Phoebe’s Pots Project

The small courtyard I was working with

I recently moved from my house with a 10 metre garden bed to a townhouse with a small courtyard and thought ‘I won’t grow anything right now because I don’t have any space’. And then I checked myself because many people don’t have a typical backyard, and still grow things. So should I!

I realised there was plenty of space for growing. I started my project by setting up a white plastic table to place pots on (so that it wouldn’t get too dirty) and I planted about 10 seeds each of: sunflowers, poppies, carrots, broccoli, basil, lettuce, rocket and silverbeet. All worked out so well and I ended up needing to add a second white table as the plants expanded and grew. I bought 20cm black plastic pots to keep it simple and inexpensive.

Find The Light

The one drawback I had was that the courtyard was very shaded by two big trees and seeds need direct sunlight to grow. So I got a little imaginative! After surveying around the house I concluded that the very best sunlight was actually on my bedroom balcony. Although it’s a little weird, that’s where I place my seeds to get light and it did the trick. I moved everything back down to the courtyard once they had started growing well.

What I Learned For Next Time

I ultimately want a large farm with plenty of space to grow whatever I want with no restrictions! But this has been a good lesson for me to understand that you can make space anywhere to plant a very productive and delicious food garden. I ate rocket, tatsoi, silverbeet leaves and coriander with so many meals and it just kept growing and growing. I planted things big (sunflower, broccoli) and small (lettuce, rocket) and have concluded it’s best to just focus on small, leafy greens in pots — they are happy in pots while bigger things are not quite at their best in a small space.

Plenty of silverbeet, tatsoi and rocket