New gardener, without a garden...

Hiya =)
I am Jossy, I live in Norfolk (holidays) and Lincoln (term-time) and I am a university student.
I am now on my summer holidays and thought I would take advantage of the time I have off and take up gardening.
I live in a terrace house and only have a very small concrete yard rather than a garden and I want to make it more colourful and 'garden-y'.
I am at the moment growing quite a few things in small plastic pots and trays including cucumber, chillis, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, ivy, mint, radishes, pansies, cat-mint and cat-grass.
I have only just started so the ones I am growing from seeds aren't brilliantly big but the ones I brought pre-grown are looking good.
I just came on here for some advice and ideas and to see if anyone else on here is just working with a small concrete yard !

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

The only stuff i've got going on this year is in a small concrete yard. The slugs have destroyed everything on the main plot.

 

Hello and welcome

Don't see a yard as a limitation. You should see what some people create in yards.

You need to maximise the use of space. Don't think in 2D. Space is not limited to the floor. You can fix trellis and baskets and things to the walls.

Grow lots of things in different sized containers. That gives you more opportunity to move stuff about and make effectively make a lego garden, ie you can pull it apart and rebuild it at leisure. Different plants put on their best show at different times, so by having lots of containers, you can hide plants at the back of the arrangement when they're in their boring phase, and bring them to the front when they're at their best.

My mam has a yard, and one thing we've found is that pests are a bit more of a problem, probably because there's less diversity so less predators = more pests. The trick is to try a plant, if it works, great, if it doesn't, try something else until you get it just right.

 

Thanks for your replies. I am thinking of finding some stone style shelves and getting my boyfriend to put them up for me and putting some pretty pots on them. I have just brought a very cheap poly tunnel (may have to keep it down with sandbags or something) because my plants tend to drown when it rains, at the moment they are all covered with carrier bags.
I have a shed which isn't being using and would like to use it to it's full potential but it doesn't get any light in, any suggestions for it, I would like to use it for more than just storage for my soil.

 

My bet is that your younger plants that you started from seed are the ones the rain batters. I would also bet, without knowing the species of plants you have, that its because you started them too late in the year really, so the warm muggy conditions have made them grow too tall too fast so they are weak. Protecting them with carrier bags won't help, as they'll be like in their own mini, very humid greenhouse. I'd leave them out unprotected most of the time, and just move them to somewhere cool and well ventilated, but protected from the worst of the weather, whenever it chucks down.

Once you get going, you'll really appreciate that shed. It will be full of several half used bags of compost, innumerable pots and containers, empty heavy duty sacks that stuff came in that you can't bear to bin because you know they'll come in handy, an assortment of tools, and various bits of useful junk that you can't even remember where it came from or why you want it.

EDIT: Oh, and a sweeping brush. Every shed has a sweeping brush in it. Its one of the fundamental laws of physics.

 

Ain't bad, also started with plastic pots and ceramic trays myself when I began gardening. All things start from small beginnings like a little seed that grows and slowly matures to a tall tree. Have fun while at school and welcome.