Quick and easy way to grow your own salad... and refill your fridge
Looking for worthwhile things to do outdoors? Try this invaluable veggie-growing masterclass from gardening expert Agnes Stevenson
There comes a point in every crisis when you stop worrying so fiercely about the future and start finding useful things to do instead. One of those things, and it is very useful indeed, is to start growing your own veg. Last time I looked, seeds were on sale in most supermarkets as well as from garden centres and nurseries and from online seed and plant companies. I can’t predict how many of these outlets will still be open by the time you read this, but if you can get your hands on seeds, and the compost you need to grow them in (also available for delivery), then try to make it the easy stuff, the ones that give you fast results for minimum effort. There’s two reasons for doing that. The first is that it’s a lot more encouraging when you can watch things develop and don’t have to wait months for results, and the other is that I’m sure that we are all going to get fed up of eating tinned and frozen veg very quickly. I know I am already. Not knowing how far we’ll be able to venture from our homes in the weeks to come, I’ve decided to concentrate my efforts on growing windowsill greens and so far the salads that I started off two weeks ago are coming along nicely. I’m growing a variety of things, including flat leaf parsley and spinach, but my main efforts are concentrated on just three different kinds of seeds – mixed leaves; beetroot, which I’m growing for its leaves and not for its roots; and radishes because they are a fast, fresh hit and I love them. To start them off, puncture a few holes in the bottom of a yoghurt pot, or the sort of shallow plastic tray that cherry tomatoes are sold in, fill to the brim with compost, press down to firm, soak until damp, and then sprinkle the small seeds
on the surface, adding the tiniest layer of compost, which you can shake on through a kitchen sieve. To keep the seeds moist, cover with an old, clear, plastic grape box or something similar, and place on the windowsill, keeping the pot covered until the seedlings emerge. Once the seedlings are about 2cm tall you will need to move them on into larger containers, spacing them about 3cm apart (a little bit further if you are growing radishes) and burying the roots and stalks until the seed leaves are practically sitting on the surface of the soil. Water them in gently – punching holes in the lid of a plastic bottle and watering through – then put them on a bright windowsill again and don’t let them dry out. By now you should have already started off more seeds in order to keep things going. The aim is just to produce a regular supply of the sort of baby leaves that are fresh and tangy and just the tonic in these difficult days.