Transform Your Driveway Into a Vegetable Garden

I was smitten with my driveway last summer. For several weeks, it produced tasty tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, summer squash, basil, bush green beans, and cucumbers. Throw in some lettuce, Swiss chard, and beets, and I ended up with much more than a garden; it’s also a conversation piece, a local gathering place for neighbors passing by, a teaching center for children, and a chance to spread the joy of gardening.

But wait! The driveway surface is concrete. What’s the secret of succeeding with an annual garden bounty — a ton of fresh produce — in such a location? Why turn an automobile parking place (or basketball court, as the case may be) into a garden? Well, necessity is the mother of invention. You could also use a deck or a patio, or any place in your yard that gets good sun exposure.

Location and Creativity

When we moved from Pennsylvania to Raleigh, North Carolina, 26 years ago, one of the first jobs on my to-do list was to remove a 30-by-50-foot patch of sod on the side of the house for our new garden plot. The sun shone well on the spot we chose, and for 15 years we had a traditional dirt garden. Then, because of the ever-growing trees in the yard, our garden spot began getting less and less sun, and production began to drop off. An area that gets at least six hours of direct sun will work for a garden plot, but when that hourly exposure drops to four hours or less, it can devastate a harvest.

Not having a productive garden was too depressing to consider. Scanning our property for a place where the sun shone adequately revealed