Just before Christmas, Mark from Vertical Veg sent out a questionnaire for growing in 2013. It contained a few simple and very pertinent questions and ones which got me thinking about the many positive aspects of growing your own fruit and vegetables. Question one: why do you grow your own food?
For me, I find it joyful and incredibly rewarding to be able to pick fresh veg from our doorstep. And it’s not just picking any old veg. It’s being able to choose and grow the things that you really love to eat and that will flourish in the growing conditions that you have in your garden. In a less than sunny part of the front garden, my lettuces thrived throughout the dampest of summers and supplied delicious sweet fresh leaves, unsprayed by supermarkets (and with zero food miles) for months on end. Pea shoots came a close second, supplying a succulent alternative to lettuces and being very quick to grow (about 3 weeks from sowing to harvesting from May onwards). I also love growing food that is sometimes difficult (or impossible) to buy in the shops and I’m going to really concentrate on the less run-of-the-mill herbs next year such as Lovage, Sorrel and Sweet Cicely.
Next question. What’s your biggest challenge? Time (and space-could do with an extra half an acre at home!). Allotments are great, but they do take a feat of organisation to fit in with our busy lives. Whatever I grow on the allotment (leeks , raspberries, jerusalem artichokes….), I still love the fact that I can harvest salad leaves, strawberries and rhubarb only minutes before cooking them if I can grow them in the front or back garden (or in a pot on a windowsill or balcony). Jono from Real Men Sow has written an excellent piece on giving up his allotment and his move to growing everything (including some ornamentals) in his new garden at home.
Space in our urban environment is another constant challenge; trying to squeeze in everything I’d love to grow, but then planning becomes the key to getting the most out of our growing space.
In 2013 I’m planning for more effective successional growing, so that as soon as one spot becomes available, I’ll have the right seeds or small plants to pop right in there, and for sowing at the right time of year to provide crops throughout the seasons. Next year I’ll be attempting to fine tune my seed sowing for autumn and winter lettuces (I reckon August is the key month) and trying not to forget (in all the spring excitement) to sow seeds for some purple sprouting broccoli, as I always regret the absence of this fine vegetable come the following year. I’m planning to grow more perennial fruit, vegetables and herbs such as Rhubarb, Blackberries, Asparagus and Marjoram that will happily look after themselves (apart from the odd bit of mulching and training) and hopefully this will leave me with a bit more time for some more ‘no dig’ trials and to sow some new crops that I’ve only dreamed about so far.
During this wettest of Christmas holidays, it’s been great to have time to reflect and imagine my ideal plot, and I wish you all a Happy New Year, and one full of exciting growing experiments and successes throughout 2013, whatever or wherever your veg plot is.
Out of my shed 
What a perfect post! (Though all are lovely and feel very grateful to you.) But what do you do about slugs and snails? They seem to adore eating everything in the back garden. And very best wishes for a very happy 2013. Love & blessings, Jane
Hi Jane, Such a good question. Actually, I started growing pea shoots after a tray of perfectly nurtured lettuce seedlings were all gobbled up overnight, and grew the pea shoots on our kitchen (flat) roof, as far away from snails as I could manage. I did lose a fair few crops (Kohlrabi for one and also a delicious sweet herb called Stevia), but found that lettuces grown in the middle of the garden, away from walls and garden paraphernalia were hardly touched at all. I did in the end resort to using slug pellets to protect some of my lettuce seedlings when they were tiny, but also gave up on areas where crops were decimated time and time again. This year I did a lot more mixed planting of ornamentals (to attract bees) with my edibles and this seemed to help too. I know copper can deter slugs and snail and I think I will be heading to my nearest plumber suppliers come spring to see if a wrapping of copper tape or copper sheeting around growing areas might deter these voracious pests in the damp weather continues next year.
Thanks for your very apt comment and Very Best Wishes for 2013. Naomi x
Hi Naomi!
I just thought I’d put this into the mix, my mum has real issues with slugs and snails in darkest (and v damp Wales) and was getting sick of losing peas/beans, etc so I bought her this copper tape for Christmas as a stocking filler – Slugit® copper tape Slug & Snail repellent. It’s only £5 and sticks to anything, she will put it round the tops of her raised bed planks – the only tip I’ve picked up about it though is that although it’s already quite wide, to be absolutely sure slugs don’t ‘bridge’ their way across it, just put a double layer width-wise and the slimy things won’t cross it… So I guess it would work for a raised bed, a pot, a trough, etc maybe even stuck onto flat paving in a sealed shape? Hope that is useful and Happy New Year from lovely Worcestershire… x
Hi Claire, Lovely to hear from you! Slugit® copper tape does look v. good indeed and will be investing in some v. soon. Hope you and Jonathon have a great gardening year in Worcestershire in 2013. Naomi xx
Really lovely post. I think gardening is such a learning experience and I’m always fine tuning too! Weather and other surprises (such as giant slugs eating everything) can never really be planned for but it does provide good experience for the following season. Really happy to have found your blog this year and looking forward to following in 2013. Happy new year and very best wishes!
