Have you always loved the idea of growing your own food, and are ready to take the plunge? Growing your own vegetables, fruits and herbs can be a great way to save money, as well as allowing you to eat the very freshest produce, and it can actually be really easy to do no matter what kind of space you have.
By growing the right kinds of food-yielding plants in troughs, containers and growbags, you can grow your own vegetables and other edible plants on a balcony, patio, deck, or even indoors! Here are some ideas:
Grow Your Own Herbs
Herbs are easy to grow and are great to have on hand when you are creating tasty dishes. They can be planted in windows boxes, pots or containers and don’t need too much attention, just a good water. Herbs like Sage and Rosemary are quite hardy and make a good feature in plant borders., and as well as being handy to have around for your roast dinners they also provide a lovely scent in the garden. For something a bit different why not try growing your own patch of Camomile lawn.
Grow Your Own Carrots
Carrots are versatile, and you can always find ways to include them in your recipes or salad mixes. You can grow them very easily in pots, troughs or containers, and while they grow best when you water them regularly, they don’t need that much care. Deeper containers yield longer carrots, but don’t leave them to grow bigger than the ‘peak size’ for the variety you are growing as they begin to taste less sweet. As a rule of thumb (though some carrot varieties may vary), a carrot is ready to be harvested when the top of it below the stem is about ¾ of an inch in diameter.
Your Own Tomatoes and Salads
Tomatoes are one of the first plants people tend to go for when they begin growing their own food, because they are well suited to growing in containers on the patio or in sheltered veggie patches in the garden, and because they can be used for a lot of different things. For instance, if you have more than you can use fresh, you can make and freeze tomato based sauces and juices to use later. The variety ‘Tumbler’ is a trailing plant and can be grown in hanging baskets.
Lettuce are easy to grow and you can start picking leaves of certain varieties within two weeks of planting. Peppers are similar in terms of how easy they are to grow, you can grow them from seed in pots and move them to larger containers as they start to mature or you can buy the plants which are ready to transplant.
These are just a few of the most popular starting points for growing your own container based food garden, but once you get started and see how easy it can be, you’ll soon be filling your pots with all kinds of tasty, interesting crops! Here at Carpenters Nursery, we have a wide range of home grown vegetable plants currently available, and have been growing them on site for over 94 years. If you want any advice, or want to buy any pre-planted, come into our store and we’ll be happy to show you around.
