Tiny Garden - Most (food) Bang For My Buck

ixwood

Any boundary? Room for a hedge? I'm working on a white/black/red current, blackberry,gooseberry and hazel hedge.

Fruit bushes have the extra advantage of swathes of attractive blossom in spring which insects and you will like.

Optimisticpair

ceridwen wrote: »

Ox-eye daisy (the wild version - errr...could do with knowing the Latin name of this if anyone knows it please)

Leucanthemum vulgare

nodwah

Do you eat ox eye daisy?

Pippilongstocking

I wouldnt if I were you! Seeminlgy you can eat the unopened flower buds liek capers.

Firstly capers aren't particularily nice, or if you do like them then nastrutium seeds taste the same, so grow them eat the flowers the leaves and the seeds multipurpose plant - great.
Secondly if you eat the flower buds what is the point of growing ox-eye daisies in the first place????

They brighten up your life, don't eat them just enjoy them!! xx

ceridwen

nodwah wrote: »

Do you eat ox eye daisy?

Yep - the leaves of it I gather - though I got given strict injunctions to make sure its the wild one - as hybrids might be different in that respect.

Re permaculture - yep I do like permaculture ideas - what I know of them:D .
I like the idea of fruit growing upwards on walls. Didnt know one could get up to 5 things on 1 tree - plums and almonds together sounds good - any idea of weblinks with suitable multi-purpose type container trees on please?

ixwood

I've been planning my fruit garden and these are the best/cheapest I've come across so far:-

http://www.hedging.co.uk/acatalog/Index_Fruit_19.html

http://www.deaconsnurseryfruits.co.uk/generalfamilytrees1/

http://www.deaconsnurseryfruits.co.uk/familystonefruittrees/

http://www.jparkers.co.uk/Index.cfm?fuseaction=category.standard&category_id=560&page=2

http://www.jparkers.co.uk/Index.cfm?fuseaction=category.standard&category_id=470

A browse around them will no doubt give you some ideas. Pretty much everything edible and growable is covered I think.

ixwood

The patio stuff is mostly from parkers, but I'd be inclined to plant something a bit bigger in a large tub and keep it in check with pruning.

ixwood

I'm doing a combination of mostly perennial bushes/hedges with a couple of square foot beds too for veg. I don't do too well with annuals though, Not attentive enough so far.

RAS

Hi

Does it have to be tubs because you cannot access the earth? Just things in the ground require a lot less maintenance than things in pots.

if you have any earth near boundaries, you can grow things up boundary, making use of vertical space.

taking your list

Tomatoes - you can grow tumblers in pots but in a small spoace, if you can keep the blight at bay, then cordon tomaotes would be more effective 0 they grow up a stick or wire and take less room, plus you need to strip off the leaves regulalry so they do not shade stuff too much.

Red/yellow peppers - if you can get thm in a lot of sun and move them indoors later - they are just green pepers that have ripened.
Aubergines - might struggle with them unless you can do hot and sunny.
Onions - need a lot of space for the return for a long period. Grow salad onions, wlesh onions and perhaps shallots? and possibly overwintering onions.
Garlic - inc. wild garlic and hedge garlic - can you adopt and area and grow ramsoms there? I pick it in the local wood.
Potatoes - three tubs of early (about 6-9 tubers) will do you fine. Put your hand down the side of the pot and extract the larger tubers then leave the plant to keep bulking up.
Virtually any fruit - except lychees - I would go for expensive soft fruits. Blackcurrants are large bushes. Red currants, white currants and gooseberries can be grown as cordons or double cordons. As can apple trees. They need to be about 15 inches apart. Cherries and plums are much bigger.
Green salad veg - except iceberg lettuce - you can grow winter salads in your window sill in tubs on a cut and come again basis. In the winter my basics from the plot (outdoor) are lamb's lettuce, land cress and rocket plus a bit of burnet and some welsh onion masquerading as spring onion. Read Joy larkcom's excellent article on the hunger gap at the end of her growing vegtables book.

