10x10 Vegetable Garden Ideas

A vegetable garden is not only a way to save money on produce, but it can be rewarding just to see your hard work pay off in a bounty of food. Having a large space is ideal for any garden, especially those where the plants are likely to grow to a decent size, however, with the correct plan you can do just about anything you want in a 10-foot-by-10-foot square garden.

Raised Rows or Beds

With 100 square feet of space you can have up to 18 4-foot-long rows for growing vegetables, and include a 1 1/2-foot space in the middle so you can access the entire garden. These rows should run from east to west, and you should plant the tallest vegetables on the north side, so that they don't shade the smaller vegetables in the summer. The rows are raised by piling dirt into a mound along the length of the row. If you want to add a little structure, you can build raised beds instead of piling rows of dirt. You might lose a little bit of space, because the structure of the beds will take up a bit, but you should still be able to build at least 12 4-foot-long rows. Raised beds give your vegetable garden a more defined look, are easier to reach when it comes time to harvest and are better protected from weeds and standing water.

Container Gardening

When you have a plot of land to grow a vegetable garden, you might not consider using containers like ceramic pots, but these containers make certain garden tasks easier along with giving your garden an interesting look. Containers let you use soil types and pH levels that are specific to the vegetable you are growing, because many vegetables prosper in slightly different soil. Creating a container garden also lets you rearrange the garden with relatively little effort. Although clay and ceramic pots commonly are used for container gardens, you can use just about anything that allows water to drain and won't leach chemicals into the soil.

Bed Gardens

As an alternative to row-based gardens, bed gardens will produce better vegetable yields and will be easier to maintain. In bed gardens you will build raised square beds about 12 inches above the ground, and then just plant all your vegetables together in the bed. For a 100-square-foot area, your best bet is to probably build four 16-square-foot beds, which will leave you room to move between them. When your bed garden starts to fill in, you will find that weeds have little room to grow because there isn't a ton of excess space, and the leaves on the plants help to prevent excess evaporation from the soil, which means you will have to water less.

Vertical Gardening

To get the most out of your space, you might want to consider building your garden up as well as out. You can use cages, trellises and walls to give vine-based vegetables a place to grow up and then use the support structures to hold additional plants. You can place vegetables that you want to keep separate from the rest of the garden into containers, and then place the containers on the structure or hang them from the wall.

Dwarf Varieties

One hundred square feet is a good size for a vegetable garden, but if you are looking to grow as many different varieties of vegetables as you can, you might want to consider using dwarf vegetables. Most vegetables have one or more dwarf varieties that you can plant. These dwarf vegetables require only a fraction of the space of normal vegetables and also generally become ready to harvest in a shorter period of time. Using dwarf vegetables will let you diversify your garden at the expense of the size of the finished product.

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