A good idea is to carefully consider what you are going to grow and where you will grow it. Firstly think about what you like to eat as there is not much point in growing 10 kilos of beetroot if you don’t like it! Also consider how much of each vegetable or fruit you want to grow, how much food each one produces and how long it takes to grow as some vegetables, such as parsnips, can take up to 9 months with Asparagus taking even longer and believe me, when you are waiting to taste them you get very, very impatient!
If this is the first time you have grown anything I suggest that you use containers rather than rush out and dig up the lawn. One of the reasons being that the soil will have to be prepared and this takes time, by all means dig the lawn but for the first year dig in some organic matter and let it stand fallow.
So now you have decided what you want to grow and you have got enough containers and potting compost. Make sure the containers are big enough, 9 litre/2gallon pots or troughs should be sufficient for most things to grow. I have lots of peppers and tomatoes in pots this size and get a very good crop every year. I also have cucumber and butternut squash in containers, they provide me with more than enough, plus a few strawberry plants and some herbs. Make sure that the pots have drainage holes in the bottom and that you put 2-3 inches of gravel in before you fill up with the potting compost as drainage is important. Nothing will kill a plant quicker than over watering, except maybe no water, or an out of control Ford Focus, but that is another story.
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Wednesday, 25 June 2008
Changing your diet
One of the first things that you will notice about your home grown food is the taste. Everything will taste much better. This could be psychological, as you are finally tasting the fruits of your labour, or it could be because it is fresh, probably a bit of both, who knows?
Since I have had fresh food available from my garden I have experimented with various recipes so that I can experience all the flavour and this also inadvertently led to a healthier diet. I now eat Peasant soup on a regular basis plus other homemade soups, I also eat more rice, generally with my broad beans, peas, peppers and tomatoes mixed in, and have been complimented on the taste many times by friends and family, often with tear filled eyes as the peppers can be a touch fiery at times! Salad is eaten daily in our house and as a weekly treat we have Beetroot and chocolate muffins with fresh cream and garden mint. A wonderful way to get the kids to eat beetroot but beware the sugar content, hence only once a week!
With a little know how and lots of imagination you can change the way you see food and the way you eat it too. None of my recipes are original, in fact most are based on traditional recipes that I have found on the internet and in my opinion the traditional dishes are the best as there is not much point growing fresh food then deep frying it in animal fat to get that deep fried taste we all love so much!
All through last summer my breakfast every day was tomatoes on toast, it may sound a bit mundane, especially as I ate it for three months! but actually as the tomatoes developed so did the taste and as the toast was often made from home baked bread it added to the taste, although despite baking numerous loaves I have yet to make any two the same!
Since I have had fresh food available from my garden I have experimented with various recipes so that I can experience all the flavour and this also inadvertently led to a healthier diet. I now eat Peasant soup on a regular basis plus other homemade soups, I also eat more rice, generally with my broad beans, peas, peppers and tomatoes mixed in, and have been complimented on the taste many times by friends and family, often with tear filled eyes as the peppers can be a touch fiery at times! Salad is eaten daily in our house and as a weekly treat we have Beetroot and chocolate muffins with fresh cream and garden mint. A wonderful way to get the kids to eat beetroot but beware the sugar content, hence only once a week!
With a little know how and lots of imagination you can change the way you see food and the way you eat it too. None of my recipes are original, in fact most are based on traditional recipes that I have found on the internet and in my opinion the traditional dishes are the best as there is not much point growing fresh food then deep frying it in animal fat to get that deep fried taste we all love so much!
All through last summer my breakfast every day was tomatoes on toast, it may sound a bit mundane, especially as I ate it for three months! but actually as the tomatoes developed so did the taste and as the toast was often made from home baked bread it added to the taste, although despite baking numerous loaves I have yet to make any two the same!
Sunday, 22 June 2008
How it started
The latest fashion nowadays seems to be growing your own food. Men and women of all ages and from all different social backgrounds are comparing their plums and melons, tomatoes, courgettes, potatoes etc. A revolution is quietly taking place, one where people are abandoning supermarkets and their force grown, imported food, in favor of fresh, homegrown food and the great thing about this is that anyone can grow vegetables and fruit, even if they have limited space. Whatever the size of your garden and even if you do not have one, you can grow something that will supplement your diet and who knows, it may even be therapeutic too, as well as saving you some money!
My own personal journey of self discovery, along with my search for alternative sources of food, actually started in a supermarket car park of all places. My brand new car was vandalized by half a dozen rampaging trolleys after they rolled out of a storage area causing considerable damage to the paintwork. I was insured but felt that the supermarket concerned was at fault so pursued my claim through them. To cut a long story short eventually they agreed to pay for the repairs, over £750, but if it was not for my tenacity, they would not have done so despite making profits of over two billion pounds every year! They need us, we do not need them!
