Growing Food

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Hana Evans grows her own organic vegetables on a small balcony in Paignton

supermarket queues and The Fear of a lockdown, food shortages have inspired a New Generation of backyard-vegetable-growers - But what if your only outside space is tiny?

"I think, I have the green thumb now," says healthcare assistant Hana Evans.

she walked in a top floor apartment in Paignton, Devon, for work at the end of Last Year . The head is the "beautiful" view of The Sea . The flip side of the coin? It is pretty Dark Inside and the only outside space is The Balcony that is less than one Meter wide and three meters long.

In her previous home, Hana tried to work in The Garden and even had a garden plot to grow where they fought against the "massive worm" in your efforts to organic vegetables.

The view of The Sea from Hana 's apartment in Paignton

It was blocking, her from "novice" with a neglected vegetable garden in someone crammed 31 pots and pans in your small outdoor space and acquired a myriad of practical gardening tricks.

they grow five types of lettuce, five types of tomatoes, pak choi, green cabbage, spinach, peas, cucumbers, two kinds of beans, chives, parsley and thyme.

she has two red currant bushes, a sun-flower plants and a variety of edible flowers, including nasturtiums and cornflowers.

"I've stuffed it full," she says. "I have things hanging from The Walls . "

Hana is preferred to have organic vegetables and not a car, so that the blocking made food shopping difficult.

"So I decided to grow up, so much as I could in the kitchen next to mine. "

The Garden centers were closed, But Hana still had Days a few seeds left over from the allotment.

they bought the children of The Sea -bucket - discounted due to the lack of tourists, to deliver from pot hanger made of string and a local nursery willing to compost, which is combined with kitchen scraps, pieces of rotten wood and Leaves .

Hana stuffed her tiny balcony to do with pots and pans

You , an online course encouraged in the, gardener, and imitate The Way the soil is, of course, and now grows more per square meter than they ever have on the allocation.

"I eat so much better, because the blocking," she says.

Vertical Veg

the Newcastle-based Mark Ridsdill-Smith was one of Hana inspirations.

He runs a website called, the encouraged to think for gardeners with limited space, above the horizontal. The website has a lot more traffic recently, he.

You can Grow your own from a balcony or window ledge improves not only your well-being and the immediate environment, You can even a lot of vegetables, grow Mark says.

He calculated that by his second year, he has produced More Than 80 kg of food to the value of almost £900 in the supermarket the prices.

He admits drainage is sometimes a problem for balcony gardeners - You don't want to drip water on to their neighbours on the Ground Floor . But if You can, solve this problem, the benefits are better light and less pests than on the ground.

Mark tending to his bar Only a window?

Mark's tips contain:

"I've met people who get so much joy out of Growing Food on The Balcony , as the people with large gardens," says Mark.

And even if some of their improvised techniques don't work, "it ceases to be fun, as long as You keep an Open Mind ".

Robyn and their partners from the vertical planter from old pallets

In Beeston, Nottingham, Robyn Wiles says be used the terrace for your Ground Floor apartment to "a little bit sad room".

As a Locum physiotherapist, she has a lot of time on their hands during the lockout.

her mother, "one of Those People who has a beautiful garden," was only a phone call away for advice, and now Robyn is growing sage, mint, Basil, rosemary, Paprika, chillies, fennel and orange seedlings, in addition to some flowers.

she found seeds, 19 plastic pots and some compost in a local supermarket.

old pallets, vertical planter, and even a pond and a makeshift greenhouse.

During the cold snaps, You duty to be aware of the 19 pots and their contents in the apartment each night and on The Following morning, dumped.

But it's Worth It , she says. The Garden attracted the bees, and there is "blackbirds, male and female, come and visit us most Days ".

Ragnar The Cat , enjoys his balcony garden in Rotterdam, the

And it's not just a UK phenomenon. Freelance Graphic Designer Sheila Brand lives and works in a third-floor apartment with a balcony, a Meter wide and four meters long, in Rotterdam, with cats, Ragnar and Rollo.

You already have raspberries, the harvest, radishes and zucchini, and also grows tomatoes, aubergines, herbs and even A Pumpkin .

"Most of The Days now the same," she says, But You see, the plants grow, "is very exciting: 'Oh, it got a new Leaf . '"

Sheila Brand, together with some of their harvest of radishes

You say, everything grows massive and it is hard to sit enough space on The Balcony .

they plan to give You some of their harvest away to the neighbors as soon as it is ripe, including the pumpkin, which will be ready in October at the earliest.

"I hope that we can all be hugging each other by then," says Sheila .

environment, paignton, family, vegetables, coronavirus lockdown measures, coronavirus pandemic, gardening, nottingham, newcastle upon tyne

Source of news: bbc.com