The type of produce, herbs, etc. that you wish for your garden to yield coupled with the available space, soil conditions, and climate play a large part in the method or methods that you may select to grow your crop.
Container Gardens
Great for Those With Limited Space or No Ground
Like Apartments, Condos and City Dwellers
Those who live in apartments, condos or other situations where you may not be able to till the ground and plant have the option of planting in containers. These can range from large pots that can be moved to large coolers recycled into planters placed on a patio or deck.
There are endless methods available for container gardens ranging from buckets and barrels (cut down) to recycled bottles and "Topsy Turvey" hanging, upside down grow bags.
Victory Gardens
Also Known as War Gardens and Gardens for Defense
They have a special spot in the history of the USA, UK, Canada, Australia and Germany. During World War I and II their respective governments called on their citizens to grow their own food; fruits and vegetables in order to prevent food shortages. In 1943, 20 million such gardens were producing 8 million tons of food, up to 41 percent of the total consumption of vegetables in the USA during those years.
There were many gardens that took over entire back and sometimes front yards. PBS had a longstanding TV series called the Victory Garden that began in April of 1975.
The gardens become a matter of form and function. Planting vegetable and fruit bearing plants worked in along walkways, under windows, in place of shrubberies and flowers or worked in with them.
During the height of World War i & II victory gardens were even cultivated in public squares, parks and even the front lawns of prominent buildings.
Covert Gardening
In Troubled Times a Standard Garden Will Be a Target of Those Not Prepared
The approach can be as simple or complex as the time and effort that you decide to put into it. From surreptitiously planting potatoes in areas off the beating track such as parks and woodland trails to creating a complex atypical layout working with natural terrain features and intermixing companion plants that draw good bugs, repel predatory bugs and animals.
The first value is that people will walk right by it since it is not a typical garden. The second is that when properly designed with companion plants the garden will not require weeding, watering, pesticides or fertilizer.
Guerrilla gardening is a way to exploit unused areas, not your own, surreptitiously cultivate, grow, and harvest food from that land without detection.
Hugelkultur (HOO-gul-culture)
Meaning hill culture or hill mound
Much like a secret survival garden you exploit nature and its flows.
The mounds increase growing area, use till-free gardening methods, and return agricultural efforts to the natural way. The true value of Hugelkultur is that by the second year it requires little to no watering.
Hydroponics and Aquaponics
These two forms of gardening have brought about a new way of growing vegetables and plants that are unsurpassed by any other method.
The AeroGarden is a great turnkey starter system to gain experience with hydroponics.
