Nutritious, delicious and satisfying, growing your own vegetables is a joy that encourages biodiversity and gives us direct, cost effective access to home-grown produce. Our friends and collaborators at the Eden Project have created a guide to help you with your home growing this season, with helpful tips from the green-fingered experts.
Grow your own
Choose a sunny spot in the garden. Make one or more vegetable beds no wider than four feet (120cm) across so you can reach the bed from the sides. Clear weeds, fork over and add compost. Try to not stand on the soil. As you build the bed up with compost over time, there will be little or no need to dig.
No garden?
Not a problem. Start small with a simple window box of lettuce or beansprouts – or join a community garden, and work as part of a team.
Share your food successes
Give away surplus home-grown crops to family and friends, or swap with other gardeners. Sharing pictures of your crops and new recipes is a great way to stay connected and learn from each other too.
TOMATOES
San Marzano tomato ‘Scatolone di Bolsena’
San Marzano near Naples is famous for its superb plum tomatoes – including this variety, with an excellent flavour and good size which stores well. Great for slicing, they’re often considered one of the best cooking tomatoes in the world. Use them for stuffing, or to make passata for pizzas and pasta. At the end of the season, harvest the last tomatoes just before they ripen and slice and fry or ripen them indoors.
To grow from seed…
• Sow the seeds in peat-free seed compost in March or April, about 6 seeds per 10cm pot. Keep on a sunny windowsill and water as and when the compost starts to dry.
• When the seedlings have a pair of seed leaves and a pair of true leaves, gently tip out of the pot, keeping as much soil on the tiny roots as possible, and repot (‘prick out’) each one into its own 10cm pot of peat-free potting compost.
• Keep your seedlings moist and in a sunny position.
• When the plants are about 20cm tall, plant into their final positions around 60cm apart, in a greenhouse or sunny spot, after the risk of frost has passed. They can be planted into fertile garden soil, peat-free tomato grow bags or large pots.
Once planted out…
• Cordon varieties that grow straight up, as opposed to tumbling or bush plants, need staking. Keep tying in as the plants grow – taking care not to squash the stem.
• Cordon varieties also require you to pinch out the side shoots (that appear where the main leaves join the stem) to create one strong main stem and encourage fruiting.
• Start to feed when fruits start to appear, using commercial tomato feed, or make your own using comfrey leaves (recipe below).
• Harvest from July onwards, as the fruits turn red.
Top tips…
• Water evenly, little and often. This will help prevent the fruit from splitting.
• Plant basil next to tomatoes for a delicious combination. It’s also said to improve the flavour of the tomatoes.
• We use homemade comfrey tea to feed our tomatoes. To make your own, top up one full bucket of comfrey leaves with water and leave to soak for a few days. Or you can leave it for longer and then dilute the ‘tea’ with water. Sieve the leaves out and apply with a watering can. This is best done the same day you water the tomato plants.
• If you get to October or November and still have fruits on your tomato plants that don’t look like they are going to ripen, harvest them all and make green tomato chutney.
WILD ROCKET
‘Foglia d’uIivo’
Used in every region of Italy and across the Mediterranean, rocket is as versatile as it is tasty, bringing a peppery bite to salads, pizzas or with slices of orange. Try Pesto di Rucola made of whizzed-up rocket, walnuts or pine nuts, parmesan, garlic, a pinch of salt and lashings of olive oil on bruschetta or served with pasta.
To sow from seed…
• Sow 0.5cm deep, at any time between March to September, straight into weeded, well dug, fertile soil.
• If you haven’t got a garden, you can grow rocket in a pot or window box.
• It’s one of the easiest plants to grow and is ready in four to six weeks (as it ‘rockets’ up) and is a ‘cut and come again’ plant.
BASIL
‘Classico Tigullio’
A true Ligurian basil from near Portofino, Italy. It’s traditionally used to make pesto Genovese. All the ingredients for making pesto Genovese are found in the Liguria area: pine nuts from the alpine forests, olive oil from the terraced olive groves, and pecorino or parmesan cheese from nearby regions.
To sow from seed…
• Sow in peat-free seed compost in pots in spring and late summer.
• When the seedlings need more room, gently shake them out the pot and plant into larger pots. These can grow on a sunny windowsill or outside after risk of frost has passed.
• Seeds can also be sown straight into the ground outside after risk of frost (but allow extra for the slugs, snails and rabbits).
Top tips…
• Ground-grown basil is more aromatic than pot grown, which tends to dry out easily and use up all the nutrients.
• Pinch out the tops of plants once established to help them bush out.
• Often a stem of basil placed in a glass of water will root and provide a new plant.
LETTUCE
‘Pesciatina of Tuscany’
This tender yet crunchy mid-early heritage variety of lettuce comes from the Province of Lucca and is very satisfying to eat. It has a compact, round, closed head and dimpled leaves and edgings which graduate from green to dark-red and purple.
To sow from seed…
• Lettuce seeds are best grown in full sun and moist soil. Sow sparingly between March and September, just 1cm deep and in rows 30cm apart.
• For continued cropping, sow a row every two weeks then cut-and-come again.
• Protect early and late sowings from the cold with cloches or other clear coverings.
• To aid germination in hot weather, sow in the evening and water with cool water, providing a little shade to help reduce the soil temperature.
• Harvest between May-November.
Top tip…
• Lettuce seeds can also be sown in seed compost in modules and planted out in the garden when the plants have about six leaves.
BEETROOT
‘Barbabietola di Chioggia’
Characterised by bright alternate red and white rings when cut, this Venetian variety cooks more quickly than other beetroot varieties. Its mild flavour and underlying sweetness lend themselves to cakes and desserts as well as salads.
To sow from seed…
• Sow seed sparingly between March and June,1.5cm deep in rows 30cm apart. Beetroot is a biennial which flowers in its second year. It is grown as an annual and the roots harvested in summer and autumn.
• It does not do well from being transplanted, however the seed can be sown in modules and planted out in their little cubes of compost.
• If sown direct, gradually thin out seedlings to a spacing of 10cm, pulling up alternate plants once roots are just bigger than a squash ball. These little roots are delicious.
• Harvest the mature beetroot from June to October, when no larger than a tennis ball.
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