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Nope. It's not a euphemism (well, it is, but it's not meant to be for the purposes of this thread).

See, out front of my flat there's a communal front garden. And nobody really uses it for much other than lounging about in during the Summer.

And that's a shame. So I'm planning (with consent from the others that share it) to get a small veg patch going. Mostly using growbags, so I'm not actually having to do much if any digging. Saves labour, and should mean fewer objections from my neighbours.

So I'm on the lookout for tips and tricks. I'm in South East England, so we tend to get fairly stable seasons. Spring is Spring, with sunny showers and good light. Summer is scorchio.

If there are particular types of veg (I'm thinking basics. Cucumbers, Lettuce, Tomatoes, Spuds, Carrots et al) which are better suited, or specific strains.

All pointers welcome

Turnips. Easy to grow, and you can eat the leaves too.

Tomatoes do well. We have a trough against a shed with a dinky trellis for it to grow up. It does quite well, with no chance of getting used by us.
Cucumbers do quite well, but need grabbing at the right time.
Carrots go anywhere, as long as you have the depth for them.
We always try for Garlic. Split it up before it goes too mad.
Courgettes can take over if you let them. Check them often, or you end up with marrows.

You'll have to look at what pests you might get. Slugs and snails can decimate some plants.
Caterpillars can be flicked off the leaves, and that has been enough for us to control them. Check often.
Make sure you get bees. You'll have to go around with a sticky stick otherwise.

Shout if you want seeds. We have lots left over when a packet has 1000, and we use 100.

If it kicks off well, and you go for another year, look to put raised beds in. We made a couple of 6'x3' ones down the garden from decking planks and a lot of soil.

If you grow a courgette plant, you will never go hungry again*. Seriously, the damn things are like triffids.




*assuming you don't mind living entirely on courgette.

Think I'll kick off with the Growbags, see how I fare.

From there, happy to buy planters (again, don't want to be digging up a communal garden!)

Pumpkins are another one that do well down here, but the plants get big, even more so than courgettes. Never had much success with butternut squash though. On that note if you want to grow pumpkins or squashes buy the seeds. I've grown them from seeds scooped from a fruit, but what they grew was a peculiar hybrid. I suspect that the growers allow them to hybridise either deliberately or passively.

Tomatoes are an easy one and usually do well in growbags, they're easy enough to start off from seeds just using old yoghurt pots of compost on the window sill, plant a few in each pot but only keep the first, nipping out any others that emerge. Make sure you have canes or similar strong, thin sticks to support them since the plants will need it.

Leeks will do quite well, but as with tomatoes you need to be fairly ruthless with culling them. I've not tried onions but believe they're fairly similar.

Potatoes will also grow quite well, but would need digging into the ground.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Think I'll kick off with the Growbags, see how I fare.

From there, happy to buy planters (again, don't want to be digging up a communal garden!)

That's the best bit. No digging required (but dumping a truckload of soil onto the grass counts as about the same thing). The frame goes on the ground and the soil gets thrown in. Lots of barrow-loads later, you can have it back as a (grass-less) lawn in no time.

Rocket and radishes grow really quickly. Tomatoes are great, but need a lot of attention picking out the buds, which in a community project might cause difficulties.

Herbs might be a good idea, rosemary bushes, sages plants etc grow really easily, will survive the winter, and make a tasty stuffing.

If it's a shared food garden, then you can't go wrong with herbs - parsley, basil etc. Smell pretty decent, grow most places, and you can just pluck a handful as you need it.

Stuff like potatoes, tomatoes and strawberries grow pretty vertically too, if you're short of space. Strawberries and tomatoes also have that pick-as-you-pass factor, stuff like potatoes need a bit of effort to harvest.

Root veggies like carrots, turnip and onion seem to be able to grow almost anywhere. Just be careful you either have enough variety or you'll get sick of eating them, though.

Shared garden, just me doing the veggie patch. Though neighbours welcome in times of surplus!

Rotate the crops, that's all i say, also spinach.

Id say grow some mint. last time i recall its good to ward off some pests and critters that may be drawn to vegs

also its mint so make some mojitos.

