I wrote about my vegetable garden last year, here, at its peak lushness and fruitfulness, August. This year got off to a slow start because of the long winter and delayed spring, and although I was anxious to start sowing things I was fairly patient and managed to make myself wait until the weather improved.
Nature has a knack of catching up though, and things are now growing apace! In the space of two weeks the trees at the back of our house have gone from virtually bare to full, fresh green leaf. And a joyous sight it is too.
So, back to the veggies! I have three large and 1 small raised bed, plus a small greenhouse, which I use for growing cucumbers. I have a second, larger greenhouse in the flower garden, which I use for tomatoes and chillies, and starting things off.
Because we eat a terrific amount of veg, and space is always at a premium, I grow a lot of extra things in pots that line the gravel paths, as well as in hanging baskets. I also have two patiogro salad bars in the main garden, which I use for quick cropping salad leaves, radishes etc:
This year I am, as usual, growing two types of courgette, one round and one long. The varieties this year are 'De Nice Rond' and 'Tuscany'. Here they are in their pots, waiting to be planted out yesterday. As the nights are still a little cool I have bell cloches on hand to cover them over before the sun goes down.
Below are some kale plants I raised from seed. I am already picking the tender baby leaves for salads. Once they get a bit big for the troughs they are in I will plant them in a raised bed and let them grow on for full size leaves. Although they are ultimately large plants they are well worth their space in the garden, as they stand all through winter, even this winter, when we got down to -14 degrees one night. They then have a flurry of growth in the spring, and provide a further good amount of pickings. I only pulled last year's plants up yesterday!
I grow 'Greyhound' cabbages in the same way; lots of young tender leaves to shred up in salads then I stop doing that and let them recover and grow on for full size, hearted cabbages.
Lettuces are brilliant to grow. Oodles of shapes and sizes available and growing your own means a really fresh and colourful salad. These ones are from a packet of mixed 'cut and come again' varieties. So useful if you just want a couple of leaves for a sandwich too!
I use every inch of space in the vegetable garden and grow about ten tumbling tomatoes in hanging baskets. As long as you keep them well fed and watered they do really well!
I have two archways over the main path, over which I usually grow runner beans or French Beans, but this year I am trying an idea I saw at RHS Harlow Carr, Harrogate, creating sweet pea arches. I have high hopes for these as they would be a real joy if they are successful! POH's Mum lives in a nursing home, and has very little eyesight so we take a bunch of sweet peas regularly in the summer, as she can smell those and they make her room beautifully fragrant. I hope there will be lots to pick for her this summer.
I probably grow too many potatoes for the size of the garden, but we do love them, freshly dug, and the skins just rub away. I don't grow maincrop potatoes, just first and second earlies, then once they come out I use the space for leeks, cabbages and a few more late peas. I also have a dozen or so potato bags, each with three tubers in, that are placed against a sunny fence. Again, if they are regularly watered and a handful of manure put in every so often they do pretty well!
I start the tubers on a four inch bed of compost, then cover them over with more compost mixed with manure. As the shoots emerge keep topping the bags up until you are almost at the top. Once the foliage starts to die back tip the bags out and harvest the tasty potatoes! The used compost can be spread over the beds as a soil conditioner, especially as it had the manure added to it.
The varieties I am growing this year are 'Pentland Javelin', 'Charlotte' and Arran Pilot'. Arran Pilot is a new one for us, so I will be interested to see how it performs.
(I should point out the garden is terraced, on several levels, which is why the perspective in the photo below looks odd!)
For even more leafy veg for salads, I grow quite a lot of spinach too, most of which is used solely as baby leaf. I've never been very successful getting it to full size, so if you have any ideas why, do let me know! Picked young though, it is a tender and tasty addition to a salad, or tossed into a stir fry at the last minute. These ones pictured below are 'Trumpet', a new variety for me, and they are growing 'like Topsy' as they say, much faster than the 'Puma' two pots down. We had a tiny few of the baby leaves in a salad tonight, just to try them, and the texture was lovely and the flavour very good. Definitely on my regular growing list now!
I get such a lot of pleasure from gardening, particularly growing salad and vegetables, as there is something so satisfying about bringing in something you've tended and nurtured from a seed, and eating it as fresh as can be. Even a few pots on the patio could produce a worthwhile amount of pickings.
Well, the sun is just starting to set now, so I shall go and cover up those courgettes!
Thank you for reading x
Donna x
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