growing in concreted back garden

Hi folks,

I have a concreted back garden at a friends flat in newcastle, some bags of compost and a couple of pots...

what can i plant this march that might grow ok?
i'm aware potatoes are an option but i think something a bit more fun would be nice.

there is no soil other than what i can import unfortunately.
though i have been toying with the idea of buying up a metre square of this:
http://www.linkabord.co.uk/Home.page
and planting into that.
would this work? would there be sufficient depth?

thanks in advance for all your help!

D

 

Tomatoes, or anything that will grow in a grow bag?

A lot of fruit bushes do quite well in pots, especially if they don't like the soil in the garden (although that's not a problem for you!). I have blueberries in pots and got a great crop from them last year.

 

A raspberry bush or two in pots will be great to munch on (get a variety that fruits in its first year) - runner beans in a pot will have really decorative flowers and grow all over the place, giving you beans for weeks on end - and just about any leafy veg can grow in a few inches depth of soil. You don't even need linkabord, just punch holes in the growbags and sow seed or seedlings through that. Strawberries, cut-and-come-again lettuces, mizuna, radish, turnips....just watch out for the snails !
Carrots do really well in a florists bucket (8 for 99p from your local supermarket) too, they end up really small juicy ones if you crowd them !:yho:
Don't set your sights on March as a planting date, go by the conditions. When the packets say when to sow, a wise gardener thinks, "Where is that date for ?" Aberdeen and Cornwall are very different places...and so is Cornwall at the top of the hill, and Cornwall at the bottom.

 

I grew all my veg in pots last year, I have actually just dug up some of last years potatoes that I grew in pots and there was still loads, including a 600g Robinta potato (a lovely pink variety)!!



I grew purple carrots for the first time and they are great fun and taste really good!!

I tried something to make my pots seem deeper (as some varieties grow to 12" and you need room at the bottom of your pot for drainage) and to be honest it worked surprisingly well: I got a 11"x11" pot filled it with compost mixed with a good bit of sand to make it nice and light, then pushed 7 fizzy juice bottles with their tops and bottoms cut off into the pot In each coke bottle I wanted to grow 3 carrots, this was very successful!! Here's a picture that will hopefully make my description clearer:



I tried to grow corn in a huge pot but for some reason they did not do well at all - I dont think they were sheltered enough

I grew chillies & peppers indoors on a sunny windowsill and was inundated with peppers and chillies!

My pumpkin and courgettes didn't succeed due to slugs!

Any more questions about growing the potatoes or carrots in pots just ask!

Kx

 

Herbs are always a good option. When you buy herbs from the supermarkets they tend to be overpriced and of poor quality. Grow your own and you get an endless supply of good quality herbs. Plus they have the advantage that many are very low maintenance and put on a good show as well, not to mention the range of frangrances.

 

thanks everyone, i think i will give carrots a go.

ginger, those carrots look enormous! do they really grow such big leaves?
how do you leave drainage at the bottom? do you plant carrot from seeds or are there other varieties?
do you pour any kind of growing solution on them?
what do you do to ensure drainage at teh bottom?

can you leave potatoes a year i thought you had to take the tubers out at the end of growing season else they went green and poisonous?
D

 

Good luck and make sure to post some pictures ok.

 

I would also like to know more about growing carrots in buckets. Do you feed them? How do you know when they're ready ?