How to make your own wormery

July 27, 2012
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A wormery will recycle your waste food to make a superb fertiliser for your crops and a living soil in your containers. Wormeries are perfect for small spaces: they’re small, don”t smell and make compost faster than conventional composters. You can either buy one (in the UK many councils offer them at discounted prices) or it [...]

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How to grow pea shoots

July 13, 2012
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Pea shoots are great for small spaces – they grow fast, taste delicious and don’t need much sun. Easy to grow, they’re also perfect to try if you’re starting out. Seeing (and eating!) the fruits of your labour in just in two or three weeks is rewarding and motivating. Here, in simple steps (with video [...]

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What can you sow in July?

July 6, 2012
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Some of you have been in touch recently to ask ‘can you start growing now?’ And if so, what can you grow? The answer to the first question is YES. The answer to the second is LOTS. However, you do need to select the right crops. In the UK – and much of the Northern [...]

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How do you stop hanging baskets drying out?

June 28, 2012
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If you’re looking to fill gaps or take advantage of higher sunny spaces in your growing space, hanging baskets can be a good solution. They can also look great. The big issue with hanging baskets is that they dry out quickly. This is a problem when growing vegetables – as most like plenty of water! [...]

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Blotches on your beetroot or chard?

June 19, 2012
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Some of you have been in touch recently about dark marks on the leaves of your chard and beetroot plants. These are the work of leaf miner. This is the larva of a fly that lays its eggs on the leaves. When the larvae hatch, they burrow into the leaves, eating it from the inside, [...]

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How to create a living soil – and dramatically increase the productivity of your growing

May 31, 2012
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Soil life: the best kept secret to successful container growing?     If you want to grow food successfully in containers, nurturing soil life can make a huge difference. Worm compost, for example, is full of microbes and life. Add it to your containers and you will get more vigorous growth, and far fewer pest [...]

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Magic beans! How to grow runners successfully

May 22, 2012
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  Runner beans are one of the most productive and pretty crops for small spaces.  Here are some tips for growing them healthily (and beautifully) in containers.  Once the threat of frost has passed (now in the UK), it’s time to get your runner beans started! (These tips were first published for The Secret Seed [...]

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From radish flowers to huge tomatoes: 6 quick container growing tips

May 15, 2012
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If you like information in bite sized chunks, check out  Vertical Veg on Facebook, where I’ve started daily (well, almost daily!) tips. If you want to receive these in your Facebook news feed, simply come over and ‘Like’ the page.  If you don’t use Facebook, here are the most popular so far: 1. Radish flowers: edible [...]

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Nine ways food growing can help you meet neighbours

May 1, 2012
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Big cities are not always the easiest places in which to feel part of your local community. But growing food can be a great way to break down the barriers. Here are nine tricks you can use to engage more with your community through growing food  in containers. Trick 1. Grow food ‘up front’ Food [...]

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Salad leaf mixes for every season

April 13, 2012
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Here’s a piece I first wrote for City Planter Salads are amongst the most productive and worthwhile crops for growing in small spaces. They don’t need big containers, will thrive in shadier spots and grow quickly and easily. Most are ready to eat just six to eight weeks after sowing. When choosing which salads to [...]

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Maximising Space 3: Fast Growing Crops

April 10, 2012

Fast growing crops are invaluable in lots of ways. If you’re growing for the first time a quick success is rewarding and boosts confidence. If you only have a short time window to grow in –  you might be a student in temporary accommodation, growing in a school, or going away on holiday – you [...]

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How do I start my container garden?

March 30, 2012
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If you’re growing in a new place, or for the first time, you may be thinking, ‘what’s the first thing I need to do to get started?’. A little time to observe and learn about your growing space is time well invested – and a good idea before going out to find pots and seeds. [...]

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What’s the best container material?

March 16, 2012
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Last month we looked at what size of container you need. Here we’ll look at your options in terms of container materials. There is no perfect container material, each has different pros and cons. As well as the size, the main things you’ll want to consider when choosing a container is what it looks like, [...]

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Edible Beauty: great looking crops for pots

March 8, 2012
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This is a version of a post first published in Fennel and Fern If you only have a small space to grow food in, you’ll probably be keen that it’s productive and looks good. In the past it was common to have enough space to grow both ornamental plants and to have a more functional [...]

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Graph of month by month harvests

March 2, 2012

If you’re growing food in a small space, you may be wondering how much you can harvest at different times of year. Below I’ve drawn a graph showing the weight of the harvest for each month, from my London balcony and window sills. It starts in May 2010 (when I started weighing)  and ends in November [...]

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What size container do I need?

February 23, 2012
Olive Oil tin as container

  If you’re planning to get more containers for the new growing season, you may well be asking: ‘what size of container do I need?’ There’s no straight forward answer – but here’s the information that will help you decide. Is depth or volume more important? The general rule is: the bigger the pot, the [...]

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