It's official: vegetable growing is back! Not since The Good Life has Britain
been sowing, planting and harvesting with such fervour. Worried about food
miles and hungry to eat wholesome organic produce, more and more of us are
opting to grow our own. Sales of vegetable seeds have now overtaken those of
flowers.
The good news is that anyone can do it. No matter the plot size - window sill
or sprawling countryside estate - or level of horticultural know-how,
cultivating your own produce is easy and fun.
If you don't know your double-digging from your floating mulches don't be
discouraged. Here we give you the ten most important things to consider when
starting a vegetable garden as well as loads of useful resources such as web
sites, societies and book recommendations.
1/ Where to put your vegetable patch
- It is best to have your plot as close to the house as possible: this makes
it easy for you to nip out and gather some lettuce or herbs for cooking -
you’ll never use all the fruits of your labour if you need to mount an
expedition to harvest them. Also, make sure you can easily get wheelbarrows
of manure or compost to your beds.
- Choose a sunny spot: most veg needs full sun, so south, south-east or
south-west-facing is best in the British Isles. There are some fruit and veg
that cope with semi-shade (lettuce, runner beans and redcurrants, for
example) so all is not lost if conditions are not perfect.
- If you can, find an open, but sheltered site: this is where you have to
think of the bees and other pollinating insects – if they're expected to
move from plant to plant in a howling wind tunnel, they’re simply not going
to turn up for work.
- Pick an area where the ground is level; if you don’t have a flat site, it
can cause problems with water run-off and erosion. If you don’t have any
alternative you can plant across the slope or think about making flat
terraces.
- Soil: most people will have, or can create, beds that have topsoil of at
least 30 centimetres deep and a pH of 6.5-7 (you can find a soil testing kit
at your local garden centre or from a gardening internet site such as www.crocus.co.uk
- it’s not difficult to do and won’t take long).
2/ What crops are easiest to grow?
- Early potatoes: very easy to grow - they’ll do all the work for you – just
remember to water them if you don’t have a drop of rain.
- Broad beans: there are two benefits to this crop - not only can you pick the
beans when they’re small and mouth-meltingly delicious, but once the plants
reach their full height you can pinch off the tops (it helps to control the
blackfly, which find them tasty) and gently heat them in butter. Depending
on how many you have, they also make a wonderful soup.
- Sweetcorn: many garden centres now have small plants for sale. You could use
these for the first year and grow your own when you’re more confident. Don’t
forget to have the salted water boiling before you go out to pick the corn –
before you ask, they’re perfect when the tassels are brown.
- Leeks: easy from seed or bought from your local nursery. They’re easy to
transplant and taste excellent when young.
- Radishes: a perfect fast-growing starter crop to encourage salad-lovers and
children – the varieties available are amazing, all sorts of shapes and
sizes. Good fun.
- Runner and French beans: the flowers are pretty and the more you pick, the
more you get.
- Courgettes: need quite a bit of space. They become marrows if you forget to
harvest them. Their flowers are delicious, too.
- It is also relatively straightforward to start a herb garden - you can pick
up a pre-planted mixed pot in garden centres, or if you are feeling
adventurous try growing them from seed.
3/ Planning the layout
Pots: Window sills, balconies and roof terraces can yield great
vegetable crops if you chose the right veg. Rocket, chard, parsley,
tomatoes, mint, thyme, basil and chives are all good candidates. For tips on
how to go about it
click here .
Small plots: You don’t need to confine your veg to one specific
place if you have a tiny garden: you can grow lettuce as edging along
borders - there are so many varieties available you could grow a work of art
– the Thompson &
Morgan seed catalogue cover will give you a good idea; or try French and
runner beans growing up trellises, in pots or up string on wooden fences -
they’re worth growing for their flowers alone. Some vegetables will even
help cultivate better soil - potatoes are excellent for opening up compacted
soil so help improve the turf in a neglected garden. The possibilities are
endless.
