In The Smallest Spaces

Peas straight from the pod, mouthwatering strawberries, spinach so fresh it barely needs cooking – these are all things you can enjoy when you grow your own.

I’ve grown my own fruit and vegetables for many years using entirely organic methods, and I know how much pleasure it brings – as well as saving money.

Because of the coronavirus, there’s been a huge upsurge in vegetable growing as more people want to have an independent food supply and to boost their health and wellbeing.

Whatever size your garden – or even if you don’t have one at all– there are ways of growing your own fresh produce.

I find it very inspiring to look at Instagram photos and YouTube videos of balcony gardens. All over the world, people have created tiny havens with folding chairs, a feeling of enclosure from plant pots set on staging and the most made of walls and railings.

Containers such as baskets, boxes and old tins are recycled and used to grow chillies, lettuces, tomatoes and beans.

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Windowsills can be used for herbs and salads, or pots placed all the way up a series of steps. Concrete yards can be transformed by potatoes grown in dustbins, dolly tubs, old water tanks or pallets.

You can hide a fence by planting runner beans, enjoying their bright flowers, or use the vertical space to train fruit trees and bushes.

Vegetable varieties with colourful leaves and stems look really decorative in a garden. Vibrant ruby chard has almost Day-Glo red stems and there are other chards that come in rainbow colours – yellow, pink, green, purple. There’s apple-green, gold and purple cauliflowers, multi-coloured sweetcorn, purple beans and all manner of colourful pumpkins and squashes. The vegetable garden is no longer merely rows of greenery!