Sscotdave wrote:is there anything else you guys could recommend?
Be aware that plants growing in pots will dry out much quicker than plants in regular soil so you will need to water them often in the summer. If you go on holiday for more than a couple of days and the weather is hot you may need to get someone to stop by and water them. In general, the smaller the pot, the quicker it dries out.
Also get a water butt - I am not sure of the legality of watering veggies in pots during a hosepipe ban - and its always wise have a supply of water (and possibly filter and purification tablets etc) to hand anyways.
The search term you want is "container gardening". Bang that into a search engine and you'll have a ton of information and ideas.
You can also brush up on foraging skills to suppliment possible poor crops, many wild herbs, tree leaves, roots and fruits are edible, try Richard Mabey's Food for Free (that is of course, unless the local environment is contaminated with radiation, airbourne desease, zombies ...etc,).
fruits are good as you get them each year without much effort i.e rubarb, raspberrys in big pots, blackberrys and gooseberrys all do well in big pots...try get hold of a few bags of horses do dars"not tescos burgers " and let it rot down well in back bags. Good crops veg side are turnips, cabbage,brocoli and spuds"remember you bring the soil up slowly over your spuds building around as thay grow it increases the amount you get"....easy stuff to grow are raddish, lettece, peas and bean, runner ect...I also grow mushrooms in my shed easy in a kit harder packet you need horses do dar and rotted straw about a cubic meter to get really good amount of mushrooms...it stinks to us but plants love it carrots dont thay like a lighter sandy soil mixed in no stones, carrot fly cannot fly above about four foot so fasten boxs to your fence thats where i put my strawberrys in cut down 4 pint plastic milk bottles. happy gardening. aviod water cleaning tablets plants dont even like tap water rain is always the bestif you can get it I start my seedlings on bottled spring water tabbaco seeds grow well with spring water but your to late for a crop just.
Good luck with the container veg, one of the highlights of the island here i live is a WI (womans institute) country show, one of the catogries is spuds in a bucket, they give you a bucket a few months before the day and you plant a seed potato in it and the day of the show its collected, empied and the potatos weighed, you would be amazed t what you can achieve (however mine last year were very poor, in fact i think someone came the night before and stole them all)....
sounds a good idea but remeber the more you take out the mother spud growing the plant the less you will get I would try a max of three foot with 4 good big spuds per system also watch out for wireworm if the grounds not been turn under the tires for a few years.
Another important fact is cabbage, collies, broc, and kale all need some lime it helps them grow without club root and onions need to rotate each year never into the same soil if you get any onion with white mould on roots get rid of onion and soil its not nice stuff. never pot toms in spud soil or viceversa and grow them at differnt areas of your garden if blight gets in one you may save the other....burn any deseased plants dont rot bin them...I like this gardening thread
We plan to put the carpet stuff that you can get down under the stacks, and use compost. I don't think the ground has been turned since the houses were built and they dumped all the rubbish in the gardens
The guys OH spoke to were using a couple of spuds per stack, apparently, and getting a really good yield from the method. We'll give it a try, see what happens - and it leaves lots of space for us to grow other stuff, which is the best bit!
well if its tryed and trusted go for it red as you say going up in the garden gives you loads more planting space ours is small to and needs the full monty this year just waiting for the lad to give me a hand
" and let it rot down well in back bags. Good crops veg side are turnips, cabbage,brocoli and spuds"remember you bring the soil up slowly over your spuds building around as thay grow it increases the amount you get"....easy stuff to grow are raddish, lettece, peas and bean, runner ect...I also grow mushrooms in my shed easy in a kit harder packet you need horses do dar and rotted straw about a cubic meter to get really good amount of mushrooms...it stinks to us but plants love it carrots dont thay like a lighter sandy soil mixed in no stones, carrot fly cannot fly above about four foot so fasten boxs to your fence thats where i put my strawberrys in cut down 4 pint plastic milk bottles. happy gardening. aviod water cleaning tablets plants dont even like tap water rain is always the bestif you can get it I start my seedlings on bottled spring water tabbaco seeds grow well with spring water but your to late for a crop just.