A friend of mine has a nice, grassy, back garden which is just begging for a veg plot, so that he can grow some veg with his littl’un. After asking for my advice…(i do what i can!) i went round and tried to give him the benefit of my knowledge. There are a couple of pics of the space above that show the space.
I would like any advice that i can pass on to him about where would be good to put the plot and what to grow, would be much apreciated, as it’s always good to get a few opinions! It’s important to know that his other half doesn’t want the plot to impinge too much on the garden and that the patio will be covered with a greenhouse, pretty soon. Plus he doesn’t want to spend a huge amount of time on it as he works long hours!
Now there’s a challenge!
if you’d like to try vegetables, there are a number of things that will grow in pots.. with space being an issue and having a lot of fencing, i would suggest concentrating on things that grow upwards. For example, there’s a climbing courgette variety available called “black forest”, although i’ve not tried it (yet. its in my seed box!). I’d also suggest going for things little un can go and pick, like cherry tomatoes, maybe some fruits like raspberries or something. peas would be another one – nothing quite like peas popped fresh from the pod (I’ve very very fond memories of my grandad’s veg and fruit garden as a little girl for all these reasons!).
good luck with it!
keth
xx
Container veg gardening is always an option if the garden is too small (although in my mind, a balcony is a small garden). But I don’t see how a few raised beds could hurt. Tell him to watch how the sunlight hits the garden, take note of the shade areas. Veggies always do better where there is quite a lot of sun (although some shade won’t hurt). Climbers could go in the backwall. If the partner is not too keen on veg plot, how about a small orchard of minarrette apple/pear trees?
Like Sinta said, I’d watch where the sun falls and make sure I put my beds there. A long but narrow bed for tall/climbing veg or fruit against one of the fences would look good too…
Raised beds are what I was thinking of when I saw the photos. They can be made with some attractive materials.
I’m with Curtis on this – some nice hardwood raised beds.
Thanks everyone, i’ve passed the comments onto my mate, i’ll update the blog when he gets it up and running!
I would plump for the raised borders too.
I would also say, in a small garden, air flow is essential. It looks as though, with a small patch to play with that the only real option – other than pots or raised borders – to put it against the panel fence.
The fence, will restrict air flow create too much heat radiation after a hot day which will cause excessive transpiration.
I’d say it has to be the sunniest corner (the pics don’t really show where the sun shines!). A corner will be sheltered from the wind too and out of the way of his Mrs! He should look into ’square-foot gardening’ – there’s a great book on it here
http://www.amazon.co.uk/All-New-Square-Foot-Gardening/dp/1591862027/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=gateway&qid=1202668480&sr=8-1
It’s a great method for growing lots of veg (in raised beds) in a small space with a minimum of effort, and a lot of people swear by it. (Never done it properly myself, though I use some of its principles.)
And grow potatoes in a plastic dustbin in a corner!