I only have a small garden. It's L shaped, made up of 2 L's, each approx 8m x 3m, Due to the position of the house, one side of the L is in near perpetual shade, and thus entirely useless for growing pretty much anything other than rhubarb. This leaves me with one 8m x 3m area to get as much as I possibly can out of.
In this area I have 12 apple trees. Five of them are in the ground as cordons, 7 are in containers. They are all on dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstocks, so they don't get too big. I also have a half dozen raspberry canes in the corner, 9 blackcurrant bushes, and a 16'x4' raised bed.
I mentioned this lot in a previous thread and people asked for photos. So.
The view of the raised bed, with the various containers around it, the twiggy things to the left are the black currants. In the foreground is a James Grieve apple. In this view you can see 6 of the apple containers (one is kinda hidden behind the green bin). The raised bed has just been weeded ready for this years season. You may be able to make out the straggly ends of the potato plants at this end. I have planted beetroot and lettuce in the quarter just past the half way mark. I have some onion plants that are almost ready to go in the same quarter of the bed. The quarter just past where the spuds are will be beans and pumpkin this year. The far end will be brassicas.
View looking the other way, the cordon apple trees are at the far end by the wall, they are planted at a slight angle, the hope being they make a nice productive hedge. The four terracotta pots in the middle of the picture contain some tulips. One of my small concessions to the usual policy of only plants I can eat or use in some way (I grow woad and madder for example) in the garden.
A close up of one of the apple containers. This is a new tree for this year, where as others in the garden range in age upto 9 years. This tree will only stay in this pot for this season, in the winter I will report it into a wooden container like the one in the next image.
I made these containers using some cheap pressure treated CLS from jewsons, they are about 8 years old, and seem to be holding up ok. They have plenty of volume for the roots to develop, and also provide a nice handy area to perch on when you taking a break from weeding. My revised design will see a better integrated seat... The length of chestnut on the right is about to be turned into a support steak for the tree.
My container forest... kinda. Here we have a hazel tree, an Oak tree, an old Christmas tree, a herb bed, and a straggly looking mint plant. The oak I rescued from someones lawn as when I was visiting, as it was about to get chopped up by the lawn mower. It's been living happily in this container for a while now. It's slow growing, and eventually, I will plant it in the ground, tho doubtful it will be in this garden. For now I tend to take a few leaves from it when I make oak leaf wine. The herb bed is a plasters mixing tub, it was about a tenner, and cheaper than any container of it's size intended for garden use, it is home to two thyme plants and a rosemary plant.
So, even if you have a small space, you can cram a lot in. The blackcurrants (variety Ben Sarek) gave me 15lb of fruit last year, I got 5lb of green beans off beans grown in ¼ of the raised bed. I am never going to be self sufficient from such a small space, but I manage to grow quite a chunk of my own food, and there is a great feeling of satisfaction to sit under an apple tree eating a salad you grew just a few feet away from you.
Food miles... food inches...
J
In this area I have 12 apple trees. Five of them are in the ground as cordons, 7 are in containers. They are all on dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstocks, so they don't get too big. I also have a half dozen raspberry canes in the corner, 9 blackcurrant bushes, and a 16'x4' raised bed.
I mentioned this lot in a previous thread and people asked for photos. So.
The view of the raised bed, with the various containers around it, the twiggy things to the left are the black currants. In the foreground is a James Grieve apple. In this view you can see 6 of the apple containers (one is kinda hidden behind the green bin). The raised bed has just been weeded ready for this years season. You may be able to make out the straggly ends of the potato plants at this end. I have planted beetroot and lettuce in the quarter just past the half way mark. I have some onion plants that are almost ready to go in the same quarter of the bed. The quarter just past where the spuds are will be beans and pumpkin this year. The far end will be brassicas.
View looking the other way, the cordon apple trees are at the far end by the wall, they are planted at a slight angle, the hope being they make a nice productive hedge. The four terracotta pots in the middle of the picture contain some tulips. One of my small concessions to the usual policy of only plants I can eat or use in some way (I grow woad and madder for example) in the garden.
A close up of one of the apple containers. This is a new tree for this year, where as others in the garden range in age upto 9 years. This tree will only stay in this pot for this season, in the winter I will report it into a wooden container like the one in the next image.
I made these containers using some cheap pressure treated CLS from jewsons, they are about 8 years old, and seem to be holding up ok. They have plenty of volume for the roots to develop, and also provide a nice handy area to perch on when you taking a break from weeding. My revised design will see a better integrated seat... The length of chestnut on the right is about to be turned into a support steak for the tree.
My container forest... kinda. Here we have a hazel tree, an Oak tree, an old Christmas tree, a herb bed, and a straggly looking mint plant. The oak I rescued from someones lawn as when I was visiting, as it was about to get chopped up by the lawn mower. It's been living happily in this container for a while now. It's slow growing, and eventually, I will plant it in the ground, tho doubtful it will be in this garden. For now I tend to take a few leaves from it when I make oak leaf wine. The herb bed is a plasters mixing tub, it was about a tenner, and cheaper than any container of it's size intended for garden use, it is home to two thyme plants and a rosemary plant.
So, even if you have a small space, you can cram a lot in. The blackcurrants (variety Ben Sarek) gave me 15lb of fruit last year, I got 5lb of green beans off beans grown in ¼ of the raised bed. I am never going to be self sufficient from such a small space, but I manage to grow quite a chunk of my own food, and there is a great feeling of satisfaction to sit under an apple tree eating a salad you grew just a few feet away from you.
Food miles... food inches...
J
