I live in a small victorian terrace in London, so the fact I have a garden at all is amazing! After dealing with the main part of the garden, introducing a lawn and seating area, I was left with this narrow concrete corridor just outside my kitchen door.
It’s a pretty common feature of a victorian terrace garden and I’ve seen lots of different approaches to dealing with it. Half in sun, half in shade and well protected by the surrounding wall of the house and high fence, it seemed like a perfect place to grow some edible plants! The fact that it is right outside the kitchen door also makes a lot of sense and I had visions of walking outside in the summer and picking a few herbs or strawberries to use in my cooking. So I started a vegetable courtyard garden.
As the area has concrete flooring, I decided to grow in containers.
Container gardening has always scared me a little bit. I’ve felt like growing anything in a pot would take so much more work than growing directly into the ground. I had visions of endless watering, crops running out of nutrients and not being able to grow anything of a substantial size.
However, my initial thoughts have proved to be wrong! Container growing is actually a lot easier than I had thought it would be and my vegetables are doing better than the ones in the ground at the allotment plot. Here are some more reasons I’m loving container growing:
- Containers can be moved. If a plant requires a lot of sun, I can move it around so that it is almost constantly in the sun! Likewise, if a plant starts to droop in the sun, I can push it to the shade.
- Growing in pots means I can give each plant the conditions it requires. My carrots have lots of sand added and my pumpkins have a soil improver added!
- Lots of pots together creates a sort of microclimate for plants. My plants are loving this!
- Watering is really therapeutic and I actually look forward to hosing down my many plants.
- Protection is easier! Not only is it easier to protect from slugs and snails, it’s also easier to protect from crops rotting on the ground (like pumpkins and strawberries). I also don’t forget to pick them when they are ready to harvest!
Of course, there are some downsides to growing in containers. Firstly, I’m running out of room! I’m growing as much as I can vertically, but there are only so many crops you can fit into one pot, especially when you want to grow them to a decent size.
Also, it’s expensive. I’ve had to invest in a LOT of compost, something I don’t really have to do at the allotment plot. Pots take a lot of compost to fill them properly and thats before you start adding fertiliser, sand and vermiculite. I’m getting a little sick of having to buy massive bags of compost to fill a pot and disheartened to know that once I harvest a crop, I’ll have to refill a lot of the pot again before I can plant something else.
I’m going to keep you updated on my little vegetable courtyard progress and can’t wait to show you some of the harvests I get!
Happy gardening!
