Hello

Hello everyone, I'm will - a complete novice at gardening. I'm about to move to a new house with a small back yard (having lived in a flat for 6 years) so I'd like to talk and learn about all things compact gardening! Interested in any tips for attraction birds and any clever space saving ideas regarding growing my own fruit/veg. Look forward to chatting soon....

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner

 

Hello and welcome.

Yards have loads of advantages. When I have time I'll reel a load off, but for now, as I'm just heading out, I'll leave you with this little nugget of space saving wisdom. Go vertical

 

Thanks Ziggy! Just having a browse around - don't know where to begin, place is so big! I'm not expert so looking forward to getting lots of tips and advise on getting the most out of what little space I have. I'm quite excited having being deprived of outdoor space for so long!

 

Thanks clueless, I look forward to plenty of tips!

 

In a yard, you have the advantage over open soil in that you can swap containers about very easily to make best use of the space. You also typically have better shelter from strong wind, and yards can be heat traps.

The obvious downside is that typically there is less floor space. However you will have plenty of wall space. That's what I meant by going vertical.

Things like peas and beans, being climbers, don't need much floor space, but if you fasten some string to the walls, the peas and beans will climb it, so for very little floor space you still get a decent crop of veg.

Wall mounted baskets can be mounted in a staggered arrangement so that you in effect get several tiers of planting for the same footprint. You could grow some strawberries in such containers, they'll happily spill over the sides and trail down. Then of course there's the herb planters. You can get floor standing ones with planting holes in the sides and top, so that you can get loads of different herbs all sharing the same small area of floor space. The trick in that case is that the soil is deep enough to support all the plants, but in a narrow column, so tall rather than wide, thus maximising floor space.

 

Hi will

Hi Will,
And welcome,
Ive not been on this forum very long myself "but they seem a good "gardening" lot of people,

Im sure between everyone here you'll get lots of help "But will you must ask" so we know what to offer:thumb:

Look forward to talking to you,
regards Moonraker.

 

You need a list of what you want from the garden:

Living space? Entertaining space? Football pitch for some kids? Kiddy friendly? What age? - no glass in a greenhouse perhaps? No seriously poisonous plants perhaps?

Want to grow vegetables? or soft fruit? Home grown, and fresh, has a flavour hard to find in the shops ... plus you know the provenance and exactly how long it was between using a chemical and harvesting the produce.

Fancy Wowing! your mates? The obvious route for that would be an exotic garden, quite possible for a beginner to do, but with the benefit of it being unusual but looking mature much more quickly than conventional planting.

Or you could take some other "theme" - there was a garden that I saw on the Telly, a typical terraced-house sized garden, but everything was in pots and it was STUFFED! It looked amazing, and represented years of "collecting" ...

Or you might want zero challenge, and something low maintenance.

 

Hi WilliamF - Again welcome to GC.

If you are restricted to growing mostly in containers, try to get a copy of Alan Caplin's book COOL CONTAINERS. - usually available quite inexpensively on Ebay or Amazon. Gives lots of hints and tips on container growing and ideas on novel or unusual containers to use.

a-a

p.s. I have responded to your enquiries about potatoes and bird boxes.

 

Good evening Will and welcome to the site.

 

Welcome to GC Will....Enjoy....

 

welcome to the mad house


they are fab on this site

 

Wow! Thanks for the tips and the warm welcome guys! I think I'm going to enjoy my time spent on this forum - will just have to be careful I don't spen all my time talking about my backyard and no time actually putting all this advise into practice!