As Jamie Oliver has discovered, growing your own produce is a satisfying way of reclaiming control over what ends up on your plate. And it doesn’t need to take lots of time – choose easy-care crops such as lettuce, tomatoes and courgettes to get maximum rewards for minimum effort.
What do you need?
First decision is where to locate the plot. In small gardens you may not have a huge amount of choice, but try to choose a sunny spot, avoiding shade that may be cast by tall trees or neighbouring properties. Remember fruit and veg are thirsty things, so make sure it’s near a water source to avoid traipsing around with watering cans. It’s useful to collect rainwater in a butt, which can be installed wherever you site the plot.
Large spaces have the option of hiding the working garden far away from the house, but remember this means you may have to squelch through the rain to get parsnips for Sunday lunch. If your garden really is tiny and you can’t spare a bed to grow veg in, don’t despair - you can still have a kitchen garden. It’s possible to intersperse crops in the flowerbeds if space is a real problem, or even use containers on a patio or balcony (see page 3).
Preparing the site
Most soil needs some kind of improvement, and your harvests will be much better if you spend a bit of time at the beginning creating the best start for them. There is also a cumulative effect – after a couple of years of good treatment, your harvests will get better and better.
Every garden will benefit from preparing the soil with well-rotted organic matter (animal manures with a high straw content, spent mushroom compost or the contents of your compost bin) to improve nutrients and drainage. The action of digging in also aerates the soil and encourages earthworm activity. Dig in a 10cm layer in spring, or leave it on the surface in autumn and wait for the worms to work it in for you (dig in any bits they’ve missed in the spring). Factors that may or may not affect your garden include wind or soil erosion, requiring permeable windbreaks and possibly retaining walls.
Choose between orderly rows or square beds. Access is important, so demarcate them with brick paving, grass paths or shingle. If you have space to divide the site into beds, you can alternate crops between legumes, brassicas, roots and the onion family to reduce the risk of pests and diseases. While most veg are harvested at the end of one pampered year, some are perennial (ie they return year after year), as are many fruit crops and herbs, so you may want to allocate a dedicated area for these.
