Monica Stott has some great space saving ideas to help you maximise your growing area.
Many of us are short on space at our caravan gardens so we stick to the usual, low-maintenance annual bulbs.
… You can pack so much more into a small garden
Don’t get me wrong, I love the colourful blooms that appear as if by magic when the daffodils, tulips and dahlias emerge! But there’s so much more we could be doing with our caravan gardens, especially if you opt to grow plants vertically.
The benefits of growing plants vertically
Growing plants vertically means you can pack so much more into a small garden, which most of us have at a caravan. It also gives you the opportunity to create
structure and points of interest. I love having plants and flowers growing at eye/nose level rather than on the ground, which is beautiful and wonderful for scented plants! There’s also the opportunity to use your plants to create privacy screens which can be nice if you’re overlooked.
I like to grow a variety of beautifully scented flowers and a few fruits and vegetables. In a small space it’s unlikely you’ll get much of a yield with your vegetable plants but it’s nice if you’re away from your caravan for a week or two and return to a bounty of peas or runner beans!
Here are 10 of my favourite plants to grow vertically.
Cherry tomatoes
Nothing tastes better than a homegrown, freshly picked cherry tomato! There are two varieties of cherry tomato plant; bush or cordon variety.
Bush plants stay small and can be grown in hanging baskets, stackable pots, small pots or simply in the ground. Cordon plants will grow tall and need some support, whether it’s with a metal support cage or simple bamboo canes.
Tomato plants like the heat so some caravan owners will use a mini, collapsible greenhouse with a plastic cover to keep them warm. Personally, I start them off in the kitchen window of my caravan and they grow brilliantly with the heat and sunlight. If you’re going home and leaving your plants unattended, you can leave them in the kitchen sink with some water and they’ll absorb the water with their roots.
Clematis
Clematis is a beautifully scented plant with star-shaped flowers that are usually pink, purple or white. These plants can spread so they’re ideal for covering a fence or wall. They are perennial plants so they come back each year and need very little maintenance, other than fresh compost in the spring and cutting back if they’re growing a little too vigorously.
Clematis would be beautiful to grow up a trellis near your caravan door for a delicious scent every time you walk in or out.
Jasmine
Jasmine is very similar to clematis and has an equally beautiful scent. It’s a perennial that climbs quickly and can spread across a wall or fence. Jasmine plants are easy to grow and have dainty white flowers with a delightful scent. To me, they smell like summer and instantly bring back wonderful memories of summer evenings outdoors. You could intertwine it with your clematis plant or grow it separately.
Climbing roses
There are so many varieties of climbing roses to suit your space. You could choose a small variety in a pot or a larger variety to cover a whole fence. Some are strongly fragranced while others don’t have much smell at all. Roses are fairly easy to care for too and once they’re established they need little more than an annual mulch, pruning and training in the direction you want it to grow.
Cucumbers
I grow 2-3 cucumber plants in large, self-watering pots on my patio. These need a lot of water so the self-watering pots are best if you’ll be leaving them for a few days. Give them a strong support and tomato feed every few weeks and you’ll have a bounty of cucumbers by the end of the summer!
Strawberries
Strawberry plants are relatively small so they’re ideal for growing in stackable pots or hanging baskets. It’s usually worth netting them to stop birds eating them and I like to add crushed egg shells to the soil around the plants to stop slugs! Each plant should produce a good crop for 2-3 years and will send out shoots to grow new plants for next year.
Raspberries
Raspberries are a good option if you’re not always available to water your plants as they’re pretty much self sufficient. They need strong support to grow up and I recommend spacing them out so you can easily pick the fruit. They’ll send out runners so you’ll have a few new plants each year so your crop of raspberries will grow year on year!
Sweet peas
Sweet peas are beautifully scented climbing plants with pretty, colourful flowers that can be picked for gorgeous bouquets. Your caravan will smell so good with a few bunches of sweet peas.
Sweet peas are grown from seed each year or you can buy young plants from garden centres. They need to be picked to keep growing and they need a lot of water so they’re best for someone who spends a lot of time at their caravan.
Thyme, oregano and mint
Herbs are very easy to grow in pots that hang over a fence. Many caravan owners will have fencing around their decking which is ideal to hang small pots. You can then pop out of your kitchen and pick fresh herbs whenever you’re cooking. I find thyme, oregano and mint to be some of the easiest and most useful herbs to grow!
Beans and peas
Both beans and peas are relatively easy to grow once they’re established. I start mine off in small pots inside as the young plants often get eaten by slugs. You can then grow them up a trellis, a fence, netting, bamboo canes, an obelisk or an arch. My kids love growing runner beans and peas because they’re relatively easy to grow and lots of fun to pick. We save last year’s beans to replant the following spring for another bounty!
Happy gardening!