Bigger gardens: If you have more room, take a plot and split it
into narrow beds divided by paths so that there is never any need to walk on
the cultivated soil. This is known as the "bed system" and is the
most popular of layouts. The bed system has many benefits: crop rotation
(more about this later) is easier because you know exactly what went where –
you don’t have to guess; you can plant your veg closer together than the
instructions on the packets suggest because the soil will be in a good
condition; and you can apply compost, manures and fertilisers exactly where
they are needed. If you have raised beds the topsoil is deeper and the
drainage is better.
4/ Tips on how to create beds
Those endowed with plenty of space should follow these tips on creating beds:
- Make them 1 to 1.25 metres wide – this means you don’t have to stretch far
and it makes working much easier. They can be as long or short as you like.
- If possible, the beds should run north to south so that all your veg will
get the same amount of sun each day.
- Avoid frost pockets – some veg, such as tomatoes and beans, are frost-tender
so you’ll have to wait ages to plant them out if the beds are in the wrong
place.
- If you’re doing a raised bed (each section is raised from the ground by
edging – say railway sleepers or pressure-treated timber), this increases
the height of the bed thus making the beds deeper); they are especially
useful if you have a clay soil.
- Be generous with the space for your paths – you’ll need to kneel down on
them and must leave a good enough space for your wheelbarrow. You can leave
the paths as bare earth – although this will be horrible in rain or the
winter – or you can grass them (measure how wide you mower is, does it
fit?), put down bark chippings, bricks, paving slabs or the wonderfully
efficient green plastic paths.
5/ How to prepare the soil
Soil provides nutrients for plants and allows the roots to anchor the plant so
that they can take up water and air – like humans, roots need oxygen too.
“Good” soil is made up of 50 per cent soil, 25 per cent water and 25 per
cent air – and it is not impossible to create.
There are two ways to improve the quality of your soil: the dig and the no-dig
system. The dig system, as the name suggests, means digging manure or
compost into the ground every autumn. The no-dig system means that you just
put the organic matter (this means it’s made of material that has lived, so
leaves that have rotted down, kitchen waste, grass clippings, chicken or cow
manure) on top of the soil in autumn. Earthworms will drag it down into the
soil and mix it up for you - so it's great for people with back problems. As
earthworms move about the soil they improve its structure by creating more
air passages. As a result the soil particles don’t stick together as much
and the roots find the soil easier to grow into.
There are advantages and disadvantages to the no-dig system:
- Advantages: Earthworms, fungi, bacteria, etc are not disturbed by your
digging; weed seeds are not brought to the surface; moisture is not lost as
you turn over the soil and cause evaporation; and, of course, it’s not such
hard work and won’t take half as long as a full-scale dig.
- On the down side, pests may build up in the soil because you’re not
disturbing them and if you don’t already have many earthworms, it will take
ages for the organic matter to be taken down into the soil.
6/ What do you plant where? Crop rotation and why it’s important
Rotating the vegetables you plant from year to year is a way of helping one
crop can benefit from the previous one. Broccoli, for example, grows best
when the soil has a good supply of nitrogen. Beans put nitrogen into the
soil so it follows that broccoli should follow beans. Onions grow well in a
weed-free soil so they’re best after potatoes – their abundant foliage is
good at suppressing weeds.
The second reason is the build-up of pests and diseases. If, say, you plant
potatoes in the same place year after year, the potato eel worm (which
weakens the plant and so makes for very small tubers) is bound to turn up.
Once it’s established, it’s practically impossible to get rid of and you
won’t be able to plant spuds in the same space for at least ten years.
If you aren’t able to do a proper rotation, don’t grow the same crop in the
same place for more than two years, make sure that your plants are healthy
by giving them food and water, keep the pH level at 6.5-7 (some nutrients
become “locked in” to the soil at either end of that scale and are no longer
available to plants and affect their growth) and keep the beds weed-free,
neat, clean and tidy, so pests and diseases aren’t encouraged to hang about.
7/ How does the rotation cycle work?
The usual crop rotation cycle is three-years - in other words you only have a
certain vegetable type in the same spot every third year - but if you want
to grow potatoes it’s best to have a four-year rotation.
