Tiny garden growing
Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2019 9:58 pm
I thought I'd share my experiences growing edibles in our tiny garden We moved in last year having previously always lived in flats with no outside space, so I'm a gardening novice. We did nothing with the garden last year as I was hugely pregnant when we moved, so we've finally started on it this week. Our garden is very small (around 4.5x3.5 metres) and we want to use the space for planting, eating, and giving the kids somewhere to play, so lots to fit in a tiny space!
This week we've bought 2 veg trugs, giving us a raised bed area that is 9x2 feet for some square foot gardening. I've probably done a thousand things wrong already, but this is all new and a bit experimental! I'd appreciate any tips or constructive criticisms to guide me on my way... Today I've filled the beds with peat-free all veg compost, and added a couple of bags of John Innes just because I'd read about it everywhere so it felt like a good idea! I bought a bunch of different vegetables at the garden centre, all around 1-3 inches high, and planted them out as follows:
1x mini cucumber and 1x ridged cucumber (1 square)
1x plum tomato (1 square)
1x cherry tomato (1 square)
2x courgette (2 squares)
9x peas (1 square)
7x butterhead lettuce (2 squares)
9x rainbow chard (2 squares)
So far I've used 10 of my 18 squares, I want to use at least 6 squares for perennials (anybody who's read this far know if rainbow chard counts as a perennial?) and I have some perpetual spinach ready to plant out.
I've also planted an alpine strawberry in a little pot, and also have a pineberry, blueberry bush and rhubarb all already planted in containers. My blueberry bush is looking pretty good with loads of flowers, but my rhubarb keeps losing leaves so not sure what's going on with that, I think perhaps it needs something to feed it rather than just water...
Many of you experienced gardeners are probably shaking your heads in dismay if you've read this far, but I'm having fun and learning, and definitely want to learn more! I'll keep updating as I add things, and figure out what works and what doesn't
This week we've bought 2 veg trugs, giving us a raised bed area that is 9x2 feet for some square foot gardening. I've probably done a thousand things wrong already, but this is all new and a bit experimental! I'd appreciate any tips or constructive criticisms to guide me on my way... Today I've filled the beds with peat-free all veg compost, and added a couple of bags of John Innes just because I'd read about it everywhere so it felt like a good idea! I bought a bunch of different vegetables at the garden centre, all around 1-3 inches high, and planted them out as follows:
1x mini cucumber and 1x ridged cucumber (1 square)
1x plum tomato (1 square)
1x cherry tomato (1 square)
2x courgette (2 squares)
9x peas (1 square)
7x butterhead lettuce (2 squares)
9x rainbow chard (2 squares)
So far I've used 10 of my 18 squares, I want to use at least 6 squares for perennials (anybody who's read this far know if rainbow chard counts as a perennial?) and I have some perpetual spinach ready to plant out.
I've also planted an alpine strawberry in a little pot, and also have a pineberry, blueberry bush and rhubarb all already planted in containers. My blueberry bush is looking pretty good with loads of flowers, but my rhubarb keeps losing leaves so not sure what's going on with that, I think perhaps it needs something to feed it rather than just water...
Many of you experienced gardeners are probably shaking your heads in dismay if you've read this far, but I'm having fun and learning, and definitely want to learn more! I'll keep updating as I add things, and figure out what works and what doesn't