Growing in the porch....

minifan

Hello All

Having no outside space to grow vegetables I was wondering whether there was anything i could grow in a small tub in my front porch which is made of glass???

Thanks

nodwah

Tomatoes seem the obvious answer - is it very sunny?
THis would probably be a good place to have salads leaves, you could grow them all year round even if it's unheated and then you wouldn't even have to go outside in the cold to get them

kethry

it should be fine except for a couple of things:

1) i know from my mom's house that their porch gets very hot in the sun - and that kind of heat can actually scorch plants when its very very hot in summer. Do be prepared to put some kind of shade up when necessary.

2) ventilation is also a must, again, when its very very hot. if you don't have any way of ventilating your porch on a daily basis (other than the doors open) then i would rethink.

i would go for things that will grow between now and when the very hot weather comes in; salad things would be good, radishes grow very quickly, herbs are another. Tomatoes are the obvious, but you could grow courgettes, aubergines, peppers and chillis, although i think chillis prefer humidity as well as heat.

HTH

keth
xx

ailuro2

Can I hijack the thread and ask what I could grow in a small north facing porch?-we are in Scotland so it gets very cold in winter in there.Great for keeping beer cold, but I'd like to use it for more than that....

The money we spend on sweet peppers would easily justify any outlay on equipment, but I've never grown any veg before...any ideas anyone,for something not too tricky?

kethry

ailuro2 wrote: »

Can I hijack the thread and ask what I could grow in a small north facing porch?-we are in Scotland so it gets very cold in winter in there.Great for keeping beer cold, but I'd like to use it for more than that....

The money we spend on sweet peppers would easily justify any outlay on equipment, but I've never grown any veg before...any ideas anyone,for something not too tricky?

hmm. I'm growing peppers myself, mine are small and on the kitchen windowsill at the moment, where they seem to be thriving. I thought heat and light would be the biggest problem with growing them so far north and in a north facing porch, as you get correspondingly less light. However... I've just done some research.. this page is quite illuminating on the subject of growing peppers. you might need to buy a small heater to go in the porch, or some kind of mat that can go underneath the plant - google is going to be your best option for that. i think perhaps you will have to do the following: to grow them the majority of the time in the porch, in a pot (obviously) but, on warm summer days, take them outside to allow them to get a full measure of sun. You'll have to make sure you put it in a sheltered place (windwise) outside though.

my big question would be how many peppers you can realistically get off a couple of plants, this is my first year of growing them, so i don't really know what you can realistically expect to get in terms of a harvest. From what you've written, you eat a lot of them, and in order to get it so that you don't spend any money on peppers in the supermarket (and justify the cost of say, heating your porch) you might have to grow quite a few pepper plants. Are you sure you have space?

these two sites have more info: Royal horticultural society and gardeningpatch.com. Further searches of google might be more illuminating.

i guess the only other way is to try it!

HTH

keth
xx

ailuro2

I'm hoping for a few from each plant, it would save a bit of money every week, and I could always buy from the supermarket/greengrocers the rest of the time.

The RHS site is particularly good- ta very much, I'm going to give it a go.
I keep tropical fish so high nirtogen for peppers would not be a problem-fishwater is a great nitrogen source for plants:T

nodwah

I grow peppers up here in Scotland and hardly ever get them to go fully red I'm afraid. They might've done last year in the long summer but I didn't grow any coz we'd just moved house! They do need a lot of sun to ripen them IMHO

Sweet_Pea_2

Ive got a big sunny porch on the front of my house, and last year I used it a bit like a greenhouse. I had one of those mini greenhouses in there for the shelving mainly and I started all my seeds of in there and they all did really well. By the time the risk of frosts had passed and it was OK to plant everything outside, people where having trouble actually getting to my front door!
I have planted only a few things so far, doing the same as last year, and am planning to plant a lot more. Luckily for me, one side of the porch is really hot and sunny and the other side is darker and shady so I rotated the plants so they didnt get burnt, and had to do a lot of watering.
So far Ive planted, sweet peas, sunflowers, dahlias and geraniums, but I am planning to start off peas, runner beans, tomatoes, and lettuce, plus some herbs, oh and peppers too.
Its lucky we have the porch really as our garden is small and theres no room for a greenhouse.