[peapod]

See if you can find a second hand copy of Peter Seabrook's Complete Vegetable Gardner - it focuses on the management of a 4m x 3m garden plot.

I found it inspirational 30 years ago

I also use Johns books, and find them great, but I cant have too many books!
Brilliant suggestion thankyou, I have managed to find this (second hand)  for the grand total of £2.66 from Abe books   

[Trillium]

I agree that some large, spreading veg like brassicas might have to stay off the list. You need to measure yield against space. Dan (on the blog) does some early potatoes but not maincrop mainly because potatoes take too much space. Check his archives for past articles. And he'll answer email questions too.

[Elcie]

They look briliant already, well done.  I have used the square foot garden approach in my front garden because it is quite different and looks good too.  If you do a search on this site there are lots of pictures of my front garden on here so that you can get an idea.  I used bamboo canes to space out the square feet which was really easy as I just tied them together with raffetta where they crossed.

Good luck with it

[digalotty]

instead of cabbage why not try some swish chard as you will get more than one crop , cut and come again

[Teen76]

Thank you all very much for your advice/information.  I like the idea of Swiss Chard as it looks quite pretty too.

[eli]

i second what salmo suggested, Grow Your Own Vegetables by Joy Larkcom :-)
its clear, creative and no-frills approach has been of infinite help to me as a relative beginner to growing :-)