How to…

Are you one of those people that really want to garden and/or create a garden, but don’t really have much space to do so? Do you hate how little space your back yard, front yard, apartment balcony, and/or terrace has? Well, that’s okay, because a little space can go a long way when you know how to use it properly.

First, consider the space you have. Remember, every nook and cranny can have a purpose.

• Find out how much land you have and how much you can grow vertically.
• Consider the current situation of the space, too. For example, are there already some plants there? Is the space mostly taken up by grass, soil, or concrete?
• How much of this do you want to change?

Even if the space is small, these are important things to consider as they will affect the amount of work involved.

Then, consider how much sun/shade the area gets .

• From this, you can decide what you want to grow: Flowers, shrubs, trees, vegetables, herbs, or a combination of them.
• Don’t be discouraged if the amount of sun/shade your area gets is on one of the extreme sides as there are plants that grow in pretty much all conditions!
• Remember - you can almost always create shade if you need it.

Here are some tips to making it work:

Grow vertically.

Many people overlook the space above the ground. Even if you’re working with the smallest backyard, a garden with height can give the illusion that it’s bigger than it actually is. The first time I grew cucumbers, I let them grow all over the ground, wasting much of my precious space. Now, I let them grow up the fence, which saves space. Use hooks from a fence, put something on the windowsill, hang something on a sturdy tree branch. Use everything you’ve got!

Also, consider growing plants that don’t take up much space in the ground but grow out and take space in the air, such as trees.

Growing vertically has its advantages because not only do you maximize the effectiveness of your land, when you balance taller plants (e.g. trees), medium plants (e,g. shrubs, vertically-grown vegetables), and shorter plants (e.g. flower beds) it creates a very nice contrast.

Growing vertically shows that you’re a gardener who can see the whole picture and not just the ground.

Use containers!

Instead of planting everything in the ground, try using containers, wheelbarrows, planters, and other things. Put them on the ground or hang them from a fence, a wall, or a door. For example, you can hang containers of flowers from hooks on a fence. This can help you with ‘growing vertically.’ Containers also add variety to your garden.

Don’t crowd it – keep it simple.

Some of the best gardens are the simple ones. A beautiful garden can be a simple one. With a smaller space, it is easy to crowd it with too many things and make it look unorganized. Which wouldn’t look very nice. So keep it pleasantly simple and you’ll be able to enjoy the beautify of simplicity.

Planning is the key to having a beautiful, organized garden in a small place. A good gardener plans things ahead of time to make sure that it WILL work. Don’t plan as you go along, that’s like improvising a garden. For people with lots of space, they may be able to afford to do this, but for a small garden, you need to plan every square foot ahead of time for maximum effectiveness.

At the very least, I would recommend that you take a paper and draw your it all out. Draw it from a birds eye view, to see how the land is used and what takes up where, AND from a side view, to see how the heights of your plants coordinate and such. You can visualize the colors in your head. Of course, you can always change the layout as you go along, but it’s just good to have something to work with.

Good luck with your small space!

It’s hard to write every day, but when you do, it’s benefits are enormous. It’s not easy squeezing in that time to write. There’s also the question of what to write about, because inspiration does not strike us every day. However, ideas and thoughts do pass through the mind every day and with practice, you’ll learn to use them to inspire you - every day.

Here are seven reasons to write every day, for you, for me, for everybody.

1. It makes you a better thinker. They say you should “write, not think” but when you’re writing, you are thinking at the same time. You’re thinking about what to write, when to write it, how to write it.

2. It makes you more organized. Every day, feelings, opinions, ideas, and other things pass through your mind. When you’re writing them down, you’re organizing these ideas in your mind into words on paper.

3. It improves your communication skills. Elaborating on the idea above, thoughts in your head don’t always translate well into words. Some things are just hard to explain. However, as you write more, you’ll get better at communicating your thoughts and ideas for others to clearly understand.

4. It lets YOU remember YOUR ideas better. Maybe you don’t need the rest of the world to know what you’re thinking. But sometimes, you just need to remember it, without keeping the thought floating in your mind. They say that if you write something down, the odds of you remembering it are significantly increased, even if you don’t reread what you wrote.

5.It makes you a better reader. If you write, you will be able to appreciate a text you are reading from a reader’s and a writer’s perspective, and they aren’t always the same.

6. It inspires you. Writing a little will inspire you to write a little more. One idea will inspire many others. And who knows, one of those ideas just may be one that will change your life, or at least how you see it.

7. You get better at it. In one month, your writing will improve drastically. In one year, your writing will get much, much better. It’s not necessarily about what you write about, it’s how you write it. If you’re writing to an audience, you’ll get better at captivating that audience. If you’re writing privately just for yourself, you’ll get better at making it seem personal. As you write more, writing will be like second nature. If you keep what you write every day and keep what you’ve written, you can look back and see how you’ve grown as a writer.

And to help you write every day, here are 7 things to keep in mind.

1. You don’t need to publish everything. You can publish some stuff and not the rest. You can even just not publish anything at all.

2. You can write to anybody. This includes yourself, someone else you know, some person you made up, the people on the internet, the rest of the world… or nobody in particular.

3. They say you should just write and edit later, but I think it’s perfectly okay to edit as you go along. Just don’t be a self-editing freak, that’s all.

4. Write about anything. Your life. The world. Opinions. Ideas. Feelings. Something that you saw today. A place. An event. You can write a story. A fantasy. About a dream. Anything.

5. Set a goal. Some people say forcing yourself to write don’t help. The truth is, however, that although you may have to force yourself to write in the beginning, you’ll build that momentum and eventually write because you love it. So set a goal; it can be by length or time per day. Start out small, but stay consistent with writing every day.

6. You can write however you like. It doesn’t need to be boring, dry, and seemingly sophisticated. You can try out different writing styles and voices until you develop your own distinctive one. Remember that this is your writing, and it can be however you like. And you can use whatever words you choose to use.

7. Go out and live life. Make your life interesting. Eventful. Don’t sit around at home all day doing nothing. Go out and see what there is in the world and see it from different perspectives. Your life inspires your writing, so let them both be interesting.

And here’s one more as a bonus (I guess the title no longer makes sense now).

8. WRITE EVERY DAY. WRITE THAT DOWN. AND DO IT.