Whatever space you’ve got, there’s always room for plants you can eat. You could supply the kitchen by either squeezing a few plants into a patio or using all-year-round goodies from a large kitchen garden. But, if you’ve a small piece of ground, you could create an attractive compact veg bed.
When planning it, bear four things in mind. It needs good shape and structure; there should be a three or four-year crop rotation (see my column of March 18); the plants must look good; and, with a small space, your plants must pull their weight and crop well.
Whatever the bed’s shape, it needs an eye-catching focal point, such as a permanent structure for climbing plants. This will stay put for years and should enhance the overall appearance of the garden. This means it’s worth spending a fair bit of time or money to get it right.
In a restricted space, you’ll enjoy a larger harvest by growing climbing vegetables. It’s also better for your back to pick peas at shoulder rather knee height.
You’ll need a two-metre tall structure, and this can be one of three shapes. Traditionally, many gardeners and manufacturers have favoured the wigwam style, thinking it was stronger and better able to cope with a heavy mass of runner beans crowning the top.
The alternative, a cylinder design, stops the plants throttling each other at the top and allows for good air circulation, thereby preventing fungal diseases. Garden centres and mail order firms supply both types of obelisk for anything between £20 and £190.
Undoubtedly the pricey frames are elegant and long-lasting (try harrodhorticulture.com) and look good, even when they’re not supporting plants. Cheap, flimsy efforts will struggle to support a hefty weight of beans during an autumn gale. As ever, you get what you pay for.
However much you shell out, these frames will probably have smooth, round metal poles which plants find hard to clasp firmly. So you usually have to tie the stems to poles and then run the risk of damage during a windy spell of weather.
This limitation also applies to bamboo canes which you might want to use for a homemade construction. As you’d expect, I’m all for good homemade versions as they add a rustic touch to the garden. And this is where native ash, willow and hazel poles come into their own, because their rough texture suits climbers down to a tee.
You’ll find it fairly easy to bind the poles together with willow wands. If you don’t have access to these materials, they’re readily available online and some garden centres.
A simple design using three to five poles works well. There’s plenty information online for making these structures.
There’s a third equally good shape that’s also homemade. Form a square from four 2.5m-long poles, with 45-60cm between the poles. Angle the diagonally opposite ones so they meet in the middle at 1-1.5 metres above the ground. When tied together, the poles make a rigid structure and the plants will scale the poles and leave a healthy, open centre.
As with other parts of the veg garden, you need to rotate the crops on the structure: runner or French beans, followed by cucumbers, or climbing squashes; tall podded or mange-tout peas; and finally nasturtiums to give you an attractive mass of edible flowers. Since runners are perennial plants, you can safely break the normal rotation rules and grow them instead of mangetout peas.
Climbing beans and tall peas are amazingly prolific and offer you a wide choice. Look out for bright yellow, red, black or maroon pods, or bi-coloured flowers. Browse the catalogues for lots of choice –
there's no shortage of attractive low-growing vegetables to surround an impressive centrepiece.
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