Moving house soon to a flat with a 'yard' - its about 3 metres by 2 metres concrete. I've already got a herb pot, but I want some other things to brighten it up.

What sort of things can you buy for hanging baskets or have in outside pots? I would like some flowers and also some veg but I'm not sure if you can grow veg in pots?

Also where is the best place to buy such things? Would rather use local garden centres than superstores.

Please bear in mind when giving advice that I have NO gardening knowhow at all :help: :)

Get a chimnea and some chairs from B & Q for £50.

I grow peppers, tomatoes, aubergines and courgettes in pots in my yard...also thyme, rosemary, and lots of lavender. I noticed in tescos last week on abbeydale road that they had sets of 6 vegetable plants for about a fiver that were ready to plant out (included aubergine and a couple of tomato varieties).
roses also do well in pots, as do fuschias and also strawberry plants!
happy "gardening"!

PS, good deals to be had at garden centres, where the plants can be better quality than those found at supermarkets and DIY shops, although I have had some good shrubs from b and q on penistone road

At the moment, I am growing Potatoes in tubs (£5 each from Wentworth garden centre) Tomatoes in grow bags (£1.45 each from garden centres)

Strawberries in a pot.
2 types of mint in long tubs (around £1.50 each)

Carrots in tubs and Peas in tubs. I will take photos if you like to show you. :thumbsup:

Plasic greenhouse from the cheap no frills DIY place near the Leadmill, they are ace, I nearly took one to the Big chill with me last year so I could sit in it but it never rains at the big chill so did not bother.
:D

Also good for growing tomatoes and chilli's and stuff in.

Here are some photos Kathy.
GARDEN MINT (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/viking99/forums/b5e924c8.jpg)
CHIVES (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/viking99/forums/4510a980.jpg)
POTATOES (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/viking99/forums/03cf89f4.jpg)
PEAS (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/viking99/forums/6406fcc3.jpg)
STRAWBERRY POT (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/viking99/forums/f45320ea.jpg)
See, you could grow all these in a yard. :thumbsup:

A lot of veggies and practically all herbs can be grown in containers - in a way, it's probably better because you can move them in and out of the sun and it's easier to water and weed them, etc, etc :D In a smaller garden I guess you just have to plan carefully to make sure you use all the space available effectively :)

As Viking has already pointed out, potatoes grow well in containers, as do leeks, carrots, asparagus, courgettes, tomatoes, lettuce and spinach and probably loads more I've forgotten :clap:

I have a book called 'Kitchen Garden' from Collins 'Practical Gardeners' series - I'm pretty new to gardening and have found it very useful for learning all the basis and get info on the requirements for different plants. If you're in the city centre during the day you're welcome to borrow my copy :D

how about a couple of fruit trees?

We once had a really small garden, so we had some minarettes (http://www.kenmuir.co.uk/resources/categoryImages/minarette.jpg)in pots which we got from Ken Muir (http://www.kenmuir.co.uk/)

You keep them pruned into a column, so it gives your planting scheme some height, as well as being 'productive' :thumbsup:

Wow thanks guys! Potatoes! I'm amazed!

Thanks for the pics Viking thats great, I will take some of my 'garden' when its up and running. I had no idea you could grow so much veg and fruit without a plot of land. I think I'll buy that book myself Tracie but thanks for the offer and the tips.

I'm really excited, move over charlie dimmock :D

If you go to scrap metal merchants you can sometimes pick up things like old metal fertiliser drums, which after a very noisy afternoon you can cut in half round the middle to give yourself 2 enormous pots which are big enough to grow anything (including trees/runner beans with stakes/whatever) in.

Or you could follow Bob Flowerdew's method of potato growing. He grows them inside a stack of old tyres, so to harvest them all you have to do it to lift off the tyres one by one to reveal your crop.

And next year I would like to sort it out. I moved in to my house in July 2005 and just got round to thinking about my garden. My mum has a little veg patch but her garden is huge. I would like to grow a variety of foods but I have limited space and would like the garden to be practical in terms of barbecues, sitting out in the sun next summer as well as looking beautiful. I also want to put a shed in the garden (as all of my blokes DIY stuff is currently stored indoors!) I also would like to grow herbs. Can you grow them in a planting tub? I am only 21 so I dont have much experience in these things and I dont think my mum has much time to help me (she has 3 daughters at home, a full time job and the housework to tackle!) Can anyone help. (Not many friends really want to grow veg!!!!)

Use Tubs Lauren.
We have used loads this year and grew: Potatoes, carrots,radish,peas, beans, shillots, alsorts really.
Il'l look for a photo.

Hi Lauren

You can grow most herbs in pots on the windowsill, so yeah go for it, a tub will work. There are even some clips that you can clip your pots to drainpipes. as long as you water them when they need it, protect them from frost if needed etc, you can grow almost anything in a pot/tub even trees!
Our last home only had a yard, so all our stuff was grown in either the greenhouse or in pots/tubs. We grew our potatoes in an old dustbin!
best of luck!

I don't claim to be an expert in the garden but I've grown herbs in tubs and it seemed to work ok. I bought a quite large rosemary plant which is doing really well (the trick is to hardly water it at all!). Basil seems to do best if you keep it indoors in a pot and don't overwater it. I also grew spinach and rocket from seed in tubs in the garden last year. The seed packets usually have instructions on when to plant them and how to do it. :)

THIS (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v689/viking99/garden003.jpg)is an idea of tub growing.
We also grow Garden mint, apple mint and peppermint in tubs.

We have a small garden too that we use for flowers/shrubs, a space for the kids to play, and growing stuff to eat - it's very cramped and that's probably why the wife allowed me to get an allotment ;)

We grew a variety of things in pots this year, most of which seemed to work quite well: Coriander (for leaf and seeds), parsley, dill, courgettes (quite small but fine), sunflowers (can't seem to give them enough water though), a wide variety of salad leaves (worked best in a large window box) and blueberries (and the first year we had them so small crop and forgot to cover them with netting so the birds had some - not to mention the kids helping themselves!

Rob

I've merged your thread into this one, Lauren, since both you and Kathy are asking about making a small garden look fab / growing veggies in a limited space :D

I'm growing some potatoes in tubs this winter too, and as Viking says, the vast majority of veggies can be grown in tubs. I have quite a big garden, but even so I prefer to grow most of my veggies in planters and tubs - I find it's easier to keep the slugs and pests away and also, I can move them about into or out of the sun, depending on what the weather is doing! Are they are particular fruits / vegetables you'd like to try?