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As part of my preparation for 'The Good Life' (calling it 'Peak Oil Apocalypse' doesn't really make me want to get out of bed) I thought I would start learning how to grow some food. I bought a couple of books, Edible Container Gardening & 21st Century Smallholder, both of which do a fantastic job in getting you excited about growing your own food but occassionally miss out on bits of info you need (or use gardening jargon).

I have a space in the yard at the back of my house that is south facing that I could use to add some containers (oh my, this is sounding like 'Gardener's Question Time'!). Is there anything that I could get planted this weekend that might yield something this year (I'm worried I might have left it too late). I was hoping to start off with lettuce, rocket, some herbs, spring onions, tomatoes or somoething like that.

Any and all help appreciated. (Gardener's Question Time levels of entendre a bonus!)

LastDrop wrote:Is there anything that I could get planted this weekend that might yield something this year

From June to the end of July you can still sow the following:

Bean (French and Runner)
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrot (just about if you do it now)
Cauliflower
Kohl Rabi
Lettuce
Pepper (Sweet and Chilli)
Pea
Radish
Rocket
Turnip

I'm not sure how many of the above would be suitable for containers though. I would say you could definitely grow Bean, Lettuce, Pepper, Pea and Rocket. Pepper will need a really warm, sunny spot, lots of water and tomato feed every four weeks.

Good luck.

I have loads of water tanks nicked from skips after loft conversions. They are large, free, and importantly square to save space. Put polstyrene in the bottom to save space, drill a few holes in the bottom and make a good compost / sand mix. You can then sow most seeds, amongst other things, i have 3 containers of carrots. Sow them thickly and thin out through the summer for salads then grow on for large roots for storage over the winter. Growing at height stops the carrot fly as well, but best thin on damp day
If growing root crops don't manure. Not to late to sow and you'll get almost 100% germination.
Try saving a few carrots for your own seed when you get confident.... or try some different varieties

http://www.vidaverde.co.uk/index.html#cattable

LastDrop wrote:Is there anything that I could get planted this weekend that might yield something this year (I'm worried I might have left it too late).

Get hold of the Readers Digest book "Food from your garden", it has excellent calendars for planting, and instructions on how to plant, grow, harvest, store and cook all kinds of food. It's out of print, but you can pick it up on ebay for abbout ?10-15. I've got a copy and I got one for my parents too.

I've found this site very useful, and have had seeds from their catalogue.

http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/todo_no ... rd_now.php

If you've got enough space (and some money) you could install a greenhouse to extend the growing season.

Try Nicky's seeds for lots of oriental leaves which grow superfast and can produce an interesting variety of leaves for salads and stir fries.

http://www.nickys-nursery.co.uk/seeds/pages/altsal.htm

Some of them grow in as little as 21 days. I've had a lot of success with letting some go to seed and collecting more seed from the seed pods for continuous supplies.

You can continue to grow them all round indoors too.