Vegetable Gardening
What can be more satisfying than harvesting your own home-grown succulent produce? Tasty green beans, carrots bursting with flavour, mouth watering courgettes and rich flavoursome beetroot, to name but a few. As well as saving you immense amounts of money at the supermarket growing your own vegetables is a rewarding hobby.
Where?
Whether you’ve got a small holding, an allotment, a vegetable patch in your garden or only a terrace or patio successful vegetable growing is easy with the right planning and care.
One of your most important tasks is to prepare the soil ready for planting. The better the soil the more abundant the crop will be. Soil should be dug well and manured or composted.
Even the smallest of gardens can find room to grow vegetables. If you only have a terrace or balcony containers and grow bags can produce some wonderful specimens. The beauty of growing vegetables in containers is that they can be moved to suit the environment.
When you’re planning your vegetable planting don’t forget to allow for pathways where you can walk to tend your precious produce.
Vegetables all need good drainage and most enjoy plenty of sun. A few will tolerate a small amount of shade – make sure you do your research when selecting plants for your kitchen garden.
When?
Planning will ensure you have an excellent supply of vegetables all year round. There is a bit of a lean period between January and March, but even then plenty of mouth watering vegetables can still be ready to eat.
A keen gardener will always follow the weather forecast. Be particularly aware of any forecasts for frost and take necessary action, whether it’s covering young plants or moving container vegetables inside.
What?
One of the most important things to decide when planning your vegetable plot is whether you want to sow seeds or plants. This will depend on the amount of space you want to or are able to devote to vegetables. Beginners might start with a small 6ft x 6ft plot and increase it over the years whilst learning from their success.
You don’t always have to use a whole pack of seeds. Check the use-by date on the pack and just use half. Seeds will often last a couple of years if stored in a cool dry place. Alternatively do ‘seed swops’ with fellow gardeners.
Have you decided what you want to grow? Just a few of the obvious vegetables are cabbage, onions, peas, leeks, cauliflowers, marrows, pumpkins and potatoes. If you’re more experienced you could try some of the more unusual vegetables such as celeriac, butternut squash, okra or mange tout.
And Finally …
With careful planning you should be picking a variety of vegetables daily throughout the year. To avoid wastage ensure you know what will store well and how to store it.
Vegetables than can be stored like to be left in their own mud for protection, and enjoy cool (but not damp) dark storage.
Once you’ve started, the on-going cycle of vegetable growing will continue for years. Rotate your crops to allow the soil to rest and nutrients to re-form.
One last ‘food’ for thought – delicious plump sprouts you’ve grown yourself served at your Christmas lunch table…. Go on, start planning now.
