We went to the local potato day a couple of weeks ago and now our potatoes are well and truly chitting, I decided this week to start sowing indoors for our veg patch.
One of the first things we did to our garden when we moved in was build a raised vegetable plot at the back of our garden. It’s not huge, but it will allow us to grow a fair amount of veg each year, along with a few pots here and there.
I love growing things we can eat, peas are my favourite, they never make it inside, we eat them all outside in the garden (I now have competition with the kids who like them too, my husband prefers them cooked). They taste so sweet and juicy when picked fresh from the plant. Delicious!
This is my plan for the veg garden this year (not in any way to scale!);
We have a 2 year old Rhubarb plant in the corner, it can get pretty large. This will be the first year we get to eat it!
We will, of course, have peas along the fences. This year I will try to plant them in succession, so we have fresh peas throughout the growing season.
Potatoes and beetroot were grown last year and worked fine with our soil. We tried carrots, but they just didn’t grow, so will try again this year with a short variety (as we have stony soil).
Cauliflower and Calabrese are a first, we’ll see how we get on. I’ve tried Sweetcorn several times, but the summer hasn’t been long enough or warm enough to grow proper corn. So this year we’re trying a mini variety called ‘mini pop’ to try and finally have some home grown Sweetcorn.
Leeks always do well for us, although we haven’t tried them in this garden yet, I just need to remember to earth up around the bases.
I’ve never successfully grown a pumpkin, but I thought I would give it a go. It would be nice to eat and maybe it could be a Halloween pumpkin to carve.
Squash, courgettes and cucumber will be grown in pots and I’ve never had any problems with any of them, aside starting the seeds too late! I don’t normally buy squash to eat, but they are quite pretty, so I will try growing them anyway!
Salad leaves are great for sandwiches and salads so we will have a small area set aside for that. Herbs will be grown beside our fruit plants.
We have several raspberry plants, a blackberry and blackcurrant and a small strawberry patch beside the back door. O loves picking his own raspberries and strawberries, took a little teaching the first year to only pick the red ones!
We’ve got seeds growing on our windowsill, O helped to plant them. So far we have peas and sweetcorn sprouting. I’m also hoping to grow a few tomatoes and peppers indoors, but never had much luck with either, so will see how they grow!
Are you growing any fruit and veg this year?
J x
Morna piper says
That’s an inspiring post! We have a huge garden which my husband has been landscaping for the last year. He’s now working on the veggie patch but it still looks like the Somme! I really hope we can achieve more than gro-bag tomoatoes this year!
Jenny Eaves says
Lucky you! I would love a big garden! Potatoes are great to put in, they help break up the soil. Peas are great to just grow in minimal soil along a fence. Stick some courgettes and cucumbers in pots, ours always grow well in pots. At least that way you can have some veg this year even if the garden isn’t quite ready! 🙂 xx
kellie kearney says
Every single year I say oh I’m making a vegetable patch and guess what this year I got large pots and think we actually might. Garden look great. Hope you get some delicious and juicy fruits and veggies.
Very jealous of your strawberries, mine got a bug last year and all died, sad face!!
Lisa (mummascribbles) says
Ooo that’s fab! I’d love to grow my own veg. W eonly moved into our house last April so haven’t really done much to the gaden ecept tidy it up but I’d love to create a little growing area that Zach can help me with 🙂 #mummymonday
Jenny Eaves says
Yes, start your own veg plot, it’s so much fun! Great for the kids to help with too. You’ll need to get some new strawberry plants this year and keep the runners for the following years. I would send you some of our strawberries, but probably not allowed to send plants! 🙂 xx
Jenny Eaves says
You still have time to dig up a small patch and shove some potatoes in?! I’m sure Zachary would love watching them grow and digging up the potatoes in the summer, potatoes help break up the soil too, so it’s great for whatever you plant the following year. 🙂 x
Alice Young says
Such a great post. We have a really big garden so could easily do something like this. The best I’ve got so far is a herb garden! Hope you manage to get some carrots this year! thanks very much for linking up and hope to see you again #MummyMonday xx
Jenny Eaves says
You should try growing some things in pots, planting is so addictive, I just love sowing seeds! 🙂 x
Janice Wald says
I love vegetables more and more like broccoli which I use to dislike.. #TwinklyTuesday nice to meet you
Jenny Eaves says
There’s definitely a lot of veg I used to dislike, but eat more now. 🙂
Caro | The Twinkles Momma says
Growing fruit and veg is addictive isn’t it?! We have a little kitchen garden, at home, and last year’s big success was beetroot, which we pickled! We grew carrots in raised beds the year before last and they worked really well!
Apparently, if they’re off the ground by a certain height, they are out of range of carrot flies!! We planted them in a sandy soil mix and they grew really, really well! Good luck! Thanks so much for linking up with #TwinklyTuesday x
Caro | http://www.thetwinklediaries.co.uk
Jenny Eaves says
Oooh, our carrots might be ok here then, we’ve had carrot fly before, but then they were always in normal beds. We might mix some sand into where the carrots are going as well, need to buy more for the kids sand pit too!. Thanks! 🙂 x