can anyone help please

[Russian Doll]

pkay here goers..i live in a flat above a shop with a fairly large kitchen....i reaslly want to start growing my own fruit and veg and herbs for the kids but i dont have any place to put window boxex due to health and safety...any ideas...what i can do and what veg works best indoors and is fun for kids to do...ta very much

[Thomzo]

Hi Tea
Nice to meet you. There's lots of ideas here so I'm sure we can help you.

Tomatoes are really good indoors and great fun. It might be a bit late now though.

Buy some of those herbs in pots from the supermarket for an instant windowsill garden. I'd recommend you repot them as the compost they put them in dries out really quickly. You can get the kids to make some funky pot holders from yogurt tubs.

If you have enough space then cucumbers can be grown indoors. They do need to be trained up (or down) something but you can put them on a shelf near the window.

If you have a sunny, south-facing window then citrus trees are great. They look really pretty and you get oranges or lemons.

Zoe

[Russian Doll]

hi hunny thanx for the reply..i do ahve a south facing kitchen...whats the best way to grow citrus...from seed...mega novice here lol

[Wombat]

Hey Tea690!

Wecome to the site!

Citrus grown from seed will take a looooooong time to fruit and because it will be a mixture of genes, of uncertain quality. Best to (if you can afford it) buy a grafted, named variety. You will know whatyu are getting and it will only take a few years to get a decent crop.

Nev

[Russian Doll]

Hey Tea690!

Wecome to the site!

Citrus grown from seed will take a looooooong time to fruit and because it will be a mixture of genes, of uncertain quality. Best to (if you can afford it) buy a grafted, named variety. You will know whatyu are getting and it will only take a few years to get a decent crop.

Nev

thanx hunny kids really want to grow these..wheres the best place to get the bits and pieces i need...cheap as poss

[Wormella]

We have a small cirus grove from pips - We don't think any will fruit but we kept popping Mandarin and lemon ppipcs into compost in a warm enviroment (on our storage heaters) until we got seedlings.

[Wombat]

Hey Tea!

I don't know where you are..................if you are in the UK, best talk to the locals

Nev

[Shirley]

I've grown them from pips before - it does take a while though and it's unlikely that they'll fruit. They are rather nice green plants though and the leaves smell lovely.

It will encourage them to eat fruit too :) you could try oranges, lemons and limes..... among others.

Chillies are doing well for us - and tomatoes too. Some will grow VERY tall but you can check up on that when you buy the seeds.

Lettuce and salad leaves will do well as will herbs - if you buy them in the pots from the supermarket you can repot and get quite a few from one pot.

[Russian Doll]

Hey Tea!

I don't know where you are..................if you are in the UK, best talk to the locals

Nev

im from essex hunny...hows life in oz

[Millymollymandy]

Hee hee - Nev will love being called Hunny.

Hello Tea and welcome to the site!

[Millymollymandy]

oops sorry just seen your hello elsewhere and that you are a laaaaaady! For some reason I thought you were a bloke who thought that Nev was a Sheila.....

oh never mind!

[glenniedragon]

Hello and welcome to the site! what about mushrooms under the bed? you can buy a kit.
There's a good book called "The complete Urban Farmer" by David Wickers- it goes into different veg and methods to grow them inside making the most of your space. After reading this book I put a shelf across my kitchen window and start off my seedlings there- after a while you get a nice green net obscuring the view, I found this book a very inspiring read.

Good luck
Kind thoughts
Deb

[Thomzo]

Hi Tea
Is there a Homebase near you? I notice that they often have citrus plants there at half price so keep an eye out. Otherwise they can be quite expensive. You can often buy them mail order. I ordered one orange tree from one of the catalogues a few years back. When it arrived I repotted it to find that they had stuffed three small plants into one pot so now I have three trees for the price of one. Why don't you get one for each of the kids for Christmas? A different variety each perhaps.

Apart from the cost of buying them, they're not difficult to look after. They do like to be watered every day in summer and you should use water that has been standing for a while to get rid of the chlorine.

Cheers
Zoe

[Russian Doll]

mushrooms under bed sounds great...exept we dont have beds...long story short 4 kids two adults in a two bed flat.....can they grow in a dark cupboard.....sorry about the hunny thing....tell me if its offensive and ill stop

[the.fee.fairy]

Yep! You can grow them in a dark cupboard.
I got a kit from a garden centre (or was it wilkos?...i can't remember) and it was £5. Not sure i got £5 worth of mushrooms from it, but there y'go. I used spores (also bought from somewhere) to reseed the compost and they did quite well too.