I posted a while back about my very modest progress in the world of growing my own veg this year, and have achieved so much more since then I barely know where to start!
My biggest challenge was being unsure whether I had the space to plant very much: whilst we have access to a yard, it’s all concrete so we’re limited to planting in pots & containers, and there’s only so much you can grow in small spaces. Fortuitously, our landlord had some old palletes lying around, and used these to build two new planters (one for flowers to please the landlord’s aesthetical preferences; one for veg!). Not only did it feel great to minimise waste by reusing the old wood, but it massively increased the space we had availabe at home for growing and opened up opportunities to grow a bigger variety of goodies.
I’ve got a couple of rows of beetroot coming on strong, and a few carrots after a precarious start. I thought all the seeds had totally failed but it turns out it takes a few weeks for the seedlings to show, so with patience came reward in the end! You’ll see they’re interspersed with another type of plant; those are just flowers to help hide the carrots from the dreaded ‘carrot-fly’ pest. I’m experimenting with a few different varieties of carrot: the ones you see here will be purple, and just today I’ve planted a fly-resistant variety to fill the gaps and Amsterdam variety which grow well in small spaces in their own little pot. Watch this space for more on how they all do!
I also love the makeshift greenhouse, which takes up limited space and offer a chance to grow things that love heat even in the most basic of gardens. We’ve got some lettuce, cucumber and pepper plants in there at the moment. I’m particularly excited to see how the peppers do and thankful that I was donated the plants by a friend!
In other news, our tomatoes are coming on amazingly well. They’re really strong and lots of flowers have appeared already. Again the space available is confined by keeping our landlord happy with how things look, so it’s nice that the plants can sit in a nice neat row along the fance. They’re joined by my 2 surviving strawberry plants and a blackberry bush, as well as my beloved herb wheel. I love using fresh herbs from outside my door in cooking! My favorite is this green hummus recipe, which is bursting with lovely summery flavours.
I also have some other great recipes up my sleeve for home-grown veg, which I can’t wait to show you once the fruits of my labour start to materialise. As a teaser, here’s a picture of my bangin’ beetroot burgers (made with shop-bought on this occasion!), which I’m super excited to share the recipe for when I’ve got my own beetroot from the ground. You’ll have to take my word for it for now, but honestly, it’s SO GOOD, you don’t want to miss it! Follow the blog to keep up to date and be the first to see new recipes when they land.
Are you growing veg yourself or hoping to start? I’d love to hear from you! Post in the comments to share your story :)