My back garden is on a steep, north-facing, chalk slope. The small front garden is a sheltered sun trap, however I like to grow lots of flowers there. The question was 'How could I maximize my vegetable production, without sacrificing my flowers and lawn?' The solution was to turn to a farming friend who has lots of unwanted truck and tractor tyres.... 

Step 1: In March, I arranged the tyres in an 'arty farty' way on the surface of the lawn and put a layer of carboard in the base, in order hold in the moisture:

Step 2: I filled the tyres with a mixture of well-rotted manure and Hills compost:

Step 3: I planted 3 sweetcorn plants (var. Lark F1), 3 French bean seeds and a squash/pumpkin seedling into each tyre:

Step 4: I started harvesting - so far I have 12 deliciously sweet corn cobs, several 'patty' squash, a modest amount of beans and some pumpkins are even beginning to swell!