Why a small plot suits the British climate so well

You do not need an acre to eat from the garden. A patch the size of two parked cars, given good light and decent soil, will keep a household in salad leaves, herbs and summer vegetables for six months of the year. The trick is to work with what our weather actually does rather than against it.

Britain is mild, damp and rarely extreme. That suits leafy crops far better than it suits sun-hungry tomatoes, aubergines and peppers. Once you accept that, planning becomes straightforward: the kitchen garden leans on leaves, roots and hardy greens, with a few tender crops tucked into the warmest, most sheltered corner you have. Frost may arrive late, slugs certainly will, and rain will do more damage than drought — but a well-built plot shrugs off all three.

Choosing the site and laying out raised beds

Most vegetables and herbs want six hours of sun a day, but in a damp climate air movement and drainage matter just as much. Avoid the bottom of a slope, where cold air pools and the first and last frosts of the year linger longest. A gentle south or south-west facing spot, with a fence or hedge to break the wind without casting shade, is close to ideal.

Raised beds solve most of the problems a British garden throws at you. They warm up earlier in spring, drain freely in a wet winter, and mean you never compact the soil by walking on it.

• Make beds 1.2 metres wide and as long as you like, so you can reach the middle from either side.
• Leave paths of 45–60 centimetres — wide enough for a wheelbarrow, and easy to mow or lay with bark chip.
• Build to 20–25 centimetres deep for most crops, but 40 centimetres for carrots and parsnips unless you grow shorter-rooted varieties.
• Run beds north to south where you can, so plants do not shade one another as the sun moves.
• Untreated timber is perfectly good. Avoid old railway sleepers and anything heavily tanalised where you plan to grow edible roots.

Getting the compost right

The soil in a raised bed is really a growing medium you make for yourself. Aim for roughly equal parts by volume of topsoil, peat-free compost, and well-rotted manure or leaf mould. That mix holds moisture through a dry July but drains freely through a soggy February, which is exactly what our winters demand.

• Start a compost bin in the corner from day one. Alternate green material — grass clippings, kitchen peelings, spent plants — with brown material such as cardboard, shredded paper and dead leaves.
• Turn the heap once a month. In a cool, damp climate it will take six to twelve months to break down into something crumbly and dark.
• Fill a bin bag with autumn leaves, punch a few holes in it, and leave it behind the shed for a year. Leaf mould is one of the finest soil conditioners you can make for nothing.
• Top up beds with five centimetres of compost each spring rather than digging. Worms and weather will do the rest.

Crops that earn their space

On a small plot, every square metre has to justify itself. These are the reliable performers.

• Cut-and-come-again salad: rocket, mizuna, mustard, spinach and loose-leaf lettuce. Sow a short row every three weeks from March to August for a continuous supply, and cover with fleece to keep the worst of the flea beetle off.
• Herbs: parsley, chives, coriander and dill all thrive in our damp summers. Always grow mint in a pot, or it will take the bed. Rosemary, thyme and sage prefer poorer, drier ground and a sunny, sheltered spot.
• Hardy greens: kale, chard, winter cabbage and purple sprouting broccoli carry the plot through the lean months, when there is little else to pick.
• Roots: beetroot, radish and carrots are quick and forgiving. Radishes are ready in four weeks, which makes them perfect for filling gaps.
• Climbing beans: runner and French beans against a south-facing fence crop heavily from July to October and fix nitrogen in the soil as they go.

Crop rotation and succession on a small plot

Rotation sounds grand, but it is simply not growing the same family of plants in the same place two years running. Divide the plot into four beds or four strips. Move legumes, brassicas, roots and potatoes or alliums round in order each year. This starves soil-borne pests and diseases of their host plants, and lets the nitrogen left by beans feed the hungry cabbages that follow.

Succession is the other half of the trick. Never leave bare soil sitting idle — sow a green manure such as field beans or phacelia over winter, or slot in a quick row of salad where the broad beans have finished. Little and often beats one enormous sowing that all matures in the same fortnight.

Protecting the harvest and keeping the rhythm

Slugs will be your chief adversary, and the answer is vigilance rather than chemistry. Water in the morning rather than the evening, patrol after rain with a torch, and keep seedlings under fleece until they are sturdy. Net brassicas against pigeons and cabbage white butterflies, and cloche tender crops in spring to buy yourself three or four extra weeks at each end of the season.

Aim to spend fifteen minutes a day in the garden rather than three hours at the weekend. Hoe weeds while they are tiny, pick beans before they turn stringy, and pinch out the tops of runner beans once they reach the top of their supports. Keep a notebook of what grew well and what sulked — your own records will teach you more than any book about the particular patch of Britain you garden in.

Start small, plant thickly, and eat something you have grown by the end of June. Everything else follows from that.