ALL IN A SQUARE METRE
For colour and taste, always include a tripod of climbing beans in your pocket-sized veg patch. These days there are hybrids, crossed between runners and French beans, which have extra vigour and crop whatever the weather. Both the creamflowered ‘Moonlight’, or the red-flowered ‘Firestorm’ produce masses of plump, tasty beans. Use eight long canes, make a circle and then direct sow your beans, three per cane, and put some seeds in the centre as spares. Save space and help them to avoid slugs by planting lettuces inside the cane ring – ‘Little Gem’ is fast maturing.
Glean the most from your space by planting fast-maturing crops. Leave room for another twiggy tripod, about a metre high, and sow plenty of seeds of the mangetout ‘Oregon Sugar Pod’ for an early crop, or try purple-podded ‘Shiraz’. Eat the young pod pods or let them mature a little. Fill gaps with sausage-shaped beetroot ‘Alto’ to get reddish, edible young leaves that can be eaten raw and a quick-grow crop of long beets.
Add a compact courgette, too. ‘Venus’ produces dark shiny fruits that don’t turn into marrows overnight! Feathery-topped, speedy-growing carrots will give you a summer crop. ‘Early Nantes’ produces blunttipped, long roots within weeks. And try to find a little sunny spot for a few shallots, spaced at 23cm (9in) apart. These are flavourful and store for months. Golden-skinned ones, such as ‘Golden Gourmet’, are easier to grow than red-skinned varieties and that goes for onions, too.