Hi Anna, lovely to get all your comments and hope you have a good growing year, whatever the weather throws at us (and however big those slugs are!!). V.best Naomi x
Lovely post Naomi. I’m just working out my seed order at the moment and being restrained is the biggest problem. I want to be more successful with my autumn/wither lettuce and am going to make a real effort with that this year. I so agree about the garden/allotment issue. Whilst I love my allotment being able to wander out into the garden to pick stuff is so much easier but until we can afford somewhere bigger an allotment it is. And I know I’m so lucky to have what I’ve got.
Wishing you a lovely New Year’s Eve and all the best for 2013. WW x
Hi WW, Having decided to be restrained with my seed order last year, all sense seemed to be lost once I started writing my book. Hoping to keep things a bit more under control this year with more perennials in place and fruit trees to play with! Very best wishes for 2013 and good luck with growing for and writing your book. Naomi x
Successional sowing is definately something I need to get better at, too many empty beds at the end of summer/autumn for my liking!
Hi Anna, Getting successional sowing right does seem like an art and one which hopefully can be improved on year after year. Good luck for 2013!
Hey Naomi, excellent post to get the old grey matter going. 🙂
I hear you on successional sowing an organisation. Getting this licked is probably my biggest aim and challenge for 2013, both at the same time.
I’ve bought myself a diary and am slowly filling it with reminders for when to sow etc. Hopefully this will help me.
Happy New Year, all the best for 2013.
Jono.
Hi Jono, Yes filling out a diary is the best way to go. I’m just getting my head around what to and what not to grow this year, then I think I’ll be following suit. I want to have my garden humming with bees and producing bowls full of fruit and veg all year long!
Fruit planting in your garden looks very exciting and wishing you a great growing season in 2013. Naomi
Hope that the new year treats you and your gardening spaces kindly Naomi. I would love to crack successional sowing but it always seems to elude me. Have you come across the book ‘Window – Box Allotment’ by Penelope Bennett? It includes some useful and imaginative suggestions for growing fruit, vegetables and herbs in a small space.
Hi Anna, Penelope Bennett’s book does indeed sound very useful. Also Mark from Vertical Veg has a great website packed full of great ideas taht always inspire.Very best wishes for a great growing year too in 2013.
Hello and Happy New Year! So happy to discover this blog.
I am preparing a big plan for my beds and want to be more self sufficient than last year, like you I love growing the unusual veg that are hard to come by like colourful beets and purple cabbages, fresh marjoram and pattipans.
Can’t wait to start planting!
Hi SM, I totally agree. It’s so rewarding to grow veg that is difficult (or darned near impossible) to buy in the shops. My chioggia beetroots and cosmic carrots were a joy last year, as well as my lettuces and pea shoots and I’ll be experimenting with lots of mustard leaf varieties this year too. Hope you have a great growing season! V.best Naomi
What I find most amazing is how you fit in time to tend to all these wonderful plants! I’ve always wanted to follow in your foot steps and grow much more of what we eat but I just never seem to get around to doing it. Any tips on making time?
Hi Janet, Good question! I would definitely follow the saying, ‘less is more’. Decide what it is you really love to eat, be it lettuces, gooseberries, beans, heritage potatoes, herbs etc. and rather than try and grow loads of different varieties, concentrate on just a few. If you have the space, rather than grow just a few of your favourite lettuces for example, grow 40 or 50 plants, and this will keep you in good supply for 2 or 3 months at a time.
Perennials, both fruit and veg, don’t need to be sown year after year (or season after season), so are great time savers, and growing crops around the house, rather than at a plot further away, really cuts down on travel time.
Lastly, once you’ve decided on what to grow, write reminders in your diary on when to sow so that you don’t miss out on your favourite veg. Hope that helps!
Thanks so much 🙂 I’ll try getting started with those tips!
HI Janet-Good luck!
Just getting down to putting my seed order together for this year, and trying to follow my own ‘less is more’ advice. Always a bit tricky that one. As soon as I start leafing through a catalogue, I always see veg that I’ve been meaning to try out for years, and suddenly my beautifully honed veg list is rather enormous. Hope you have a great growing year ahead and do let me know how it all progresses. V.best Naomi