Welcome Simon Lock, who will be sharing the trials and tribulations of growing fruit and veg in his modest backyard.
Nothing tastes quite as good as produce from your own garden. It’s as local as it gets, it’s as organic as you want it to be and it travels from plot to plate in a matter of seconds. And the good news is you don’t need a piece of land the size of a football pitch to get started. Actually, you don’t even need a garden at all. Ok so you might find getting your five a day from a window box a little ambitious, but you’ll be surprised how well you can supplement your weekly shop within the confines of a relatively small space.
Using pots and containers is a great way to make the most of a balcony or patio, and as summer turns to autumn, having transportable beds will give you the upper hand over those planting out into the ground. September has proven to be a bit Jekyll and Hyde over the years, with Indian summer temperatures one year and ground frosts the next. Being able to bring in more vulnerable early autumn crops, or shift them into the sun on warmer days, will keep the damage done by cold nights to a minimum. Growing in pots also means there will be less chance of weeds muscling in on the action, while soil borne diseases should also be prevented. As long as there is plenty of drainage, early autumn planters like onions and garlic will love their new home.
Using pots and containers doesn’t have to mean a costly trip to the garden centre, either. In fact a cost free trip to the recycling bin will probably suffice. Summer’s ice cream containers have been reincarnated as autumn’s salad beds, with lemonade bottles sliced in half to become mini cold frames. Even a rusty old barbecue has been saved from the scrapheap and become home to a few rows of shallots!