Grow It Yourself – starting our own veg patch

Living about 15 minutes drive from the nearest supermarket, I tend to bulk buy once a week but vegetables are always an issue as they’re never as fresh as if I was able to buy them more often. It’s a no-brainer that we should be growing our own. Having plenty of space outside, we finally got around to growing some vegetables two years ago. We successfully grew some radishes, spinach and carrots but didn’t keep it up. This time I’m determined to keep it up.

We have some plastic crates and they are arranged on a table at about waist height. This is great as it feels like a lot less work, and some of the pests are cut out as they don’t climb! Soil-wise we put in top soil, then some compost from our own fruit and veg waste (we have been composting for 7 years so we have plenty!), and topped off with a little store-bought peat moss.

At the start of April we planted spinach, carrots and broccoli from seed. Here is how the spinach and broccoli is looking after about 5 weeks .

Lidl had a special offer this week on growing vegetables and I got broccoli, red cabbage, brussels sprouts, butterhead lettuce and iceberg lettuce from there.

They say that kids involved in the cooking and preparing of food is almost guaranteed to make them eat the food, and I’m hoping this will translate to children who help grow the vegetables will be delighted to eat them. My lads are loving getting their hands dirty and spotting the worms anyway. Vegetables, especially green leafy ones are a great source of calcium for a dairy free diet.

We have plans to plant turnip, peas, rhubarb and maybe some blueberries or strawberries also. Watch this space for updates on how we are getting on.

If you are thinking of starting yourself, check out http://www.giyinternational.org/ for lots of tips and step by step instructions. You can start with a few seeds in an empty yoghurt pot in your own kitchen window and even a little success will give you the bug to grow more!