Grow Fruit and Vegatables in small places

[HappyCappy]

Grow Fruit & Vegetables in a Small Space

Even if you only have a tiny yard or maybe just a small balcony, you can still grow fruit and vegetables.

It can be surprising how enterprising people can squeeze a wide range of fruit and vegetables into the smallest of spaces. They have the joy of watching their very own crops grow as well as the enjoyment of eating them at the peak of freshness and, hopefully, grown organically without the use of chemical fertilisers or pesticides.

If you have a small garden, you might not have room for a vegetable patch. That doesn't mean you can't grow fruit and vegetables, though. The solution is to plant them with your flowers and shrubs—not such a mad idea when you consider how ornamental many edible plants can be.

Vegetables & Salads

The runner (stick) bean, for example, was first grown for it bright red flowers rather than for its beans. You don't have to put up the traditional line of beanpoles, instead just put a couple of poles against a fence and put maybe 3 or 4 runner bean plants next to them. I promise you, 3 or 4 plants will usually provide enough beans for a small family if you put them in well manured ground and keep them well watered.

You can plant sweet peppers or Jerusalem artichokes in your flower beds. Nowadays you can buy ornamental cabbages in a variety of colours. Instead of using the space for them, why not grow varieties of lettuce that come in many different colours in among your flowers?

If you have no garden at all, just a yard or balcony, grow lettuces and other salad vegetables in pots or window boxes. You can now get 'tumbling' tomatoes that trail attractively from hanging baskets or pots. Again, keep them well watered and fed.

Herbs

Most herbs can be grown in containers so you can have a constant supply of fresh basil, thyme, sage, mint, rosemary and many more.

Potatoes

Did you know you can even grow potatoes in containers? Choose very deep pots or other containers, half fill them with compost and soil then plant your potatoes. As the foliage grows, add more soil and compost - the equivalent of earthing them up if they were in the vegetable bed - and you will have a good crop. TV & radio gardener, Bob Flowerdew, once recommended using old tyres for this. He suggested starting off with two or three tyres stuffed with straw for insulation. Put them on top of each other, fill them with soil and plant your potatoes. As they grow, keep adding another tyre and fill with soil. While it is a good way to recycle old tyres and grow potatoes, it's probably not very picturesque although you could grow something else in front to disguise them.

Fruit

Strawberries can be grown in hanging baskets, containers or special strawberry pots.
Warning

There is just one word of warning. If you are growing fruit and vegetables on a balcony or roof garden, make sure that it can take the weight of containers and soil. If you are planning extensive container gardening, you should probably get professional advice from a builder or surveyor to ensure the balcony or roof is strong enough.

Copyright © 2004 - Carol Fisher.

[kikicorm]

great tips thanks!!!!

[scorpiofire]

thanks for the tips!