Welcome
Growing your own veg is a rite of passage. Almost every amateur gardener has tried at least one or two crops – even if it is easy-peasy mint, rhubarb or chives. To celebrate these efforts, this month’s lead feature (p16) explores the many ways we can introduce easy, attractive crops into even the smallest garden.
My own experiences of growing veg have been a bit fraught. Cabbage white caterpillars infested my Brussels; aphids overran my aubergines; and my statuesque sweetcorn failed to ripen. Even my strawberries have become gnarly-looking in recent years – the result, I suspect, of a virus. I’ve since learned that my veg patch is far too shady, the soil highly alkaline and that the nearby Viburnum tinus is probably harbouring aphids. It seems I’m not really giving my vegetables the ideal start they want in life!
Of course the real secret with veg is not to give up. Instead, focus on the successes: the bright orange baby carrots that looked so dinky in salads and the vibrant little chilli peppers that thrived on my kitchen windowsill. One year I grew four tomato plants whose fruits could have kept the entire village in salsa. So it’s not all doom and gloom. Those unexpected little victories were all the sweeter because I had to work for them.
So maybe this year I’ll try again, planting crops in pots on the sunny patio. Watering won’t be a problem in summer, because I won’t be holidaying overseas anytime soon. In fact, I have all the time in the world to nurture baby vegetables into adulthood. And once they’ve arrived, I’m going to eat them with relish.
Happy gardening!