Vertical Veg Ideas, Tips & Guides

If you like chillies – and you have enough sun to grow them in – they are a brilliant choice for containers and small spaces. In this post you can find out why I find them so good, my three favourite varieties (the choice of variety makes a big difference), and three wonderful sauces / pickles to make with your harvests. I’d love to learn about your favourite chilli varieties and homemade chilli sauces in the comments below.

No Dig gardening is traditionally practised in the ground, often (but not always) in raised beds. Awareness of No Dig gardening has risen in recent years, thanks to the work of inspiring growers like Huw Richards, Charles Dowding and Stephanie Hafferty. But does it also work in containers? Here I share my thoughts and experience.

I’m always on the look out for edibles that are super productive and worthwhile in very small spaces. A new one (for me, at least) to add to the list is spring onions / scallions. To get a brilliant harvest they need to be sown close – check out the video below for a more visual account of my adventure with spring onions!

I’m always on the look out for edibles that are super productive and worthwhile in very small spaces. A new one (for me, at least) to add to the list is spring onions / scallions. To get a brilliant harvest they need to be sown close – check out the video below for a more visual account of my adventure with spring onions!

One thing I sometimes grapple with is how far apart to space seeds and plants in a container. Should I follow the guidelines on the side of the seed packet – or can veg in containers be grown closer together? After playing around with different spacings, I ‘discovered’ some general rules of thumb.

What makes the ideal edible garden in containers? It’s different for each of us, of course, and usually takes trial and error to discover. One good way to evolve a container garden isto try a few different plants in your container garden each year. This will help you discover what you love to grow most. Trying new things and experimenting is also good for learning and, in my experience, all part of the fun.

Chillies grow very well in containers – but they do have some specific needs. To discover the ‘tricks of the trade’, I met up with (and filmed) professional chilli grower, Steve Waters.

Red orach is a wonderful salad and leafy veg to grow in containers. It’s colourful, good to eat and grows tall, adding attractive height to a container garden. The variety, orach scarlet emperor, has vivid magenta leaves and is one of my favourites. It’s a cheerful addition to the container garden and will brighten any salad. Eaten raw, it has a mild but excellent taste. Once cooked, the larger leaves taste similar to spinach.

Miniature, ‘compact’, or ‘dwarf’ varieties of vegetables are often promoted as being ideal to grow in containers. But are they always the best choice for the container garden? Here are some thoughts and observations.

If you’ve grown in a peat free potting mix  (or ‘compost’ as we call it in the UK), you may have found a significant variability in quality. In my experience, some perform superbly, many are fairly average, but poor quality is not uncommon either.

It can be hard to know what to grow first when you start a container garden – there are just so many possibilities! Exciting but also sometimes a bit overwhelming. I hope the ideas below will help.