There’s plenty of delicious crops you can grow in pots, writes Chris Collins, Garden Organic’s head of horticulture.
Limited space shouldn’t limit your ability to grow things to eat. On my balcony, I harvest all kinds of organic greens, herbs and sun-kissed vegetables – and there’s nothing better than picking them super fresh.
A trough filled with cut-and-come-again salads, spinach, rocket and spring onions is an easy place to start. Fill a 25cm-by-25cm trough with peat-free compost, and sow thickly in drills 8in (20cm) apart. I like to inter-sow with fresh drills every three to four weeks to ensure a constant supply.
Potatoes also grow easily in hessian sacks. Fill a quarter of the sack with compost and place four seed potatoes (preferably chitted) into the compost. As the plants grow, add more fresh compost to cover the growing shoots until you reach the top. They’ll be ready in eight to 10 weeks, depending on conditions.
You can grow vertically too, with hanging baskets of strawberries and nasturtium (great for bees and salads). Plant in the top and through the sides for a bumper crop. Strawberries grow nicely in recycled pallets, dustbins and buckets too.
If you have a slightly bigger garden or a patio, you could build a 3ft x 3ft (1m x 1m) square raised bed from old pallet wood, ensuring it’s 12in (30cm) deep for root crops. Divide it into 12 sections and plant up each small section with a different crop such as flowering herbs, radish, carrots, lettuce, beetroot and spring onion. This will allow you to create a full, delicious organic veg garden in miniature!
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Question and Answer
Q. What herbs can I grow on a windowsill?
A. Soft-foliaged herbs such as basil, coriander and parsley will take easily from seed now that the days are getting longer. Alternatively, grow some perennial herbs such as rosemary, lemon balm and marjoram in a recycled crate, with peat-free compost and 25% silver sand. These can be lifted out and divided every couple of years to make new plants.
Q. Can you recommend pretty vegetables to grow among my flowers?
A. Speckled and coloured lettuce, rainbow Swiss chard and rich red beetroot leaves make a stunning backdrop for flowers. Peas and beans look lovely climbing up a small wigwam of sticks and are great for pollinators.
Q. What kind of compost is best for containers?
A. My perfect mix is a decent quality, multipurpose, peat-free compost with 20% sharp sand or gravel, 20% loam, and a few comfrey pellets. This can be top-dressed with some homemade compost from time to time.
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