One way to remember the cycle of which veg should follow which, is a mnemonic
from the Royal Horticultural Society: "British Rail Late" gives
you the following three-year cycle:
B stands for brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower, calabrese, broccoli, Brussel
sprouts, kale, kohl rabi, swedes and turnips);
R stand for roots (beetroots, carrots and parsnips);
L stands for legumes (peas, mangetout, and French, broad and runner beans and
many green manure crops such as lupins and vetches [see catch crops later
for an explanation]). Alliums (leeks, garlic, shallots, onions, chives) and
salad crops should be included with the legumes.
So in plot one, you would plant brassicas in the first year, roots in the
second and legumes in the third;
In your second plot, you could have roots the first year, legumes the second
and brassicas in year three;
And in your third plot, legumes followed by brassicas then roots.
Potatoes need high nitrogen so can be grown after the legumes. Unfortunately,
you can’t grow brassicas and potatoes in the same bed at the same time –
brassicas need lime and this causes scab (a skin condition) in potatoes.
Marrows, cucumbers, lettuce and sweetcorn can be grown with any of the
rotation groups.
Don't concern yourself overly with crop rotation in the first few years - your
choice of vegetables will probably swing wildly as you decide what you enjoy
and what grows best in your garden!
8/ Feeding and watering your vegetables
If you prepare the soil well, feeding should not be too much of a problem.
Manuring the beds in the autumn and adding a general fertiliser (such as 70g
m2 of blood, fish and bone meal or 100g m2 of Growmore) a couple of weeks
before sowing or planting should provide what your plants need.
Watering is important when the plant is a seedling; when you are transplanting
(for example Brussels sprouts from the seed tray to their permanent
position); when the plant is flowering or setting seed.
It is best to water first thing in the morning or early evening to prevent
evaporation. A good steady watering is important: don’t confuse a light
sprinkling every day with a good soaking… check that the water is getting
down into the soil. If you stick your finger into the soil every so often,
it will give you an idea of how dry the ground is. Irregular watering of
tomatoes, for example, will lead to splitting; French and runner beans won’t
set seed if their roots are dry; and carrots will split if they’re only
drowned in water every so often.
9/ Protecting the kitchen garden against pests and diseases
At the start you may feel that the whole insect world is against you … black
fly on your broad beans, carrot fly rooting about in your carrots, cabbage
white fly and cabbage root fly trying to do in your Brussel sprouts. You
will always lose produce to insects, birds and disease but you can minimise
the damage by trying some of the following:
Grow a range of plants: this will help to promote a balanced
environment where pests and diseases are less likely to get out of hand. The
Irish potato famine is a rather extreme example of this.
Hand-picking: any gardener will tell you how satisfying it is to squish
greenfly and blackfly between your thumb and forefinger. This method of
removing and destroying pests is very effective if you do it regularly and
thoroughly - and of course, it is free of nasty chemicals!
Weeds: these compete with your plants for light, nutrients and water.
They also act as hosts to pests (the glasshouse whitefly overwinters on
chickweed, Stellaria media, for instance) and some pests carry viruses. The
cucumber mosaic virus - which attacks cucumbers and tomatoes and leads to
the mottling of leaves and reduced vigour of the plant – is spread by
greenfly.
Hygiene: always tidy away thinnings (however hard you try, you will
always plant too many radishes and carrots in a row and to reduce the
competition you will need to thin them out); remove old leaves, etc. You
don’t want to provide homes for the horrible.
Floating mulches: is when you use fleece or black polythene sheets to
cover the bed and it allows some plants to be planted out earlier because
they warm up the soil (black polythene sheets particularly). Loosely draped
horticultural fleece can be used to keep birds and butterflies off plants
when they are young and very, very tasty.
Encourage wildlife: the larvae of the ladybird, for example, is a
wonderful killer. It attacks and eats aphids as if there were no tomorrow.
