Grow your own in your outdoor space

There are plenty of easy ways to enjoy full-flavoured crops from your garden, even when space is tight

When you’re walking through your local B&Q garden centre, it can be hard to know where to start when it comes to edible crops – especially when there’s such a world of choice. A good starting point is choosing fruit, vegetables and herbs that you already eat a lot of, and then it’s best to go for varieties that offer maximum taste. And don’t worry if you haven’t got an allotment or a big garden. Here are some crops that are big on flavour and can be grown in small spaces...

Blueberries

Containers are ideal for growing potted blueberries such as the reliable and tasty variety ‘Bluecrop’, available at B&Q. If the soil in your garden isn’t acidic, pot-growing is a great way to ensure you’ll get a harvest of healthy fruits. Grow them in pots of Verve Ericaceous Peat-Free Compost and grow more than one variety – this will help pollination and increase the size of your crop.

Tomatoes in baskets

You really can’t beat the taste of fresh, sun-warmed tomatoes. The time when no more frosts are forecast is an exciting one because it’s the perfect opportunity to plant out tomatoes in a sheltered spot in your garden. If you’re tight on space, you can still enjoy home-grown tomatoes. Just pick up a couple of cherry tomato plants and some of B&Q’s Verve Multi-Purpose Peat-Free Compost and plant them in a hanging basket. The base of the plant should be just below the rim of the basket, to leave room for watering without compost spilling over the sides each time.

A 30cm round basket will take two plants and they won’t need any training – simply let the stems tumble over the edges of the basket. Feed with a weak (quarter-strength) tomato fertiliser each time you water, for a big crop.

French beans

This tasty crop is the garden gift that just keeps on giving during the summer months. As long as French beans are promptly picked (you should check them every day in summer and harvest before the pods get fat and bulky) they will keep on cropping throughout the season.

These beans need a rich, fertile soil, so mix lots of compost or Verve Horse Manure Soil Conditioner into the soil. Young plants can be planted out after the risk of frost, or seeds can simply be sown directly where you want them to grow, at 20cm intervals. Water the soil well each time it goes dusty and dry, to encourage the beans to keep cropping. And, if you sow a second batch of beans just a month after the first, you can alternate picking between the two all summer.

Cut-and-come-again salad

These leafy crops are potentially a massive money-saver if you add up the cost of buying bags of salad from the supermarket all summer. An added bonus is you’ll be cutting down on plastic packaging too! A shady part of the garden, a 30cm-wide container on the patio, or even just a seed tray on the windowsill is perfect for growing leafy salads such as Little Gem and rocket. You can also sow pak choi, Swiss chard and beetroot, just to harvest the tasty, colourful leaves.

In the garden, it’s best to sow them in a shady spot in a 5cm layer of compost forked into the topsoil. Gently rake it over, water the soil, then sow the seed on the soil surface before just covering it with a little sieved compost.

Once leaves are 10cm tall (this will be about three to four weeks after sowing), snip them off with scissors to just above ground level and they will re-sprout for a second or even a third crop. For the best results, feed them with a plant food such as Verve Liquid Plant Feed after each harvest to encourage rapid re-sprouting.

Edible flowers

Turn your summer salads from functional to fascinating with edible flowers – you never know, they might even encourage the kids to eat their greens too! Many edible flowers can be grown from seed, which you can find at B&Q. Nasturtiums such as ‘Jewel of Africa’ are easy to sow (just push them straight into the soil in spring and summer) and their hot-coloured flowers will make your salads look very exotic and taste a touch peppery.

With any edible flowers, shake them after picking to remove insects and wash them well. Once picked, use immediately. Pot marigolds (Calendula) such as ‘Orange King’ are another exciting edible flower, with blooms a similar colour to a satsuma, they have a citrus kick to them when eaten. Sow them straight onto the soil in a sunny spot and gently rake the seed into the soil. Sown in spring, they will flower in summer and keep producing well into autumn.

Let your garden bloom with B&Q

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