Fruit, vegetables, herbs - no matter what size your garden you can have a steady supply by raising them in containers. The combination of short days, bad weather and the intractable fact of winter means that for most of us this Easter weekend is the first real chance since last autumn to get out into the garden and tackle a big project. But now the clocks have changed and the days are getting longer, the weather is warming up and spring is swinging into town, this is the perfect moment to get out there and start the magical cycle of growing your own vegetables, fruit and herbs, because no food gives so much satisfaction as that which you have grown yourself. But what if you have only a tiny patch of garden or even no garden at all? How can you grow anything edible at all, let alone provide yourself with a succession of fresh seasonal fare?
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Easter weekend is the perfect opportunity to revamp a veg pot - no matter how small! TERRIFIC- TASTING VEG The answer is simple. You certainly do not have to restrict yourself to pots. Vegetables will grow in anything that will retain soil and has some drainage. If you travel to villages in Third World countries you will find gardens where every possible container is recycled and used to grow valuable food, and although this is driven by necessity the results are nearly always vibrant and beautiful.
Almost anything can be raised in a container of some sort – I once visited tribespeople on the Amazon towing entire gardens behind them planted in defunct boats – and there is something about vegetables and fruit that suits a less preciously tasteful approach than purely decorative planting. Vegetables grown in a recycled can will taste just as good as those grown in an expensive terracotta pot – and taste is the only thing that really matters. Vegetables need sunshine to grow well, so place your containers in a spot that’s sunny for at least half the day – and preferably all day.
However, window boxes, roof gardens and even back yards can be very windy. HOW TO CREATE A MINI- ORCHARDContainers are ideal for those fruits that are easy to grow, fully hardy to anything a British winter can put them through, yet hard to buy fresh in shops.
I am thinking especially of berries such as gooseberries, strawberries (above) and blueberries. Gooseberries can be raised as bushes or cordons (single stem trees with lateral spurs) and will perform well in some shade as long as they have good ventilation to avoid mildew and reduce sawfly. Strawberries need sunshine and rich soil but grow very well for me in individual small pots lined up along a wall. Blueberries must have ericaceous soil with a p.
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H of 6 or below, but good peat- free composts of that nature are now widely available. If you are growing peaches, nectarines or apricots in a container then it must be fairly large and have a very free- draining compost, so will need grit and even larger stones added to the mix. The pots should also be raised up on feet or blocks of some sort to ensure all excess water drains away from the pot.
However, this does not mean they do not need watering – so soak them once a week in summer and once a month in winter. Of all the citrus plants, lemons are the easiest to grow – and the hardiest. However, you should have some horticultural fleece standing at the ready to protect them if the weather is very cold, and if they are in a big, expensive terracotta pot that will need protecting from the frost too, so ideally the pots and plants should come into frost- free winter quarters.
Apples (left) and pears will grow well in a container but only if they are on the correct rootstock as it is the rootstock that determines the size and vigour of the tree. Apples in containers are best grown on M9 or M2. They look fabulous too. Even light winds accelerate the demand for water and can cut growth, and plants react to wind by toughening their leaves – which is fine in a tree but makes a lettuce much less palatable. So provide shelter from wind.
Of course, some crops are better suited to containers than others, and if you have no room for growing in the ground then it’s unlikely you’ll have room for endless pots. Broad beans, for example, have roots that go down 5ft and you need perhaps ten plants to provide a worthwhile harvest for two people. Conventional celery needs a trench and space to earth up. Maincrop potatoes require more space than the average garden can give them, let alone containers. Yet I am all for trying to have as wide a range as possible and challenging some of the preconceptions of vegetable growing. Salad crops of all kinds, including lettuce, radish and rocket, are ideal.
Containers are best suited to cut- and- come- again crops like rocket, oak- leaf lettuces, winter purslane, spinach and corn salad, which can all be harvested by the leaf and will all regrow to provide second or even third cuttings. Do not be tempted to sow these seeds too thickly but concentrate on growing healthy, strong plants. Be bold and thin ruthlessly. A few healthy plants of this type, that you require to regrow quickly for another harvest, will always do better than masses of smaller ones. Root crops are ideal for containers because they can ensure a deep root run, whereas in my heavy clay garden soil, carrots, for example, always have a struggle. Carrots, beetroot, parsnips (though you’ll need a very deep container to accommodate their long roots), swedes and turnips are all possible.
YOU CAN GROW SPUDS TOO Although maincrop potatoes are probably not worth growing in containers save for the fun of it (and that is a perfectly good reason), new potatoes or first earlies are ideal and require nothing more than a polythene sack. Simply pierce the bottom of the sack to allow excess moisture to drain and put in a generous layer of garden compost covered by another layer of potting compost.
Place three seed potatoes equidistantly apart and cover them with another layer of compost. As they grow, cover them with more compost until the sack is half full and then let the foliage develop in full sun. Water well and they’ll be ready to harvest any time after the flowers form.
I challenge anyone not to be thrilled as you delve down into the soil to extract the first golden potatoes – and they’ll taste better than any spud you’ve ever eaten. The method above is purely practical – and none the worse for that – but more conventional containerised edible plants such as tomatoes and chillies also look as appetising as they taste. I grow both of these and melons, aubergines and cucumbers in pots because it means I can give them the heat and protection my exposed garden cannot guarantee. If you have a sunny windowsill or porch, let alone a conservatory, then not only can any of these be grown, but they’ll go on producing long after garden plants would give up the ghost due to cold.
MAKING COMFREY LIQUID FEEDComfrey is perhaps the most effective of all British plants at taking up nutrients from the soil and storing them in its leaves, and it makes a terrific liquid feed. Gather as many leaves and stems as can be crammed into a bucket and chop them up to fit tightly. Top the bucket up to the brim with water and put it somewhere remote for three weeks (it will start to smell disgusting after a few days as the proteins in the comfrey begin to break down).
Strain and apply the liquid diluted 1: 3. Nitrogen- rich nettle tea is made in exactly the same way, simply substituting nettles for comfrey leaves. If you’re growing them in a greenhouse or conservatory, pot them on into a container at least 3. If you are growing them outside, give them the sunniest spot in your garden and add plenty of compost to the soil. Grow them well away from potatoes and never have the two crops following on from each other as they share the same diseases – the main one being blight. Stake the plants well and tie them in every week, pinching out the side- shoots that grow at 4. Keep your tomatoes well watered and from mid- July feed them once a week with a dilute seaweed or comfrey fertiliser.
CHAMPION CHILLIES Treat a chilli like a tomato and you won’t go far wrong. The secret is to encourage a big and bushy plant to establish over the coming few months; this is made easier with a weekly feed high in nitrogen, which can either be bought or made by steeping stinging nettles in a bucket of water. When the flowers form on the chilli plant, replace this with a feed high in potash – a general- purpose tomato feed is ideal. That way you’ll get a plant big enough to carry lots of fruits. Pick them as they ripen to encourage new fruits to form well into autumn. Whatever you decide to grow, make sure it’s something you love to eat. This may only provide a harvest big enough for one meal, but make that a treat and a celebration.