So do the larvae of the lacewing which also feed on mealy bugs, whitefly
larvae and pupae. Special boxes are available to encourage both these
predators to hibernate and therefore stay in your garden. Be cautious about
the chemicals you use – if you use any at all. They may kill the pests but
they could also kill off the wildlife so you won’t be able to get a happy
balance between the two.
Plant varieties of veg which are resistant to pests: the carrot Fly
Way, for example, is bred for resistance to the carrot fly – it has lower
levels of an acid that the larvae need.
Put up crop protection: back to the carrot fly – netting of 90cm high
will keep them out because they can’t fly any higher than that.
Try companion planting: broad beans are susceptible to black fly. The
latter also like nasturtiums – plant them nearby as a decoy. The poached egg
plant (Limnanthes douglasii) attracts hoverflies, which also eat greenfly
(aphids). Plant shallots with broccoli – the pigeons will keep away because
they don’t like the smell of the onions. For other examples read Bob
Flowerdew’s book (see books to read).
Keep your plants healthy: pests and diseases will attack the weak and
unhealthy first. Grow strong healthy plants that can ward off predators more
easily.
10/ How to have produce all year long (well, nearly) and avoid gluts
Once you’re into vegetable growing you’ll discover the pleasure of being able
to give friends and neighbours some of your produce – but you don’t want to
be pleading with people to take home baskets of tomatoes, beans and
courgettes. Here’s how to do it:
Cut-and come-again: vegetables, such as salad leaves and perpetual
spinach, which you can keep gathering and the plant continues growing. Joy
Larkcom is the queen of this – in her book Grow
Your Own Vegetables is a chart of plants to grow for a continuous
supply of young salad leaves, how often you can cut them and how long
they’ll last.
Sow little and often: this will help you to have a steady harvest … but
remember to write down what you’ve sown and when in your diary or on your
calendar – making a mental note of it never works. Sow short rows of seeds
every couple of weeks so that lettuce, early carrots, beetroot, spinach and
spring onions will be regulars all summer long.
Successional sowing: this means sowing different varieties of the same
crop. Potatoes, for example, are divided into first earlies (planted in
March and harvested in June/July), second earlies (planted in early April
and harvested in July) and main crop (planted in late April and harvested in
August/September).
Sowing the same variety throughout the season: broad beans can be sown
in mid-autumn for an early crop the next year and from late winter until
mid-spring for further harvests.
Catch crops: these are fast-growing vegetables slotted in between two
longer-term crops. So, for example, you may grow winter brassicas and use
the same bed later in the year for tomatoes which leaves a space of a few
weeks when the bed will be empty. Quick-maturing crops are lettuce, radish,
beetroot and Kohl rabi. So, too, are "green manures" – which are
plants (such as clover, fenugreek and mustard) grown primarily to add
nutrients and organic matter to the soil. Grow them when the bed will be
empty for some time (often over winter). They cover the soil so that rain
doesn’t leach nutrients, they are dug back into the soil when you want to
reuse it and so return nutrients to the soil as they break down, and some
have very long roots which find nutrients that other plants don’t usually
reach. (The Edwin
Tucker & Sons catalogue for an excellent table on sowing times).
Intercropping: This involves planting two crops (one much shorter and
quicker growing than the other) in the same space - examples are small
pumpkins or spring onions grown between sweetcorn, radishes between parsnips
or lettuce between brassicas. One important point to mention, however, is
that the smaller crop should not deprive the main crop of its nutrients and
water, so watch the spacing when you plant out.
11/ Enjoy!
