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Starting a garden in a rented property

• Message 1. 

  Posted by idiotsavant9 (U14760867) on Saturday, 22nd January 2011

  I'm moving to a new area shortly. The ground floor flat has a shared back lawn used for hanging laundry, and a shared front lawn. The local council tells me there are no allotments in the area. Is there any way I can do any vegetable gardening? I imagine this is a common propblem.

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• Message 2

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by As_Iff (U13951957) on Saturday, 22nd January 2011

  You can grow veg in containers.
  If your landlord agrees to it, you can erect a small greenhouse to grow salads. You can also grow tomatoes outside in hanging baskets.
  If you find that the other residents aren`t bothered about gardening, they probably won`t mind if you claim a border closest to your own flat. You can plant veg in that.
  

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• Message 3

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  Posted by the2 jays (U14383723) on Saturday, 22nd January 2011

  Greenfingers have some hessian bags to grow veg in & they are half price ATM. They have one with corner slots for canes so you can grow beans & peas in them. Well worth a look. I think they have one of the plastic greenhouses reduced too.

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• Message 4

  , in reply to message 1.

  Posted by Niblet (U14438752) on Saturday, 22nd January 2011

  Hi there,
  
  I'm in rented accomodation and I grow only edibles, all in pots. last year I successfully grew:
  *Courgettes went absolutely bonkers in pots - enormous prehistoric looking plants and lots of glossy fruit
  *Beans - grew like the clappers and I had to give beans away every week. Blackfly loved them so I had to keep treating them with organic bug spray but it was easy enough
  *Pak choi - super easy to grow but I was too impatient for adult plants so kept eating them as baby veg stir fried with mushrooms and garlic
  *Mixed salad leaves as a cut-and-come-again crop
  *Beetroot was OK in pots but I think they needed a LOT more water than I gave them and they were very slow growing. Don't transplant the seedling, they won't thrive.
  *Strawberries; got a few from baby plants but I had to fight a family of blackbirds for them and in the end I gave up. It was just so funny watching them sprint down the garden with a massive berry speared on their beaks. I think they had some weird addiction. Should get a bigger crop this year as plants established now.
  *Butternut squash, cucumber and spring onions failed miserably, BUT I believe it was due to some useless waste of time compost I trial called Pro-Grow. Avoid it, it's a dreadful rip off and so disappointing to watch your lovingly raised babies fail to flourish. Everything hated it and the roots just wouldn't do anything.
  
  I also tried to grow tomatoes but I was much much too late sowing them so I barely got any fruit. I think I sowed them in May maybe? Too late anyway.
  I also grew sweetcorn but again a little bit late sowing so only got 1 or 2 small cobs from each plant - but they were easy fun and pretty to grow.
  I had a brilliant chilli plant on my window sill by night and patio by day - I think it was a Hungarian Wax.
  
  I got started with Dig-In freebie seeds and added to the collection when I saw something I fancied. I have 2 great books I can highly recommend for the container gardener and that's The Edible Container Garden by Michael Guerra and The River Cottage Veg Patch handbook. The edible Container Garden provides inspiration and very useful information about suitable veg for pots, pot sizes and depths, position and companion planting and an overview on the whole concept. The River Cottage book is just lovely, with lots of suggestions for varieties, recipes and raising your seedlings. I also got a lot of info online just through keyword searches.
  
  This year I'm growing:
  Garlic - 'elephant' and 'solent wight'
  Rainbow chard
  Toms, assorted cherry types and a cooking plum called 'San Marzano'
  Peppers, mini aubergines, and chillies - lots of, in conservatory but you could raise on windowsill or in a little lean-to or plastic green house
  Florence fennel - 'Zefa fino'
  Climbing courgettes to free up more room - 'Tromboncino' and 'black forest'
  Patty pan (summer squash) - assorted packet
  Winter squash - 'Potimarron'
  Pak choi - lots of, assorted packet
  Salad - italian mixed seeds
  Last year's strawbs - 'Cambridge favourite' and another one (can't remember)
  Beans - 'Cobra' are my favourite
  Sweetcorn - random unlabelled packet from last year.
  
  I understand you can buy lots of veg seedlings from garden centres so I guess that might be an easy way to get started. Hope this helps!

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• Message 5

  , in reply to message 4.

  Posted by whatalottie (U9072847) on Saturday, 22nd January 2011

  There are lots od really pretty vegetables, chard with those gorgeous red stems, artichokes- although its a bit big, all the herbs (except fennel, fennel discourages an awful lot of other plants). Runner beans are very pretty, especially if you mix them with sweet peas. Some of the lettuce and salad leaves are attractive.
  
  I can't think of any more right now, but no doubt I will.
  
  Lottie

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• Message 6

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  Posted by Tee Gee (U10012255) on Saturday, 22nd January 2011

  This link and related links might give you some ideas;
  
  
  
  

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