Fresh food grown from your own garden always tastes better than anything you buy in the shops. That is my main motivation for growing my own, along with the added benefit of knowing that no nasty chemicals have been used to grow the vegetables.

Even though I have only been growing veg for two years, my small patio (measuring 6.4m x 3.4m) has given me enough room to experiment and grow my favourite veg, from beetroot to beans, pak choi to peppers.

Here, I'll show you that with just a few simple techniques you can grow an abundance of food no matter what size your growing space is. There really is something special about rustling up a salad from leaves you've just picked or making a stirfry with vegetables grown just metres from the kitchen.

Ingrid Chiu is an avid veg grower and has been harvesting crops from her urban garden for the past few years - she is also starting an allotment this year. You can follow her growing adventures on Instagram @ingrid_grows_and_eats

Four ways to grow

Raised beds

I have grown a huge variety of vegetables in raised beds over the years, including broccoli, chillies, courgettes, salad leaves, kohlrabi, aubergines... the list goes on. I find the best use of space is to put a climbing vegetable such as beans or peas at the back of the raised bed so that it grows vertically up against the fence or wall. This means I still have the majority of the raised bed space for non-climbing veg.

If your space doesn't have a wall or fence, simply put two raised beds about 1m-1.5m apart and add a couple of arches across them - this will give you the same vertical growing space. I have a two-tier raised bed where I like to put fast-growing crops such as pak choi and radish in the front bed so that I can quickly and easily fill the gaps as and when I harvest something.