Carol Klein’s easy-to-grow veg
Maybe you’re a grow-your-own novice or you’ve tried before and failed, but Carol Klein’s expert guide to failsafe veg will guarantee you tasty harvests all summer long
Growing veg is easy, there may be failures along the way but most efforts will meet with success
When we came to Glebe Cottage, 43 years ago, we were determined to grow some of what we would eat – vegetables and fruit. It wasn’t a crusade, it just seemed obvious that we had the wherewithal in terms of land, time and determination to be able to grow at least some of our own produce. A kind and romantic friend, convinced that our rural idyll would work out, gave us a copy of John Seymour’s, The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency as a leaving present. What a brilliant book; Seymour was so ahead of his time in so many ways, a pioneer of growing your own, addressing climate change and greening the planet. The other book upon which we depended was an RHS book, The Vegetable Garden Displayed, an absolute bible – we still have it, complete with muddy fingerprints.
It never occurred to me that growing vegetables might be difficult – perhaps it was a lack of imagination, combined with acknowledgement that humans have grown their own food for millennia. Ever since we gave up our dependence on foraging and hunting and settled in one place, we have been cultivating the land. Then industrial farming took over and our food supply became removed from our everyday control for most of us, certainly it was no longer an imperative to grow our own. And by and large, growing vegetables is easy, there may be failures along the way but most efforts will meet with success. That is, providing we follow straightforward principles – there is little point growing peas or climbing beans, for example, unless we are prepared to give them supports to climb up, and lettuce or rocket seedlings need to be pricked out or thinned out rather than left in an overgrown clump. There is no mystique involved, though there is plenty of magic when you pluck your first sun-ripened tomato from the vine or plait your garlic for the winter ahead.
Never be discouraged, you are following simple natural laws. Impatience can be one problem. In our second summer here, I had cleared a piece of ground and sowed peas. Nothing happened and after a few weeks, I sought the advice of my neighbour, the local vicar. As we approached the plot, we could see little green shoots just beginning to emerge. I still don’t know whether or not he said prayers on their behalf.
Grow what you eat
First things first, what do you want to grow? Sounds obvious but so many people grow crops that are supposed to be easy but which they might not enjoy eating.
Growing your own is all about taste. Because your veg come straight from the plot to your table, they are at their freshest
for them to climb. The easiest is tall bamboo canes tied together at the top. The bigger the circumference, the more beans you can grow.
Rocket
These leaves are easy and tasty. Sow successionally in trays or direct outside. If space is limited or you have no space at all, try sowing thinly in a pot or deep seed tray and treating it as a cut-and-come-again crop. After harvesting once, keep well-watered and fed.
Courgettes,
Surely the most bountiful of all vegetables – a couple of plants will give a constant supply for a family of four. They are tender so need to be started under cover; the large flat oval seed pushed just below the compost surface – on its side to prevent rotting. Give each seed its own pot, water well after sowing and put in a warm, bright place – a kitchen windowsill will do. Plant your courgettes out after the danger of frost has passed.
Chard
Chard is hardy, trouble free and packed full of vitamins and minerals. Sow seeds direct or individually into modules just like beetroot. A short row of plants will give you fresh pickings right through the winter.
Cabbages & kale
These brassicas are easy to raise from seed, either in seed trays, or in short rows in a spare corner of the veg garden, then transplant into their final positions. Like so many other vegetables, plugs, small plants grown in modules, are widely available if you’d rather skip the seed stage. All brassicas are deep rooted and need firming in well when planted. Net to protect from cabbage white butterflies.
Onions & shallots
Everyone needs onions! They store well and even in a smallish space, especially if you have a deep bed with fertile soil, you can grow enough to last well into the winter. This is a great time to plant onion sets (small bulbs specially prepared), and your last chance to plant shallots. Because our soil is heavy, we plant on top of little ridges to improve drainage and help ripen bulbs.
and tastiest. There is no comparison between the taste of a lettuce, cut with the dew on it, and a bag of supermarket salad leaves washed in a chlorine rinse. When you grow your own, you know exactly what is in or on the food you harvest, especially if you grow organically. When crops are harvested and eaten straightaway, nothing is lost, they are full of vitamins, minerals and trace elements and so good for you and your family. The longest journey your produce takes is from the plot to the table – no air miles involved.
How to get started
Spring is the very best time to get cracking. The soil is beginning to warm up and daylight hours are increasing. Many of the easiest vegetables are completely hardy but some of the others, including some of the most productive crops like courgettes, tomatoes and even potatoes, are tender and frost will kill them. But you don’t have to wait until all danger of frost has vanished before you make a start, and a greenhouse is not essential.
Tender crops can be started in seed trays or pots on a warm, bright windowsill. It is easy to fit in lots of pots but important to consider that quite soon those seedlings will need to be pricked out and, especially if they are frosttender, subjects may need a pot of their own for a time before they can go outside – so the space you need will increase exponentially. It pays to keep it simple, especially if you are fairly new to growing your own. Concentrate on a few straightforward crops in the kind of numbers you can cope with. At the start of the season, I am always over ambitious about what will be manageable and this over-optimistic attitude has repercussions – by June there are always too many seedlings and I feel duty bound to plant everything out!
Try to work out how long different crops will be in the ground, and then you’ll know when gaps will be opening up ready for new crops. Have a think about what could take their place and then work backwards to plan when you would need to sow seeds, prick out and pot on, to ensure you will have plants ready to take over when you have lifted your potatoes or harvested early peas. In my experience it never works out perfectly, but growing veg is not about perfection, it is about adventure and fun and growing things you enjoy eating.