Do you dream of growing your own vegetables but don’t have enough space? Or perhaps you tried and were defeated by our rocky soil, endless weeds, and the high cost of water here? Take heart. With a little ingenuity, a sunny spot, and some extra-large pots, it can still happen.
My dad gave me a packet of snapdragon seeds and one of carrots when I was four years old. I’ve been on my hands and knees, digging and planting in the dirt ever since. But now, a couple of pesky injuries have kept me on my feet for that type of gardening. First with a hip problem, followed by a torn Achillies tendon in August. I managed to get the hip issue resolved, but the tendon refuses to heal, despite repeated medical treatments.
After a lifetime of growing my own vegetables, it seemed I would have to give up that pleasure because getting down on the ground was just too painful. In the end, I decided I wasn’t ready to quit yet. A proper vegetable garden is out of the question, but I’m trying something new, at least new to me.
I’m going to use large pots for some plants, but I also bought a couple of galvanised feeding-trough type raised beds. I intend to start small. This will be a new experience for me, as I will be using the square-foot-gardening Method to produce a lot of vegetables in a limited space. If this is successful, I’ll increase the number of raised beds.
These raised beds are two metres by one metre each and hip-height. I’ll have four square metres to play with. To give an idea of the transition I’m making, I’ve included photos of my past vegetable garden. This is down-sizing on a massive scale, or should that be on a tiny scale?
Heirloom tomatoes have always been my great passion. I’ve grown up to 27 unusual varieties from around the world in one season. That scale is not possible for me now. Instead, I will be experimenting with five varieties that were developed in the global Dwarf Tomato Project a few years ago. These are plants that produce top quality tomatoes all season long on short plants and are suitable for container gardens.
My tomato seedlings currently spend their days on a sunny south-facing window ledge, along with aubergine and pepper plants. I also have lettuce, spinach, and basil seedlings coming along. I bring them all in at night. When the nights get warm enough, they’ll go out to the raised gardens and big pots. Later, I’ll add cucumbers, beans, radishes, beets, and onions.
If you want to grow your own vegetables, it’s not necessary to be as fanatical as me. You don’t need to grow from seed. Village markets and garden centres will soon offer an abundance of small vegetable plants. Here’s what’s important for success.
- Large pots. And I mean really large. All vegetable plants are greedy for space.
- Excellent soil. Buy the best compost you can find. Not the stuff you find at Chinese shops or Carrefour. And while you’re at it, get a sack of worm castings. This will give the soil a big boost of the nutrients and microbes plants need to thrive.
- Water. Vegetable plants are extremely thirsty. You will probably need to water every day in the summer. You can run tubes to individual plants connected to a cheap timer and water automatically. Remember to only water the soil, and not the plants themselves, to avoid fungus.
- Location. Choose a sunny spot. Preferably one that gets full morning sun and perhaps dappled shade in the late afternoon.
That’s all you need to get started.
The square-foot-gardening method I will use involves dividing the surface of the raised beds into planting squares. My setup will give me about 36 squares. A square might contain one red pepper plant, one aubergine plant, 4 lettuces, 9 onions, 2 cucumbers, one cauliflower, 9 spinach plants, 4 bean plants, or 2 basil plants. As I harvest a plant, I will have a seedling ready to replace it.
This intensive method uses less space and less water. And for someone with a ruptured Achillies tendon, it means I can do what I love and still stay on my feet.
I hope you’re inspired to give vegetable growing a try. It’s rewarding on so many levels. Start small and see if it grabs you the way that it did me.
Fern Penrose
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