I moved four red bell pepper plants to another location yesterday, attempting to recover from a garden goof. It was a risky venture since the plants are 10-12 inches tall. We’ll see how this turns out.

It was a vain attempt to try to grow the peppers squeezed between the cranberry beans and cucumbers. Cranberry beans are a new crop for me and I didn’t expect them to grow robustly to two feet tall. No such excuse for the cucumbers since them always stray from the five foot trellis.

The bell peppers grew slowly in their allotted sliver with very marginal sun. The prospects for a good harvest were dim so I decided to move them.

First, I soaked the soil around each plant and found a decent sized root ball after five weeks in the ground. Then I carefully lifted each one and relocated it to a prepared hole that I had filled twice with water. It was a warm day so I gave them a good soak and then decided to keep the plants cool with a double layer of shade cloth. A few hours later I spritzed the plants through the shade cloth. At day’s end they were doing well.

With only 100 square feet of raised beds, I plant intensively since the compost-enriched soil is healthy and the beds are two feet deep. Typically, I reduce the spacing between plants with good success. For example, broccoli plants are only 15 inches apart and rows of plants edge up to each other and shade the soil.

Clearly, placement of the red bell peppers was faulty but I likely won’t make that mistake again.

Here are the tips offered by @reshgala for growing in small spaces. Her backyard garden is 84 square feet.

1. Grow vertically.

2. Prune regularly

3. Use containers