Growing your own vegetables is both exciting and rewarding – not to mention the cost benefits and environmental impact. Today I made that experience even more special.
Involving the family in growing their own vegetables has some great and often unexpected results. The enthusiasm of reading the packet, discovering that one packet contains a humungus number of seeds and that if we can successfully grow even a few of these we wll have achieved an outstanding result!
So do we have a huge vegetable patch and an endless supply of all the things the books tell you that you need? Not a bit of it! We have a tiny patio with a few pots and trays (and a windowsill or two!) What I hope to show you in the coming weeks is that you don’t need a farm to produce food that can be eaten and enjoyed by the whole family and at a price that beats any supermarket!
What did we start with? Well today we tried a few salad seeds starting with some spinach.
- Planting spinach seed
Using an old galvanised planter we managed to count out around 36 seeds (pack contains around 175 seeds) which have calculated cost us about 41p plus a handful of dirt from the garden! The aim is to use these as salad leaves rather than full blown spinach although we may do that later. As we also have a pair of guinea pigs, they will also get to sample our horticultural endeavours!
Second up were some radishes – not a regular item in our shopping basket but the pack says ready in 4 weeks – quick tip here – as a father of four children, attention span is a critical issue! If you can plant, grow and crop a seed in four weeks you are more likely to retain their interest and attention!! Who knows they may even sample the produce (ok this may be a long shot…).
Planting radishes
By splitting the growing container in three we hope to be able to keep a regular supply of radishes coming by planting in fortnightly sowings.
Next we tried some Coriander – the pack says crops in 6 weeks so again hopefully something new to see on a regular basis and maintain interest.
Our 3 patio pots
We have also planted some Chilli seeds in the kitchen (much to the disgruntlement of my wife – we may need to move these to the conservatory!). We also have some Rocket to plant.
I am really looking forward to a number of things with this experiment. Firstly I have enthused my children to start growing things. Will I get as much satisfaction watching these plants grow as the children – you bet! Will we enjoy eating our produce – absolutely. We will also be trying cut and come again lettuce leaves, cucumber and outdoor tomatoes. I have a feeling that we will also save ourselves some money, eat more healthily and have some fun.
I will regularly update this to show the progress of our mini vegetable garden and also show other crops – watch out for the potato challenge!
Are there plants you would like to grow but don’t know how? Not sure you have enough space but want some ideas? Don’t know where to start? I’d be delighted to guide you through some easy tips on getting started – both on annual crops and perhaps you would like to try some more sustainable crops that need even less input! I look forward to hearing from you.
Tags: benefit · enjoy · garden design · gardening · low maintenance · money saving · Plant · reduced carbon · Success
Hi ..
I am an Interior Architect student in my final year .. my final project is a Montessori School .. I have a fab outdoor space in the building I have been assigned .. I would like to put together a garden for growing veg etc for the children to connect with nature .. the outdoors .. can you recommend what they would plant .. and maintain .. these children are from the age of 3 to 12 years .. I am ashamed to say I do not know a flower from a weed.
Regards
Regina