The heart and Soil of your patch
Getting a vegetable garden or herb plot going is SOW easy… follow my simple advice to get started and before you know it, you’ll be dining out on the fruits of your labour
OUR gardens aren’t just spaces to relax and de-stress, but also somewhere we can make the most of our free time to grow tasty and nutritious food. Seeing something grow from seed to plant to fork is truly special.And early April is the ideal time to get planting...
PICK PEAS
THERE is nothing like the sweet taste of freshly-picked peas and growing your own is so easy you’ll never go back to shop-bought ones. Mangetout and sugarsnap varieties are the easiest to grow. Give them a head-start by sowing seeds indoors in small pots or modular trays.
When they have germinated into seedlings, transplant your baby pea plants to a sunny, well-drained outdoor spot with plenty of peat-free compost or well-rotted manure (raised beds make brilliant, easily accessible veg patches). Remember, they will need a bit of support when growing – canes, sticks or old branches can be used for the tendrils to wrap around and climb up.
Your peas will be ready to harvest from June to October. For the sweetest flavour, eat them straight after picking.
READY TO GROW RADISHES
ADD a peppery zing to your summer salads with radishes.They grow well in pots or can be sown directly in the ground in summer. Sow them in stages throughout the season and you’ll have a continuous crop.
Not only will they add a burst of vibrant colour to the veg garden, but they are fast-growing. In just four weeks, you can have your own radishes to harvest.
Start by sowing seeds in their growing spot outdoors in the ground, growbag or container. For big, fleshy radishes, ensure the plants get plenty of moisture so the roots continue to grow without splitting.
A popular variety that gives a harvest of cylindrical radishes with striking red and white roots is ‘French Breakfast’.
BECOME A YOU-TUBER
POTATOES are grown from special seed tubers that have been cleared of disease and bred to produce strong, viable new plants.
Before planting, you’ll need to prepare your tubers by chitting them – which means placing the potatoes in an egg box in a warm sunny spot like a windowsill until they start sprouting shoots.
When the shoots are about 3cm long, your tubers can be planted out. Potatoes really love a sunny spot as they’re not frost hardy. When planted, water them well unless we have particularly wet weather.
Rather than planting them just in the ground, small crops can be grown in large, deep containers. This is a clever way of getting an early batch of delicious new potatoes.
But you can grow them almost anywhere, in the ground, in bags, even in a dustbin as a cheap way of getting started.
There are three types of potatoes to be aware of: earlies, second earlies and maincrops – these names refer to the time they are harvested.
Earlies are the easiest to grow and take up the least space in your garden. But the other two are simple crops and will give you loads of potatoes.
BEET IT
BEETROOT is a great root vegetable to start growing if you’re a relative beginner and, when harvested, it’s surprisingly versatile in the kitchen. Sowing beetroot in the ground from March to July will give you a continuous crop that ends just before the first frosts. It’ll grow equally well in peat-free compost in a container if you’re stumped for space. For happy beetroots, you’ll need to keep on top of watering to ensure the soil is moist. ‘Boltardy’ has been specifically bred for beginners and ease of growing, bearing deep red roots that have a delicious, sweet taste. Roots can be ready to harvest in as little as seven weeks if picked young, but can also be grown for around 12 weeks. Typically, they should be somewhere between a golf ball and a tennis ball in size. After harvesting, shake off any excess earth but never wash them clean.They may look nicer washed, but they store far better with a bit of mud on them.
GROWBAG YOUR TOMS
WHATEVER the size of your growing space, tomatoes are a great starter crop and home-grown ones are particularly tasty and nutritious. Growing from seed is incredibly easy, and there are many seed varieties available.
Pick up a packet from a garden centre, a seed tray and seed compost, sprinkle the seeds over the surface of the peat-free compost and they will germinate before you know it.
Once these have grown enough to be handled, they can be transplanted into small pots and, within a couple of weeks, will be big enough to move to a growbag.
A Miracle-Gro® Performance Organics Fruit & Veg Planter growbag or similar is perfect, enabling you to grow bigger and better crops. What I tend to do is cut three holes in the top of the bag and plant straight
into the bag. If you don’t have the time to grow from seed, young plants can be bought and planted straight into the growbag. From then on, nature does almost everything else.As the plants grow, they will need support from canes.
Pinch off side shoots to keep the energy of the plant in the right place. Feeding regularly during the growing season with an additive like Tomorite will help boost fruit production. But you’ll be picking and enjoying them in no time.
CHILLIES
ANOTHER perfect pot crop is chillies. Last year I grew the variety ‘Apache’ that first produced fruit in summer and continued well into the autumn. I froze my unused chillies to preserve them so I still have a stock at home. Their fiery flavour makes them great for sauces and as a pizza topping.
Sow seeds and when germinated into seedlings, pot the plants on into 9cm pots. They should be moved outside to help make them hardy.
Eventually, they can be potted on into containers the diameter of an ordinary bar stool where they will continue to grow happily. Keep them watered but don’t over-do it and look out for pests like greenfly or blackfly.
SPEEDY SALAD
YOU SIMPLY can’t go wrong with growing speedy salad leaves. Rocket, spinach, lettuce are all great crops. Get hold of a large container the size of a dinner plate and fill it with peat-free compost, before sprinkling half of the salad seeds on the surface.Then, sprinkle some more compost over the top and in a matter of days, the plants will germinate.
Within 14 days you can start harvesting the crunchy, fresh leaves to add to salads, sandwiches and stir fries.
Wait for a second flush of foliage, which can be cropped, then use the other half of the packet to sow another round of seeds for a successive crop of salad leaves. Keep going all summer and you’ll never be short of fresh leaves.
This is definitely one to get the children or grandkids involved in, as they are fun, fast and really easy to grow.