Grow what is expensive to buy, poor in the shops, or transformed by freshness. Do not grow maincrop potatoes and onions in a small garden.
In a small British garden, some things are genuinely worth growing and some are a lot of work for produce that costs very little in a shop. The difference is usually freshness: the things worth growing are the ones that are dramatically better within an hour of picking.
What it covers
Every tip in growing food
Salad leaves, herbs, tomatoes, courgettes, runner beans, chard and soft fruit. All of them are either expensive to buy, poor in the shops, or vastly better fresh.
Supermarket pots contain dozens of seedlings crammed together. Split them into three or four clumps, repot in proper compost, and they will live for months instead of days.
Keep the leaves dry, give them air, water at the base in the morning, and grow them under cover if you can. Blight arrives in warm wet weather and spreads on wet foliage.
Windowsill herbs, a grow bag of tomatoes on a balcony, salad in a window box and sprouting seeds in a jar on the kitchen counter. All of them work in a flat.
The last frost is the hinge. Nothing tender goes outside until it has passed, which is roughly mid-May in much of Britain and later in the north and at altitude.
Tipking is general household information, not professional advice. Test anything on a hidden patch first. Full disclaimer.