Last year I said to my daughters that they could buy some seeds and have part of our garden for themselves. My eldest (and MTV-est) daughter plumped for sunflowers and some other pretty things. My youngest (and hippy-est) went for carrots and obergines. Anyway, for the carrots I built a box about 8ft in length and 18 inches wide. As carrots need at least 4 inches between them this harvested a fair amount of large carrots and a lot of beautiful baby carrots as we thinned them out. The space is needed to stop root rot (and such like). 99 pence and some scrap wood for 4 months carrots. pretty good gowing.
The obergines produced only 1 fruit, but I think that was down to them being uncovered.
Tomatoes can be easily grown in similar troughs or grow bags. 3 good plants to a bag. All you need is a cloche or homemade baby greenhouse. Any old polythene stretched around a wooden frame will do, a great way to reuse some of the stuff.
Potatos need a lot more room, say 3ft x 3ft per plant, and a lot of digging.
One recommendation from a friend of mine is to grow runner beans up tee-pee like frames and carrots in the middle. I don't know how well this works or how much it depleats the soil.
There are so many books on growing veg in an urban garden, full of good tips for rotation practices. A visit to a large library should do the job.
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