So my search began for alternative sources of food. This was not too hard as we had plenty of local shops in the area, although I did then begin to notice where the produce was coming from as those smaller retailers tend to have handwritten labels as opposed to the very small, and easily missed printed labels of the larger retailers. I soon realized that I was buying potatoes from Israel, apples from America, spring onions from Mexico, broccoli, cabbage and corgettes from Spain just to feed little old me in the UK. The food miles were tremendous, see here for a typical delivery to one UK supermarket.
http://www.squidoo.com/environmental_issues
This strengthened my resolve to find another source, one that could supply me with local produce, produce that was healthy for me and my family. My search took me to Doncaster market where I found several stalls that sold produce grown on local farms plus other stalls that sold meat products, cheese, bread and cakes that were all produced locally. Overnight I reduced my food miles by thousands of miles, a result! I also reduced the amount of packaging that I took home, a double whammy! I single handedly had saved the world!
As my young son was becoming more aware that things had changed and began wondering where our food came from I decided that it was time to grow a few things of our own. A small corner of the garden was allocated and together we planted some seeds. Carrots, broccoli, thyme, rosemary, chives, basil were attempted first. The carrots did very well and Jacob enjoyed tending to them as much as he enjoyed harvesting and eating them. The broccoli was a disaster, as was the basil; it seems that slugs and snails love the young plants so ate them before we had a chance! As for the thyme, rosemary and chives, we now have mature plants that are very productive and help us add flavour to all our recipes.
The following year we tried again, this time we used containers and a selection of mini greenhouses to grow tomatoes, cayenne peppers, carrots, lettuce and also some broad beans which we planted against a newly built wall. Planting the beans, which grow to about 4 feet added some colour to the wall in early spring and also attracted bumble bees as they seem to like the bean flowers, ants seem to like them too but do not see them as pests as they attract birds and also keep aphids at bay. We built a few bee houses to encourage the bees to stay as they are good and every garden needs them. The peppers attract hoverflies and these should be welcomed too as otherwise the pepper plants will not pollinate, unless you do it by hand of course but that can be quite laborious.
I will jump forward a few years to where we are now and I have turned over half the garden to producing food. I have a section 18 feet by 10 feet which is planted with potatoes, runner beans, broad beans, peas, beetroot, carrots, leeks, parsnips, courgettes, broccoli, cabbage, onions and I have strawberries and tomatoes in hanging baskets and also seven different types of peppers plus five different types of tomatoes in pots plus carrots, lettuce, potatoes, garlic, cucumber, butternut squash and even some pumpkins which I hope to harvest at Halloween.
My own personal journey of self discovery, along with my search for alternative sources of food, actually started in a supermarket car park of all places. My brand new car was vandalized by half a dozen rampaging trolleys after they rolled out of a storage area causing considerable damage to the paintwork. I was insured but felt that the supermarket concerned was at fault so pursued my claim through them. To cut a long story short eventually they agreed to pay for the repairs, over £750, but if it was not for my tenacity, they would not have done so despite making profits of over two billion pounds every year! They need us, we do not need them!
So my search began for alternative sources of food. This was not too hard as we had plenty of local shops in the area, although I did then begin to notice where the produce was coming from as those smaller retailers tend to have handwritten labels as opposed to the very small, and easily missed printed labels of the larger retailers. I soon realized that I was buying potatoes from Israel, apples from America, spring onions from Mexico, broccoli, cabbage and corgettes from Spain just to feed little old me in the UK. The food miles were tremendous, see here for a typical delivery to one UK supermarket.
http://www.squidoo.com/environmental_issues
This strengthened my resolve to find another source, one that could supply me with local produce, produce that was healthy for me and my family. My search took me to Doncaster market where I found several stalls that sold produce grown on local farms plus other stalls that sold meat products, cheese, bread and cakes that were all produced locally. Overnight I reduced my food miles by thousands of miles, a result! I also reduced the amount of packaging that I took home, a double whammy! I single handedly had saved the world!
As my young son was becoming more aware that things had changed and began wondering where our food came from I decided that it was time to grow a few things of our own. A small corner of the garden was allocated and together we planted some seeds. Carrots, broccoli, thyme, rosemary, chives, basil were attempted first. The carrots did very well and Jacob enjoyed tending to them as much as he enjoyed harvesting and eating them. The broccoli was a disaster, as was the basil; it seems that slugs and snails love the young plants so ate them before we had a chance! As for the thyme, rosemary and chives, we now have mature plants that are very productive and help us add flavour to all our recipes.
The following year we tried again, this time we used containers and a selection of mini greenhouses to grow tomatoes, cayenne peppers, carrots, lettuce and also some broad beans which we planted against a newly built wall. Planting the beans, which grow to about 4 feet added some colour to the wall in early spring and also attracted bumble bees as they seem to like the bean flowers, ants seem to like them too but do not see them as pests as they attract birds and also keep aphids at bay. We built a few bee houses to encourage the bees to stay as they are good and every garden needs them. The peppers attract hoverflies and these should be welcomed too as otherwise the pepper plants will not pollinate, unless you do it by hand of course but that can be quite laborious.
I will jump forward a few years to where we are now and I have turned over half the garden to producing food. I have a section 18 feet by 10 feet which is planted with potatoes, runner beans, broad beans, peas, beetroot, carrots, leeks, parsnips, courgettes, broccoli, cabbage, onions and I have strawberries and tomatoes in hanging baskets and also seven different types of peppers plus five different types of tomatoes in pots plus carrots, lettuce, potatoes, garlic, cucumber, butternut squash and even some pumpkins which I hope to harvest at Halloween.
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