what to grow when time and space are limited?

[aquilegia]

I really want to grow more veg this year, but don't have an awful lot of time and only the home veg patch to grow in (not counting the school garden, but we don't get to eat much of that!)

What would you suggest to grow when you don't have a lot of time and space?

Obviously I'll start with what we actually eat.

We don't eat a huge amount of brassicas, but I am tempted with PSB as it's so easy to grow, but hard and expensive to find in the shops!

Definitely tomatoes and salads in pots.

Probably not spuds. I've tried them in containers, but was disappointed by the harvest.

Broad, runner and french beans and sugar snap peas are a must.

What else would you grow?

[aquilegia]

[manicscousers]

We grow carrots in a big pot , have you any soft fruits in the ground, it's very expensive in the shops and once in, it's easy to look after 

[aquilegia]

Good idea about the carrots. I've only grown them in the ground, but as it's clay and stoney, they weren't too happy. And in pots they'd be easier for my boys to pull!

Yes I have lots of soft fruit - stawberries, raspberry (summer and autumn), tayberry, rhubarb. I feel like I need more, though!

[BarriedaleNick]

Radish esp French Breakfast varieties can give you lots from a small area. I grow Alto Beetroot and get loads from a few square feet.  Baby gem lettuce or any lettuce really can be grown in deep trays - I get a pack of "living lettuce" from the supermarket for a quid and separate them out into window sill trays for a quick crop.  Garlic is something you can dot around here and there. Maybe some spring onions  - always nice!

[galina]

I agree, it depends on what you would like to eat that is not cheap in the shops or not available at all.  One candidate might be sweetcorn.  as shop bought sweetcorn is very inferior quality to home grown.  And, again this depends on whether you like to eat them, but there are actually very few types of squashes in the shops apart from butternuts.  I have never seen a Delicata squash, and the likes of buttercups or small kabocha squashes or something like Crown Prince are very hard to find.  The downside is the space the plants require, although there are bush forms for some of these too.  Dare I even ask - would you miss having courgettes in the garden? Just two plants would not take up too much space, but provide loads of veg.

For us the humble chard is a useful, available all year round veg and you cannot buy that either.  Ditto little  'gherkin type' cucumbers.  Any of the more exotic veg that you like as a family.  And I love my patches of spring onion/everlasting onion/Babington leek, as there is always something to harvest for a bit of flavour or tasty, edible garnish.  Cress and rocket are also very hardy and a tiny corner in the garden will provide a generous amount to 'pep up' salads and provide garnish or sandwich greens.  They just grow without any work - at worst you will get a few 'flea-beetle' holes in the rocket.

[goodlife]

How about garlic and chives...both are easy to grow in small space and in pots....and if you don't get round to pulling the garlic bulbs up..they will sprout up again in following year and this time you get to use them as VERY garlicky greens... In fact..if you like garlic greens more than actual bulbs..there is nothing stopping you filling a pot with bulbs so that they don't have other option than make their growth as greens....you could do same with 'old' sprounting onions/shallots..though once the flower spike comes up..there usually is nothing to use anymore...but you can let flowers do their thing and allow little feast for the bees etc.
Brassicas don't have to be touch and space robbing plants...if you only eat little....sow/plant some with small spacing and use them as 'new' greens..much more tender leaves that are pleasure to eat amongst salad..particularly kale will do well this way.

Less you can see soil...less room there is for weeds and biggest job is 'just' to remember to water everything..otherwise plants will look after themselves..you only need to pick the crops and EAT them..

[aquilegia]

oh yes sweetcorn is a must! we love it. i might even be able to squeeze a squash under it.

Actually i did see crown prince squashes in tescos in the autumn. unless of course you went shopping in the same store after me and I'd already bought the lot!

more salads - yes. Especially rocket. Even my fussy son eats that. (well, one leaf, but it's better than nothing!) and chard definitely too. i forgot about that.

can't decide about courgettes. we do eat them. Mr A isn't a huge fan (well at least not by the end of the summer anyway!)

I have lots of herbs anyway. I normally grow garlic in the autumn, but just didn't get round to it last year.  it's never worked when i've spring-sown it. so might give that a miss!

I need to start drawing a plan and looking at seed catelogues! So exciting!

[manicscousers]

A couple of blueberry bushes will give you some lovely berries for breakfast 

[Paulines7]

Has Mr A tried Cavalli courgettes?  They are much creamier than most, are firmer and have fewer seeds.  Cut lengthwise, dipped in olive oil, seasoned and put on the barbecue is one of the ways we cook them.  They can also be cut into small pieces then added to bolognese or eaten raw in a salad.

I put three plants in my flower bed last year and had a good supply of courgettes throughout the summer.

[aj]

One of the things I trialled last year which was an excellent approach, was to get all my seeds out [the ones that I know I probably won't seed save from], and split them into seed to be sown in January, Feb, Mar, Apr, etc etc. then I split those into 4 and bagged them up so there was a bag to sow each week.

Alot of these I sowed into rows at the lottie [we were in the middle of changing the layout so needed something simple].

I ended up with loads of veg that needed nothing more than hoeing inbetween. And it was all spaced out over the season.

I called it the 'Random Approach'.

Stuff like toms, peppers, Climbing French beans and main onions were not included. But all stuff that is easily identifiable was in. If something was growing taller than expected [peas for instance] I just popped a cane in for them to hang onto.

The other way of doing it is to look at all the seeds you have, and put them in order of what you like to eat, and pick the top 5 or 10. And just do those.

[aquilegia]

Pauline yes we've had cavilli. I liked them. I think he has no tastebuds (he thinks potatoes taste of nothing and can eat chillis raw!)

AJ - love the idea of your random approach. I do a very informal cottage garden style for the flowers. I'd like to do the same with veg, but haven't managed it yet!

[antipodes]

can't decide about courgettes. we do eat them. Mr A isn't a huge fan (well at least not by the end of the summer anyway!)

I think that many people leave the courgettes to get far too big, then they end up with big watery ones and quickly get sick of them. I try and pick mine young, when they are no more than a couple of centimetres across. the plant produces many more quickly. Any excess I quickly freeze them and we continue to have courgettes for stews and soups during the autumn.

For squash, as soon as I take out the first early spuds, I quickly prepare a mound with veg peelings buried, manure if I have some, some good fresh compost from the bin and I quickly plant trailing squash. I keep harvesting spuds  as the plant grows and then it has plenty of space to run off. It's a good way to make the most of that space.