courgettes (occasionally) - most plants require about a metre diameter.
spinach - try swiss chard which needs less maintenance than spinach, which runs to seed if it gets dry. Also, beetroot is excellent grown just for the young leaves.
mushrooms - Look for spawn that can be grown on mulches or on logs parked in the darker damper corners.
peas - not effective given the space unless you grow very tall ones
mange tout - the best in my opinion is Golden Sweet which will crop until Christmas from a late showing if sheltered.
radishes - a tiny sprinkling when ever there are a few inches of space.
baby sweetcorn - probably a bit big but would grow in a large tub.
leeks - another long grower.
cauliflower - takes up the ground for a long time so give it a miss.

Other things, - all sorts of salad leaves and stir fry greens including pak choi, Indian and Chinese mustards, fenugreek broccoli raab, mizuna, Italian chicory mixes and saladinis . For winter, young leaves of broad leaf kales like red russian are great as saladings.

The best way to grow a lot of these is either to crop them by the leaf or to cut the leaves off about an inch above the central node. Then every leaf node will sprout another shhot and you can cut them again. Sometime you will get four cutting but three is more likely.

if you like french/green beans, grow the climbing varieties. There are not many on the market but Blue Lake is OK and the pods are dark purple so look effective. There are loads of heritage varieties of which people may well let you have a dozen seeds. You can keep any that run to seed and replant the following year.

Zazen999

Don't forget that the reason most wild plants grow is because they thrive in poor soil - growing them in pots with compost probably won't work [but there's no harm in trying]...also because they are grown in poor soil, they have adapted to being able to find their own moisture which usually means very deep roots...

Personally, if space was limited I'd work out what you like to eat most or what you like to eat that is expensive; and stick to those.

During the winter, garlic, onion and leeks could take up your container space. Also caulis but if you want easy crops then don't bother with brassicas; they are the most 'bugged' crops of all, and that's if you can get them to grow in pots.

Year round, apart from nov-feb - you can sow lettuces [winter and summer - different types] and you can then crop these pretty much all year round. In this radishes are quick growing and can be sown for months on end; and spinach can be put in with the salads.


Next spring, you can start off the tender crops such as your toms; if your space is really sunny then try peppers and aubergines but you need lots of sun for these. Minipop sweetcorn which you are calling baby sweetcorn; can be grown in pots, but need to be planted in blocks for the pollenation so try 4 to a pot and keep them together.

courgettes, if you only like a few then only grow 1; they need a big pot, and plenty of organic matter, fertiliser and watering; and they can easily take over one of my 1.8m square beds - they will be smaller in pots and will hang over the side so give them room to grow and plenty of moisture and sun next year and you should get a good steady crop.

Beans, there are LOADs of different types, if you've never grown them before, then some basics - grow 1 or 2 climbing beans in the middle of a pot and pop a long cane for them to grow up. nip the growing tip out when it gets to the top. Then, pop some dwarf beans in the same pot around the side. If you want a longer crop; do this once in April, once in May and again in June, and you should get beans for months on end, plus loads for the freezer. You can mix french beans with runners, and if they get to the stage where they are large beans inside, these can be frozen and used in soups etc. Remember to boil for 20 mins if you use them as shelled beans - before eating. I know you don't like runners, but you might like shelled beans, and that's the way to get them. I don't grow runners myself, all mine are french beans picked at 4 stages; tiny [chopped and frozen], medium so might be a tad stringy [sliced and frozen], shelley [popped out of pod and frozen] and dried [wait until pod dries out, popped out and dried and kept in kilner jar]. Ditto peas. Broad beans can be sown in October outside for a slightly earlier spring crop.

Potatoes: as mentioned, stick to the earlies as the main take up so much room, and the earlies are the ones that taste the best. If you do go for later spuds; then Kestrel is fabulous - no slug holes, and makes wonderful crispy chips/roasties and great mash.

Mushrooms, can be grown most of the year round, I've not had any luck with these but might try again soon.

Good luck, and hope you get somewhere with growing your own.