If you're doing growbags pop a chilli plant or two in there as they can do well

if you've got an old dustbin/wheelie bin around a potato will produce a decent crop in one

Can get a Bin or such for spuds, no problem.

Am I right in thinking that with spuds, I can leave a couple or so in the pot once harvested, and it’ll produce more for the next crop?

Nominally, my wife does a bit (what that usually means is, she picks out what goes into the dirt, then I do all the watering and whatnot, then she picks stuff when its ready)

Each year we do 2-3 variety of spicy pepper, at least one of which being Jalapenos. If you decide any kind of pepper, and opt for more than one variety, keep them as far apart as humanly possible. First year, we had Jalapenos on one end of an 8ft. box, and Sweet Bell Peppers about 3-4 ft. away from the Jalapenos. . . they still cross-bred somewhat. Now, they each get their own pot/box, and are minimum 10 ft. from each other

Other than that, we do a lot of Cucumber, English and Japanese variety.

Planning ahead is your friend here. Pay attention to sun patterns, what areas are shaded and when (if there are any places that indeed see shade during the day) and then work out which plants should do best where from that point. Ya also (obviously) don't want to ring low-lying plants with tall plant varieties, as you don't wanna be digging through the amazonian tomato plants to get at the cucumbers and the like.

I saw green and dab in the title and not much of the rest of the title. Very confusing thread for me at first.

 Desubot wrote:
Id say grow some mint. last time i recall its good to ward off some pests and critters that may be drawn to vegs

also its mint so make some mojitos.

Mint is great. Just be aware that it is quite... prolific. It will escape and take over everywhere, which can be a good thing.


For all the gourd type plants, like Cukes, pumpkins, squash, etc... that lay on the ground you will want to put the fruit on something once it starts laying on the ground. It'll save it from potentially rotting, or an enterprising gopher pulling a sneaky snake and eating it from the inside.

Runner Beans are very easy to grow. 4-5 plants up a few tall bean poles lashed together and you'll be giving them away as you'll have so many. Plus they give a nice twisting vine that's covered in Red Flowers. Other easy options including strawberries and raspberries.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Can get a Bin or such for spuds, no problem.

Am I right in thinking that with spuds, I can leave a couple or so in the pot once harvested, and it’ll produce more for the next crop?

Spuds can be tricky and may take a lot of care if you want a large crop.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Can get a Bin or such for spuds, no problem.

Am I right in thinking that with spuds, I can leave a couple or so in the pot once harvested, and it’ll produce more for the next crop?

If you do this, make sure you put some drainage holes in the bin, 4-6 8-10mm holes with a few pieces of broken pot over them to prevent them blocking up should be adequate, otherwise if you get a bit of rainy weather it will quite quickly fill with water which will have nowhere to go.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Can get a Bin or such for spuds, no problem.

Am I right in thinking that with spuds, I can leave a couple or so in the pot once harvested, and it’ll produce more for the next crop?

You could, but keep an eye on them if you do as if you end up with a virus in there you can dramatically reduce the crop (that's why farmers/home growers buy special seed potatoes... available from garden centers, they're certified virus free), but as long as the plant you kept the potatoes from looked healthy you should be ok (it's basically how all the old non comerical varieties are kept)

I'd suggest an 'early'/new potato variety if your only growing the odd plant, you get more of the benefits of fresh from garden to plate than a late/main crop

Usually if you want to harvest potato’s again you just hold a couple in storage for replanting. Less likely you’ll lose the plant over winter that way.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Nope. It's not a euphemism (well, it is, but it's not meant to be for the purposes of this thread).

Reminds me of the old gag (I think Richard Herring delivers the punchline so I assume it's Stewart Lee setting him up):

"Prince Charles is of course known for having green fingers"
"Well, Camilla is an older lady now"

Apologies to all.

My grow region is different. I got hit by blight a couple of times. Once I had 128 tomato plants that were full of fruit, but two weeks from harvesting, blight hit them and I wound up with black husks. I even tried to ripen some indoors but the damage was done. That was 7 years ago, Im hoping the fungus is gone (usually lasts about 5 years before you can grow again), we are planning on making a garden again this year. Potatos grow easy for us, I just have to keep an eye out for moles that tunnel their way through them.