Raised beds
Raised beds are brilliant – they need hardly any digging, they keep the soil warm so things grow faster, and they’re easy for little arms to reach into. A good size is 1 x 2m, with sides high enough so children don’t jump into it! As little as 10cm depth of good quality, composty soil is enough to grow things in.

Make the bed
You can buy ready-made plastic beds, or you can make your own out of wood. Make sure it’s untreated wood that won’t leach anything into the soil.

Position the bed facing south so it gets all the sunshine, and fill it with well-fertilised soil or rich compost.

With three or four beds of this size, you can grow stacks of vegetables and salad leaves.
Why not try square foot gardening to make the most of your space?

Containers
You can use anything as a growing pot, as long as it hasn’t got any sharp edges and isn’t made of anything toxic. Old baths, buckets or troughs are perfect – the bigger the better. Whatever you use, make sure the pot has drainage holes and is light in colour to keep roots cool. You can paint the outside
if you need to.

Pot up
Put your pots in a spot that get at least 6 hours of sunlight a day. They’ll need lots of water – more and more as the plants grow – so make sure they’re near a source of water, like a waterbutt.

Fill the pot with rich soil or compost, and put in an organic complete too – that way, your plants get lots of good stuff throughout the growing season.

Containers suit plants that don’t need much space – like radishes, carrots, lettuces, peppers and dwarf bush varieties of tomatoes.