Please recommend veggies for our garden

Hi everyone,

I wonder whether I could get some advice on what veggies might do well in our garden. This is only our second year in the UK (coming from Australia) and I'm just not sure what will do well here.

We live in Oxford and have a small South-East facing garden, but on the Western side of it all the way along is a very tall building, so it only gets sun for half the day. As soon as the sun goes behind the building next door just after lunchtime or maybe a bit later in summer the garden is completely in shade.

Last year I tried green beans, which did exceptionally well. So I will definitely be planting those again. I also tried tomatoes. I had some tiny cherry tomatoes (hundreds & thousands they were called) in planting bags, which did very well. But the regular tomatoes I had in the ground didn't do so well. They grew well and set lots of fruit, but then the fruit just turned black and mushy before they even ripened. So it looks like I got some sort of disease in them, probably due to there not being quite enough sunshine to keep them strong and disease-resistant. Fortunately I harvested about half of them green and make green tomato chutney before they got sick, so they weren't all wasted.

I also tried courgettes, which didn't do very well either. I love courgettes, so would really like them to work.Chillies also didn't do great. I got some fruit on them, but I don't think it was warm enough for them to ripen. I harvested some green ones right at the end of the growing season, but I think it only amounted to about 3.

I haven't had any success with spinach either. I tried a few times but it always went straight to seed. I sowed some in a big plastic box outside in autumn and that is actually looking very promising, provided it doesn't got to seed again. I've also got some kohlrabi growing from autumn still (they're very small) and some chard (again, very small still).

We've got strawberries which do alright, and I also had some mange-touts which did alright. I wondered about growing sweetcorn this year, because I'd like something tall to hide the corner next to the shed with the compost bins, but I don't like their chances of growing well in limited sun.

The other complication is that I kind of have to stick to the edges of the garden when planting veggies, which reduces the sunshine further, because it wouldn't be fair on the kids to plants veggies all through the middle of the tiny garden and then constantly get annoyed with them for stepping on them or throwing balls at them

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. In fact, if anyone else happens to live in Oxford I would love to meet fellow veggie gardeners. None of the friends we've made here so far are into gardening.

Juli

Hi< I'm no expert but I suspect that sun isn't all of your problems. In the summer it gets light at 4 in the morning so the plants will be getting plenty of light even before the shade comes over.

I have successfully grown potatoes under the shade of an apple tree so maybe root veg are worth a try. Also I have had problems with courgettes in full sun, I think that the quality of the soil has a lot to do with it - try growing them where the beans were last year and dig in a load of compost first, make sure they stay well watered and maybe mulch them?

Personally I like growing things that are hard to get hold of at the supermarket, and lettuce etc is so much cheaper to grow at home and has the added advantage that it will do OK in shade

Also with your strawberries were they first year plants? If they are the same plants they should do MUCH better this year. Strawberry plants fruit best the second year so it's key to make sure you pin out the runners from your plants this year, let them grow and fruit a bit but then you will get the best of them next year.

Same applies to raspberries, and again I've grown raspberries well in shade - as long as the soil is good and they are kept moist.

I'm sure other members with more experience will have more to add, we have quite a few veg growers on here!

How about Rocket, its really easy to grow and it tends to bolt (run to seed)if its too hot so it may do well in the shade, possibly the same reason why lettuce does well in a shadier area too.
I have always grown chillies,peppers toms ,aubergines etc in my greenhouse and they have always done well but it gets very warm and stuffy in there so would avoid these outside unless you can buy seed for outdoor varieties.

Thank you both for your suggestions. Yes, a greenhouse would be nice in the long term for growing some of those veggies that like it a bit hotter.

How about outdoor cucumbers, they look great,they trail like vines, my kids love to eat them and you get loads of fruit too.

How about outdoor cucumbers, they look great,they trail like vines, my kids love to eat them and you get loads of fruit too.

Hmm, yes, that might be worth a try. Thanks

I grew Jersualem Artichokes last year - they are REALLY easy to grow and just DEELISH!! Also, other root veg- carrots, parsnips, garlic, shallotts, beetroot, potatoes etc are easy to grow and don't need a whole lot of sunshine.

xx

I grew Jersualem Artichokes last year - they are REALLY easy to grow and just DEELISH!! Also, other root veg- carrots, parsnips, garlic, shallotts, beetroot, potatoes etc are easy to grow and don't need a whole lot of sunshine.

xx

Oh, I'm afraid I'll have to pass on Jerusalem Artichokes. They really don't agree with me, if you know what I mean But I can certainly give the others a try

Perpetual spinach is better than normal spinach for bolting. Try that maybe?

Just because a crop does work one year, doesn't mean it won't the next. We have had years when courgettes just didn't go past flowers, and years like last year where we had lots.

Peas, runner beans, broad beans,outdoor cucumber, onions, parsnips, carrots, beetroot, broccoli, sweetcorn, cabbages, salads leaves all did well here last year. I am a lazy gardener. I just broadcast a handful of carrot seeds last year and they turned into a bumper crop! No measuring distances etc for me. That is just making work for yourself!