade in August when you're sweating away in the garden!

You "Trellis" people are killing me man ;-)
Can you imagine the poor slobs right behind that plot...
They were probably considering what to grow on their 10'x 10' plot and now must reconsider based upon the "TrellisMeister" who is blocking all their sun...Oy Vey ! ! "Somebody get a rope".... ;-)

It totally reminds me of a movie theater with some tall clod wearing a cowboy hat... "Down in front"

That's funny, Jon!

I have a plot in a community garden and often think about that in planning my layout. I want to use all the precious sunlight I can, yet I want to be a good neighbor to my friends on adjoining plots. It is good to follow the Golden Rule in this situation. You expressed the problem clearly.

Jim

I am also a considerate and good neighbor. I have a corner plot. If at all I place some kind of trellis, it will not block sun to any one except my plot. But otherwise whole garden area is well exposed to sun and will get more than 9 hours of sun during growing season. By that way, I switched to 10x20 plot--became little greedy, I guess.

I just had to drag this old thread back up. Back in 2010, I didn't have a clue about how intensive gardening worked, and a 10 x 10 garden was tiny to me. Now that I know about raised beds and sq. ft. and vertical gardening, I know I could grow just about anything I wanted in that much space.

I just moved into an apartment that has an 11 x 14 courtyard, and there are already some things planted here, so I figure I probably have a little over 100 sf I can work with. I figure with two 4 x 10 raised beds in the center and trellised crops on a couple of the walls, I can grow a ton of stuff! I also have a space about 5 x 20 ft. outside the wall, and I have mostly ornamentals there, but I'm figuring on planting some edible ornamentals so I can get even more out of my space.

How things change in just a few years. My first real garden was a 5 x 5 space I carved out of my parent's back yard, and it kept us supplied with squash, zucchini, beans and tomatoes all summer. My first large garden was almost 1/8 acre traditional row-planted garden, which took a lot of time and effort and machinery to keep up with. I figure I can grow most of what I need for myself in this tiny space by using intensive methods without the time and machinery I used to use.

Looking back on this thread and how some people were making fun or or criticizing vertical gardening and warning against "overcrowding" plants, how many of you would give different advice today, and what would it be? I'd advise sq. ft. gardening in raised beds with lots and lots of trellising.

< and how some people were making fun or or criticizing vertical
gardening and warning against "overcrowding" plants, how many of you
would give different advice today>

I think the crucial difference is this thread was about doing it in community gardens. Trellising and possibly creating problems for your neighbors with trellis is very different from trellising in your own back yard. Can it be done in a community garden? Sure but it takes a great deal more care and planning.

It is an apples and oranges comparison in some ways. While "sq. ft gardening in raised beds with lots and lots of trellising" works for some, it does not work in all situations and community gardens may well be one of those situations.

Dave

For me the first thing to consider is how much "direct sunlight" not shaded or filtered sun does the area get? And will the desired plant be happy with that amount? The soil can always be amended or grow in containers that could be moved into the sun.

Community gardens are all laid out for full sun. That's correct that vertical gardening can infringe on a neighbors sunlight. As for raised bed gardening, that's making a many-year investment, which often community garden subscribers don't want to make. Also, it's likely that when they vacate the plot, the garden organizers may want everything back on ground level before they rent the bed out to someone else.

dirtygardener73(9a) wrote: <I just moved into an apartment that has an 11 x 14 courtyard, and there
are already some things planted here, so I figure I probably have a
little over 100 sf I can work with. I figure with two 4 x 10 raised beds
in the center and trellised crops on a couple of the walls, I can grow a
ton of stuff! I also have a space about 5 x 20 ft. outside the wall,
and I have mostly ornamentals there, but I'm figuring on planting some
edible ornamentals so I can get even more out of my space.>

The OP was about community gardens.

a 10 x 10 area planned out and using succession planting can produce a ton of food. I am an urban farmer and 1 of my plots is only 20 x20. I am in my 3rd and 4th planting on this plot now. I have sold hundreds of dollars of radishes, green onions, lettuce mixes cucumbers tomatoes peppers and have replanted with fall beets turnips lettuce mixes and more radishes. This is my smallest plot but most productive and profitable per square foot