Hydroponic Heritage Vegetables

Don’t let a lack of a proper garden stop you from harvesting fresh veggies at home! Here are the most productive Vegetables to Grow in Pots in a small space like an apartment balcony or a patio!

These vegetables grow best in warm weather and when the sun is intense. You must give them a place in your summer vegetable garden. If you don’t own a garden and space is limited, grow them in pots in your apartment balcony or patio.

Whether you made a New Year’s resolution to cut your carbon footprint, or the credit crunch is putting pressure on your food budget, now is the perfect time to try growing some of your own vegetables. You don’t need a lot of space, or expensive kit, to get started – and it doesn’t need to take up a lot of your time.

Header image: Mizuna lettuce growing aboard the International Space Station before being harvested and frozen for return to Earth. Image credit: NASA 

At this time of year, many outdoor growers are winding down their plots. It’s time to clear away tender plants before the first frost, gather in the last of the harvest and make sure the hardy brassicas that can survive the winter weather are protected against marauding pigeons.

Fresh from wondering where my writing career is going, I thought it might be fun to revisit some of the places it has been. In 2007 I was just starting out as a freelance writer, having been made redundant from my job as a techie. I’d been blogging for several years, and was slowly getting published (and paid!) online and off.

I have always been an organic gardener, so the fact that my hydroponic kits are currently fuelled by chemical fertilisers irks me somewhat. The main problems with chemical fertilisers (from my perspective) are the pollution they cause once they’re out in the world, and the energy required to make them. While the former is not an issue in my indoor garden (I give any wastewater to houseplants or plants in the garden), the latter most certainly is. So I would like to move to a more sustainable fertiliser solution in the future.

“Not only does Growing Vegetables is Fun! introduce children to a number of seeds and plants, but through containing a scrapbook and seed diary, also provides hours of educational fun!”

At the moment I’m building a new garden from scratch, and as I’m putting in hard landscaping it’s taking some time (which is frustrating) and the project has a budget. This is in complete contrast to when I started my first garden, which started small, had no plan, and no budget to speak of.

The barbecue doesn’t need to be the preserve of meat – quality vegetable kebabs go down a treat with meat eaters and herbivores, they just require a bit of time and imagination. The halloumi adds some bite and additional texture, going beautifully crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside.

If you’ve just decided to grow your own vegetables to save money, then where do you start? A visit to the garden centre, or a quick flick through the seed catalogue, can be daunting – especially if you don’t have a lot of space for your vegetable patch. What’s going to give you the most bang for your buck?

As 2016 draws to a close, my garden looks a lot different than it did last year. For starters, it has 12 raised beds now, instead of 6. There’s a small shed for storage, and a log store. There are gardener’s paths, an improved fence with fruit-training wires and small raised beds in the extra garden strip. I would not have got this far without Ryan’s endless energy and enthusiasm, his practical skills. And his dad. Whilst I am Head Gardener, Ryan is the garden’s Chief Engineer.