|
Growing food in a mid terrace back yard
Last year was a bit of a vegetable disaster. The pots were too small and I couldn't get enough water to the plants so it was a meagre crop of veg for my husband and I.
I have big plans for 2010. Well, not that big. Mid-terrace-house back yard size, to be precise. The sun only falls on about a third of the yard, but I reckon there is room for two small borders and some pots – enough to grow potatoes, carrots, runner beans, courgettes (maybe not courgettes: they are huge), tomatoes, maybe even strawberries... and some flowers :)
I'm having tea with mum and dad, on my way to work tomorrow (R will be at work) so I shall be scheming with dad for the coming year, especially as he mentioned helping me with the borders.
I am especially looking forward to growing some Red Duke of York potatoes. I found some in Sainsbury's today and R and I had them with the spicy chicken casserole that I made. They were lovely.
And I am determined to show you don't need a big garden or your own home to grow your own food... just seeds, water from the shower (where it takes ages to warm up), some £1 buckets from B&Q and some non-peat compost. :)
|
Karen Turnbull, 17/11/2009 |
|
| | | Beverly Evans | 27/11/2009 10:24 | You are absolutely right! And do make as much use of people who already grow stuff as you can. Sharing tips means that you don't have to wait 10 experimental years to get the perfect cabbage (I've already wasted 4 years of veg growing by NOT making use of the wealth of information around me from growers who are neighbours!) Years ago, when everyone grew stuff in their gardens because they had to, that knowledge was passed on through the years and over the fence - we need to bring that back a bit more. Ditto for child-rearing, but that really is a whole other thread!
| | | | Pete Hawkins | 30/11/2009 17:08 | My advice would be 'Be careful!'; you're playing with fire. I started in a very similar way (well, raspberries in our end of terrace actually). It was just recreational and thought I could control it. Very soon I found the back garden was not enough and I secretly got friends to put my name down for a local allotment. I told myself that would satisfy me and foolishly believed I could stop whenever I wanted. However, my addiction moved on and I now find myself regularly abandoning my family to tend our 3 acres. What next? someone help me please!
| | | | Robert Marshall | 18/02/2010 16:09 | My wife with a little support from myself(!) used our little plot out back. We have a 20 x 11 foot (ish) garden with a strip down one side which is about 3 foot wide. Some of that was given over to carrots which turned out to be Nigella - don't know quite what happened there! We had 3 containers for potatoes and only had about 15 -20 spuds all together about 4cm each. She did also try pumpkin in 3 grow bags, particularly for the eldest who's at infant school but only one about the size of a hockey ball came from that. Strawberries 2 -3 hands full. As the soil is not brilliant I've actually tilled it this time already and put two lots of compost from our own bin onto it. We'll try something different. Oh and we also had runner beans in a container, only had a handful of beans from that. It's a start though.
|
|
|
|
