Originally, I had the notion of a traditional cottage garden for my patch, with flowers, fruits and vegetables all mingling happily with each other. I tried it, I didn't like it...it just didn't work. I was either treading on a dainty flower in my effort to dig up a heap of potatoes, or stabbing my eye on a cane trying to reach over plants to grab a runner bean. I ended up resenting the vegetables for taking up so much space. But, there really is nothing like raising your own food to eat, so a few years ago, I decided to start growing in pots on my patio. To my surprise, it was a huge success, and it's now something I do every year and really look forward to.
I've found that there really is nothing you can not grow in a pot, and it's a huge advantage to be able to hop out of the kitchen onto my patio and cut a few leaves for a salad, or pick some beans to accompany dinner. There's no secret to container growing either, I use basic potting compost in the pots, sprinkle on some seeds or pot on a pre-grown plant and wait for them to grow.
A couple of things I have discovered though, is the importance of the container you plant in. You have to use a pot large enough to accommodate the fruit or vegetable, and then some. There's really no point growing in a tiny pot or one that's just about big enough, as the roots of the plant become stunted and you end up watering all the time! Trial and error means I have a preference for plastic pots too. Terracotta looks lovely, but it dries out the soil so quickly and the pots are always breaking in frosty weather, even those that claim they won't! I do feed my pots as well, usually once a fortnight, with a general purpose tomato fertiliser.
Several of the vegetables that I'd grown from seed were ready for their second potting on. I usually wait until I see a few roots poking from the bottom of the pot before I do this, these had more than a few, proving the actual garden has had me very occupied over the last couple of weeks.
Cucumbers are coming along nicely, and when they get potted on the next time, they'll be transferred to the sunnier side of my patio, with some trellis fixed behind the pot for them to scramble on.
Tomatoes will also join the sunny side in a week or two. Because there will be some sun...won't there?
Lettuce, Mixed Salad and Rocket will stay on the shady side, as it's cooler and helps prevent them from running to seed. They are romping away at the moment, and I've been thinning out the seedlings, as well as sowing new batches so there will always be some ready to eat throughout summer.
I also succession sow French Beans and Radishes, both vegetables I adore and can eat by the bucket load! I'll be adding a third set of pots next week for these. The first set should be ready in a couple of weeks.
Spring Onions are 'springing' along. I usually leave one pot to flower, so I can enjoy the little petals scattered over salads, and the others get snipped on a regular basis. The wooden box at the back has Sage, Thyme and Chives in.
I picked the first few stalks of Rhubarb today, ready to be roasted tomorrow morning and served with some natural yoghurt and a drizzle of honey for breakfast.
The Strawberries in the raised beds on the patio have started to flower, and I've started to drool over the thought of freshly picked fruit for my pudding!
I snaffled this Blackberry runner from my Mums garden the last time I was digging there. I don't really need blackberries in the garden as the nature reserves where I live are full of them in summer, but this is a thornless variety, so I thought it might save my poor arms from being scratched to pieces, and provide enough fruit to add to the breakfast bowl every now and then.
Of course, there are still one or two edible things in the actual garden. The Apple Tree for one.
And the raspberries, that have a patch of their own in the far right corner. I'm happy to leave them there and just dig up the runners when they get out of hand. They produced an enormous amount of fruit last year!
There are still lots of vegetables in the coldframe, and even more in my spare room, waiting for the right time to go outside, but here's a list of what is out there so far:
- Beetroot
- Rocket
- Mixed Salad Leaves
- Tomatoes
- Courgettes
- Cucumbers
- Rhubarb
- Asparagus Peas
- French Beans
- Garlic Chives
- Radishes
- Carrots
- Spinach
- Kale
- Swiss Chard
- Butternut Squash
- Strawberries
- Blackberries
- Raspberries
- Apples
I'm hoping for a good bounty this year!
