Vegetable gardening

I’m fortunate that I get to see many different gardens, however not many have a vegetable or kitchen garden, this can be because of site restraints or simply a lack of space. But when they do it’s often located at the bottom of the garden so it is ‘out of sight’ or even worse ‘behind the shed’. The alternative option is to grow vegetables in pots on the patio or even incorporate them into existing borders. You may be thinking that it’s cheaper and also easier to buy the produce at the supermarket? This is absolutely true and I wouldn’t ever recommend digging up your lawn to grow potatoes but why not a few lettuces or runner beans up a traditional wigwam of garden canes at the back of a border where they’d look good? Now it’s warmer and there’s a choice of young vegetable plants in the garden centre why not buy a few and see how good they taste when you harvest them. Sow some carrott seeds in a plant pot on the patio (remember to water them though and don’t let them dry out) harvest them when young – we aren’t aiming for prize-winning sized veg – and see how much better they taste than the supermarket products. Fresh really is better in this case. If you decide to sow veg seed in a border, then don’t just scatter the seeds. Weed and then prepare the soil by raking lightly and sow the seeds in a couple of rows. That way you will be able to tell which are the seedlings growing and confidently know that all the others are weeds – which can then be removed. You can then thin out the seedlings to give them a little more room to grow so they aren’t crowded. Easy vegetables to sow and try now are lettuce, turnip, runner beans, and radishes that are reasonably quick-maturing. There is, as I’ve mentioned, the choice of growing veg in containers. It is best to choose large containers as these don’t dry out as quickly as smaller ones. A loam based compost (or soil mixed in with a peat based compost) will also retain moisture better than just peat based medium. Also placing the containers away from windy sites will help too.  For containers there’s also a vast range of fruit available. This should be on dwarf rootstock. So if you’ve ever wanted a pear or apple tree or even a nectarine then now you can. If you have a sheltered place to grow tomatoes outdoors then you can plant ready grown plants in a few weeks time, you could even grow one in a plant pot but remember that they need watering daily. So grow a few vegetables in your garden this year and make it productive as well as good to look at.