Advice - small garden, not a lot of light

Francie Barrett

I have a small garden of about 10ft by 14ft (excluding the pathway). It's west facing and as you can see there's a garage to the right of it and a wooden fence to the left. The patio area tends to get some light from about midday to dusk. As you can see, growing conditions are hardly ideal, but at least it's not a north facing garden, right?




I'd like to grow fruit and/or vegetables in my garden. Is there any hope of this whatsoever? If so, I'd image that containers would be the best bet? I'm not at all fussy about what I get (I will eat anything!) and I would like to grow for yield. Would strawberry/rasberry/black berries be viable along the fence, or maybe some kind of beans? What about pots in the middle of the patio with potatoes in them? Again, I am not expecting to grow anything that would require a lot of light like tomatoes or anything - really, anything that would give me any kind of substantial crop would be just fine.

Any thoughts, ideas or suggestions?

Phegasus

Hi there Francie, I'm new to growing myself, but we have a few things going in our back garden now, the difference is we have a lot of soil to work with and get alot of sun, whenever it decides to come out :P

But on top of that I'm repurposing things like 2 Litre plastic bottles into sub-irrigated planters for growing herbs like chives and parsley etc, we have a big potato planter in an unused plastic tub I'll upload some pictures tomorrow, bags for life are coming in handy too, especially if you have the hemp ones, I have a big bunch of kale coming on great in that! Great for things like potatoes or carrots but your yield would be limited to the dimensions of the container.

I'm heading out now for the night so will post more info on what I'm doing that is applicable to your situation tomorrow!

kylith

I can't help with fruit and veg, I'm afraid, but I too have a shady corner that never sees full sunlight.

There's Fatsia Japonica Variagata, hardy geraniums, Dicentra, a Phormium, Acer, Hosta Halcyon, Hellebores, a Camellia and some Japanese Forest Grass

This is it when everything went in last year, they've grown in more now and it's starting to look good.

Francie Barrett

Nice plot, although I am looking to grow some edibles

kylith

Yahoo answers might help:
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100315100655AAxuful

catastrophy

Hi op, would you consider a slanted shelving unit and grow in containers. It will maximise space and the available light as well as looking good if done correctly.

Francie Barrett

catastrophy wrote: »

Hi op, would you consider a slanted shelving unit and grow in containers. It will maximise space and the available light as well as looking good if done correctly.

Definitely. Stacking stuff high might be the best way to go alright.

pwurple

General rule for shade and edibles,, is that things grown for their leaves do best. Skip anything grown for root or fruit.

Salads and cabbages can bolt in full sun, they are often much better in shade. Plenty of herbs would be fine as well.

The only thing I would consider is maybe growing so close to an oil tank and what looks like your refuse area. Make sure things are separated from possible contamination.

Phegasus

Make the most out of the space you have, hanging baskets, shelving, pots etc



For cheap alternatives to pots, any damaged or unneeded bags for life/buckets etc can be used for some veg, I have Kale in this bag for life


For smaller stuff like herbs for the kitchen, you can try these sub irrigated planters made from 2 litre plastic bottles if you have any lying around.

Francie Barrett

Thanks Pheg/Pwurple - exactly the suggestions I was looking for! Never even considered the bins or using a bag for life as a growbag

Francie Barrett

Got a load of runner bean plants for €1 and have planted up 6 (3 in each bag for life). Got a few bamboo poles and have tied them up as well - looks good so far. Also bought some kale, only had 1 bag for life, so but in 3 plants into it - how many did you put in yours Phegasus? I also have some lettuces that I have put into larger pots for now (they're only tiny and I'm afraid slugs might get to them). Also bought a 15cm mint plant and a 15cm sage plant. Love mint - so it'll be mojitos all round in a few weeks

hello goodbye

You can grow lots with what you have, its not ideal for veg and herbs that need lots of sun

Definitely do things in pots and you can use your imagination and recycle, just make sure you're containers have good drainage.

Things you could grow are
Potatoes
Onions
Thyme
Rosemary
Garlic
Courgettes
Peas

If you have a window inside that gets good light you can grow inside

Like..... tomatoes
Basil
Coriander
Chillies
Peppers
Strawberries

You could always start seeding over winter (indoors) as you've missed most of the season

Try growing you're tomato plants and herbs and peppers from seed and then you'll have your own plants to pot outdoors next year. Much better than shop bought plants :-)

Hope some of that is helpful

Francie Barrett

I've moved my runner beans and kale to the front of the house (it's south/west facing) to give them better light. Hopefully no one will be scummy enough to interfere with them. Lettuce and spinach that has been transplanted to pots is doing fine so far.

Some newbie questions for you guys.

I have some potted plants in the window sill (sage, mint). When I bought these, there were a few dead leaves at the bottom of the plant, I pulled these off, I take it that this is the correct thing to do?

When you're harvesting leaves, I take it that it's best to remove older leaves from the bottom of the stem when and as you need?

I want to add some fertilizer to my compost to give it a little bit of a boost. A lot of people recommend meat, bone and fish compost. Is this acceptable to use in organic growing? Has anyone got any recommendations in this area?

My runner beans are in bags with about a foot of earth. I have read that runner beans like to have root systems 2 feet deep. Am I doomed already, or should I be ok?

@Phegasus - I see you're using grow bags, have you had to deal with slugs yet? Any suggestions or thoughts on how you're combating them?

When my plants die off in Autumn/Winter and I am left with grow bags full of compost - will the compost need re-fertilizing?

Sorry for all the questions (i'm a noob!).

Francie Barrett

hello goodbye wrote: »

You can grow lots with what you have, its not ideal for veg and herbs that need lots of sun

Definitely do things in pots and you can use your imagination and recycle, just make sure you're containers have good drainage.

Things you could grow are
Potatoes
Onions
Thyme
Rosemary
Garlic
Courgettes
Peas

If you have a window inside that gets good light you can grow inside

Like..... tomatoes
Basil
Coriander
Chillies
Peppers
Strawberries

You could always start seeding over winter (indoors) as you've missed most of the season

Try growing you're tomato plants and herbs and peppers from seed and then you'll have your own plants to pot outdoors next year. Much better than shop bought plants :-)

Hope some of that is helpful

Unfortunately, light is an issue, so I'm not even going to attempt anything like tomatoes or chillis. I really only want to grow stuff that's easy (to start with) and stuff that likes containers (because my soil/light is rubbish and I have very little of it).

hello goodbye

andPotatoes rosemary and thyme would do well out your back by the sounds of it

I'll try answer.some of your questions!

Yea it's fine to pick off dead leaves

When picking herbs with leaves it's best to pick of the biggest leaves, and.from the top not the bottom. Removing the larger leaves from the top helps as light can reach more leaves then. Always pick big leaves that are covering other leaves would be my general rule.

Also for the slug situation it can be horrendous! They nearly destroyed my potted garden and I tried my best and used lots of methods to repell them and they not kill them! They were restless!
In the end I had to.adopt the old and guaranteed method.
Beer!
Just place bowls with beer near your veg and they'll just go for the beer only!
They like to drink apparently! They are drawn to the beer. Climb in. Get drunk and fall in and drown.
And the beers disintegrates most of their body (ugh)

Really a fail proof method

hello goodbye

Also I think.you cant use meat because of the chemicals in it and it may not be organic ¿

Also you can use your compost after your plants are done. It can be recycled into your current compost.

As far as I know thats right. But I'm not an expert!