The most important thing is to have fun growing your own food. Sometimes it is
about trial and error, sometimes you can pick up useful tips from other
vegetable growers. Why not leave some comments below and tell us how you get
on. Don't forget, Times Online's Jane Owen is on hand to help solve your
gardening problems - drop her a line: jane.owen1@timesonline.co.uk
If you want to take your hobby a little further, check out these magazines and
societies:
Magazines:
Gardens Monthly: www.gardening.co.uk
Grow Your Own: www.growfruitandveg.co.uk
Kitchen Garden: www.kitchengarden.co.uk
Organic Gardening: www.organicgardeningmagazine.co.uk
Which? www.which.co.uk/gardeningwhich
Societies and organisations:
Garden Organic: www.gardenorganic.org.uk
National Society of Allotment & Leisure Gardeners: www.nsalg.org.uk
National Vegetable Society: www.nvsuk.org.uk
Royal Horticultural Society Fruit Group: www.rhs.org.uk
or write to the secretary, Jonathan Keyte, RHS Garden Wisley, Woking, Surrey
GU23 6QB
Scottish Allotments and Gardens Society: www.sags.org.uk
The Herb Society: www.herbsociety.org.uk
Women’s Farm and Garden Association: www.wfga.org.uk
Where can we see how it’s done?
Audley End (Safron Walden, Essex): www.english-heritage.org.uk
Barnsdale Gardens (Exton, Oakham, Rutland): www.barnsdalegardens.co.uk
Brogdale Horticultural Trust (Faversham, Kent): www.brogdale.org.uk
. Probably the best place in the world for apples. Also, pears, plums,
cherries, soft fruit and vines.
Clumber Park (Worksop, Nottinghamshire): www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Culross Palace (Culross, Fife): www.nts.org.uk
(search for The Royal Burgh of Culross)
Chatsworth (near Bakewell, Derbyshire): www.chatsworth.org
Harlow Carr (Harrogate, North Yorkshire): www.rhs.org.uk/whatson/gardens/harlowcarr
Heligan (near St Austell, Cornwall): www.heligan.com
Normanby Hall (Normanby Hall Country Park, North Lincolnshire: www.northlincs.gov.uk/normanby
Ryton (Coventry, Warwickshire): www.gardenorganic.co.uk
Tatton Park (Knutsford, Cheshire): www.tattonpark.org.uk
Waltham Place Organic Farm and Gardens (White Waltham, Berkshire): www.walthamplace.com
West Dean Gardens (near Chichester, West Sussex) www.westdean.org.uk
A real gem – look out for its highly popular herb weekend in May, chilli
fiesta weekend in August, tomato show in September and apples in October.
Wimpole Hall (Arrington, Royston, Cambridgeshire): www.nationaltrust.org.uk
Wisley (near Woking, Surrey): www.rhs.org.uk
. Herb, fruit and vegetable gardens.
Yalding Garden (near Maidstone, Kent): www.gardenorganic.co.uk
I used to grow Corriander from the seeds I buy from Indian shops few years agaon in the window cells of Kitchen
which has bright sun and warmth of kitchen.
But recently however much I try they are unsuccesful.
Can tell me why?
Thank you
Vishy Harihara
Vishy Harihara, London , London
I have recently started a vetetable patch in my backgarden. It is 10ft x 6ft , so it is never going to feed us, but i am doing it to show what you can do in a small patch.You can follow how this works out from my blog, The Green Fingered Photographer. I also cover recycling and local nature.
To make more planting space we also utilize truggs to grow vetetables in and bags to grow potatoes.
We find this not to be very time consuming but great fun.
Mark Eccleston, Telford, England
I have recently started a vetetable patch in my backgarden. It is 10ft x 6ft , so it is never going to feed us, but i am doing it to show what you can do in a small patch.You can follow how this works out from my blog, The Green Fingered Photographer. I also cover recycling and local nature.
To make more planting space we also utilize truggs to grow vetetables in and bags to grow potatoes.
We find this not to be very time consuming but great fun.
Mark Eccleston, Telford, England
You forgot the most important factor - time to do this! I have just had to give up my allotment because I didn't have enough time to devote to it. I was also unable to be flexible with it. Unfortunately when I was available the weather was often unfavourable or it was dark!
JE, Warwickshire,
Am starting to grow veg. this year for the first time. Have found your information very helpful. We have slugs and snails but hope that the organic deterents will put them off! Am growing seeds in a small unheated greenhouse and they look promising! Hope our visiting foxes don't dig it all up!
Anne Moore, Nottingham, England