Need clever ideas for limited space

[thecornflake]

So this is my third year, (second full year) of growing my own veg. I have for the last two years only had a very small patio, but done very well with everything in containers.

This year we have moved to a house with a bigger patio and a bit of lawn, however firstly it's rented and I can't just dig up the lawn and secondly the wife seems to think the kids might actually want to play in the garden. So I'm still restricted to containers on limited patio space. However I have a coupel of walls /fences I could grow things up...

Any clever ideas welcome. I also grow climbing french beans because of the crop per container space, one or two courgette plants and I succession plant carrots. I also have patio potato planters. I'd be interested in innovative ways to use the walls if there are any.

Oh, and peas and tomatoes are out because no-one else in the family likes them

[faerieprincess]

I'm facing a bit of the same dilemma, but a small trick which could enable you to use some of the edges of the lawn is to get the scraggy bits of lawn which you trim off the edges and plant them into a seedling tray and trim it with scissors. When you need to hand the house back - or at the end of the veggie growing season, you can put this lawn back on the edges of your lawn and pretend it was always there!!!

I read about this as a trick for fixing heavily treaded areas of lawn - and figured I could pinch it for fixing the edges of the lawn where I'm going to 'borrow' some space temporarily to grow some veggies!!

[greendean]

i was looking around the net and found this

hope its useful
Royal Horticultural Society | Growing veg on walls

[faerieprincess]

I've seen a similar thing in some magazines greendean - but the problem is that I can't really attach anything to the house walls - property would definitely not pass inspection if I did that! And the garden walls are all hedges. I don't even have a well placed drain pipe to use - so I can only use pots sitting on the ground or shelves and some cane supports in the pots themselves.

The only thing I can use are two hanging basket brackets which are attached to the walls, and attaching some thin wire to them in a downward fan shape and then attaching the bottom onto a heavy timber beam - trying to decide whether peas or beans would be better on there - I have some borlotti beans (tongue of fire) which I thought could be quite attractive.

The lawn is huge, but sadly I can't rip any of it up. I have, however, purloined a small, neglected flower bed which only had a dilapidated, overgrown lavender bush and have cleared it, turned it over, and 'subtly' enlarged it (ha, dare them to notice that!!!). That and pots on the patio will have to be it for me. But at least that bed and the patio get lots of sun!

[blue411]

I rent my house too and spoke to my landlord and asked about putting in rasied beds and creating borders and basically as long as the garden is left as it was found i can do what i like, can you not section of a small area using a natural barrier like the bamboo rolls and keep that area for you and your veg, still leaving lawn for the kids to play on?

[thecornflake]

Thanks for all the replies. The link to the RHS page was interesting - shame they didn't have any pictures though.

The property is rented so I can't just go fixing things all over the walls, but I think I could get away with a few well-placed fixings that could be taken out when we left.

There is a L-shape wall and each side has a bracket for a hanging basket - I'm thinking about running some wire across between the two and growing beans or something along the wire.

[spennysaint]

HI

I too have limited space.

I've invested in 2 of the three tier basket things. It's basically three hanging baskets with a rod through the middle that free stands, I'm putting in strawberries, tomatos, dwarf sweet peas, half pint peas ?, dwarf aubergine and bush chilli. basil, oregano. But you could put anything in that is dwarf ar trails. Also look at things that can go in the same conatiner but come up at different heights or need to be planted at different times.

Claire

[HeyWayne]

4 tier mini greenhouses any good to you - remove the plastic and keep the frames in the hotter months.

[thecornflake]

4 tier mini greenhouses any good to you - remove the plastic and keep the frames in the hotter months.

I have one of these already - I have toyed with the idea of buying more for this purpose. You can buy just the frames in some places. And they're a lot cheaper than some other shelving systems that are basically the same thing.

Currently googling for 'vertical gardening' is giving me lots of ideas.

[sharonr]

I brought a book called Crops in Pots by Bob Purnell and published by hamlyn.
It has 50 container projects usins veg, herbs and fruit. It also has some recipes in it.
There is a web site on the back Octopus Publishing Group if that is any use.
I have just checked it is on there for £14.99. I only paid a fiver for it......bargin.

[Creemteez]

Sell the kids and spend the money on compost and vegetable seed!

[westwiltspatio]

Could you run the beans along one edge of the lawn like this frame - that could extend out over the lawn a little bit without stopping the kids playing on it. (Maybe they'd even like having a bean canopy to sit under?)

Interested to hear you grow climbing beans - I bought dwarf for my containers thinking they'd need less soil, maybe I should get some climbing beans instead.

I'm also in rented accom and most of the small back garden is patio, and the couple of beds around the edges are carefully planted up with various evergreen shrubs, which look lovely but I can't eat them.

[selfraising]

Hi I bought a cheap metal arch from argos last year and left off the bottom couple of poles, thereby shortening it, I then stuck it into the lawn to one side and grew a pumpkin over it, which was in a container, that way I still had room underneath for more pots. There are loads of climbing veg e.g. cucumbers and courgettes as well as probably beans. This year I'm thinking of growing my squash over it in a raised bed to give me more growing room beneath, Just wondering if you could adapt this for the patio, perhaps by sticking the ends of the arch in four deep pots to hold it in place

[Mustard]

On this topic I have a fence with some kind of climbing plant growing up it. There is a gap at the bottom between fence and patio of approx 6-8 inches where the current plant grows from.
Would it be viable to take this plant out and put some kind of pea plant in it's place, or would the gap be too small?

Thanks

[thecornflake]

Could you run the beans along one edge of the lawn like this frame - that could extend out over the lawn a little bit without stopping the kids playing on it. (Maybe they'd even like having a bean canopy to sit under?)

Interested to hear you grow climbing beans - I bought dwarf for my containers thinking they'd need less soil, maybe I should get some climbing beans instead.

For containers of the same size, I reckon you would get more beans with climbing beans growing up say 5ft poles - I use troughs and have either 3 dwarf or 6 climbers. I grow both types usually.

Interesting idea extending them over the lawn. That would only require stakes int he lawn which could then just be pulled out again. Hmmmm....

Just wondering if you could adapt this for the patio, perhaps by sticking the ends of the arch in four deep pots to hold it in place

Possibly but I like to be able to move the containers around and it would be difficult if they're linked up with arches or whatever.

On this topic I have a fence with some kind of climbing plant growing up it. There is a gap at the bottom between fence and patio of approx 6-8 inches where the current plant grows from.
Would it be viable to take this plant out and put some kind of pea plant in it's place, or would the gap be too small?

Thanks

You should be able to plant a pea or other climbing veg plant in the gap. It's the depth of the soil and proximity to other plants that makes more of a difference.