When utilising small gardens and balconies or veranda spaces, there is a tendency to opt for growing purely ornamental and flowering plants over edibles. A common misconception being that fruit, herbs and vegetables can only be grown in large areas.

It is perfectly understandable to want a gorgeous display of cheerful flowers to brighten up a limited outdoor space, but with careful thought and planning, fruit, herbs, vegetables and flowers can be grown too.

Please check that species/varieties you chose to grow are climatically suited to the area in which you live before investing in plants or seeds.

For example, not all fruit grows on trees. Some grow on small bushes, on vines, and on small plants that can be grown in surprisingly limited space. Strawberries are a prime example and, whichever part of the country you happen to garden in, strawberries grow exceedingly well in pots, hanging baskets and assorted containers.

Growing plants in a small living space isn’t as impossible as you might think. There are plenty of fruits and vegetables that can thrive in your veranda or on your balcony

Pineapples and Chinese lemons are suitable for pot cultivation in limited space, although not recommended for a balcony. The same goes for papayas, as long as the garden area has lots and lots of sunshine, and nothing interferes with its upward growth.

Fruiting vines, such as edible varieties of passion fruit, grapes, and kiwi fruit can all be trained to grow against a wall, thus taking up very little space indeed.

Chinese gooseberries only require a large pot or small piece of ground, ordinary soil, sunshine and water. If I had to select just one kind of fruit for a small area, it would be Chinese gooseberries. They are simple to grow, fairly disease and pest-resistant and, in Karachi at least, they can bear their delicious fruit all the year round.

When it comes to growing vegetables in small spaces, forget about cabbages and cauliflowers because they need far too much room. Instead, opt for the wide variety of greens that can be harvested, leaf by leaf, then the rest of the plant is left to continue growing and to produce new leaves countless times over.

Generally referred to as ‘cut and come again’ crops, these include ‘open’ varieties of lettuce, Swiss chard/leaf beet, kale, mustard greens, green garlic, lamb’s lettuce, amaranthus and New Zealand spinach.

Climbing beans of all kinds are a perfect small garden vegetable for training up tepees, over trellis or up strong twine against a wall as they need vertical space, not horizontal. Climbing squash, spaghetti squash, tromboncino squash, some pumpkins and climbing varieties of cucumbers are also very useful in small garden spaces.

Other vegetables with the capacity to crop heavily in small spaces include tomatoes, capsicums, aubergines, chillies, courgettes and potatoes grown in buckets and barrels.

French beans can have very attractive, bright red and white flowers. It is in the herb department that some particularly attractive, very eye-catching flowers are found. The well-known nasturtium — leaves, seeds and flowers all being edible — being a fine example in colours ranging from blazing reds, vibrant oranges, dazzling yellows through to apricot, lemon and cream.

Then there is the equally well-known calendula, both single and double forms, predominantly in shades of orange and yellow, and far less commonly seen, lemon and cream. Other floriferous culinary herbs are blue and white-flowered borage, white flowered feverfew, bellis, blue-flowered sage, lavender, rosemary, thyme, chives and garlic chives, agastache with blue, pink or white spires of bloom and many, many more.

Some herbs may have inconspicuous flowers but more than make up for this with their attractive foliage. Coriander and parsley both have lovely, bright green foliage. Mint may be green, bluish, silvery or green with a distinctive purple tinge. And cook’s essential basil may be feathery and green, light green, dark green, ruby red or even deep and a somewhat mysterious purple.

To transform your small space in to a lush and bountiful paradise, you need pots/containers/hanging baskets and/or a small patch of actual garden ground, and a medium such as top quality sweet earth/organic compost/old, well-rotted, organic animal manure, water and carefully selected, locally climatically suitable plants/seeds.

With correct planning and planting, a sense of artistry, some determination, dedication and patience, the rewards from even the tiniest of edible gardens will, in overall terms of vision and taste, be a veritable wonderland of natural delight.

Please continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com. Remember to include your location. The writer does not respond directly by email. Emails with attachments will not be opened

Published in Dawn, EOS, March 20th, 2022