Gardening for small backyards

You don't need a large backyard to have a garden. Here in south Louisiana many people have small vegetable and herb gardens. Growing up it seemed everyone had large backyards and many had gardens of some type. As I see more and more Subdivisions going up I've noticed that the new homes are missing one crucial element that make a home a home and that's a backyard. Some of these new nice subdivisions have beautiful houses but the backyards seem to be almost non-existent with barely enough room to barbeque and enjoy the outdoors, and it's pretty sad. I'm not sure why contactors and architects are overlooking the backyard now a days, I guess they've forgotten what it's like to sit outside on an old swing, or barbeque and entertain family and friends on those hot summer southern nights. The nights we use to look forward too growing up as kids. None the less if you have one of these small backyards and want to be able to plant your own garden it's still really easy to do. Everyone by now knows I love raised beds for my gardens, but they're great for small backyards too. If you're wanting to try the raised beds in a small backyard make the beds smaller somewhere in the vicinity of a 4x4 square bed or smaller. If you don't have enough room for a square bed depending on the layout of your yard a rectangular bed works well too and you can make it as narrow as you need too. If you don't care to do the raised beds and your yard is fenced ( which now a days most are) you can plant your veggies and herbs about a foot or two away from the fence. Fencing in your small garden works really well for plants such as cucumber, melons, grapes, squash, and merllitons. If you have a chain link fence it works a little better with these type plants because when they start to vine out all you have to do is thread the vines through the chain link. If you don't have chain link and have a wooden fence you can add pegs to the fence boards using either wooden dolls or nails long enough and close enough for the vines to climb upwards helping to keep the fruits or veggies off the ground.
When not planting in a raised bed it is always a good idea to have some type of border around your plants to protect them from the lawn mower and that crazy weed whacker. When planting herbs in your yard, planting them closer to the house is usually a great idea. You can plant rosemary on all four corners of your house as it makes a nice addition to any landscape and smells great when it rains.