Garden Home & Garden

Grow Your Own Veg – What I’m Growing This Year!

March 12, 2018

I can’t believe it’s been almost 2 years since I last did a post about my little vegetable garden! I used to post little updates on what I was growing and anything I’d harvested every month or so, but then last year my little veg garden took a break. I had a really bad time last spring/summer dealing with our kitten, Keeko, going missing, so nothing got planted, other than a tomato plant that I bought from the garden centre, so there was nothing to post about.

I also feel like this little blog has turned into a travel blog lately, and I want to get back to it being a travel and lifestyle blog. I’m not a full time blogger, I do have a full time job, and I like to go away on as many holidays as possible throughout the year, but when I’m not travelling, I feel like I have nothing to blog about. So that’s where the posts like this will come back in – I want to start posting about food, and growing veg, and days out, and well, you get the picture.

So, what am I growing this year?

Over the past few years, I’ve experimented with growing all kinds of fruit and veg, and to be honest a lot of it was a complete fail haha! I think it’s a combo of me not really knowing what I’m doing, our soil (it’s very clay like), and just not having enough space for certain crops, like sweetcorn, which are pollinated by the wind, so you need loads of plants.

This year, I’m just sticking to what I know how to grow, and what grows well in our garden. Mostly salad things, some herbs, and a few vegetables and I’m so excited to get back out there and being able to harvest things again! It saves quite a bit of money while doing the food shop, and of course, everything tastes so much better!

Salads

Salad things are the easiest things to grow! They need barely anything done to them and you just let them get on with it. I’m terrible for buying bags of salad leaves, eating 1/2 a bag and the rest of it going bad, so to be able to pop out to the garden and grab only what we need will be great! And, it doesn’t have that bitter taste you get when it’s shop bought either! So what am I growing?

  • Lettuce – Little Gem and Cut & Come Again leaves
  • Spinach
  • Rocket
  • Spring Onions
  • Radishes
  • Tomatoes

Vegetables

These are my favourite things to grow! I always find that you get way too many things or not enough in the shop, so again, loads goes to waste. Things like green beans and peas, I tend to buy frozen anyway, but who needs a whole 500g bag of kale or chard? I usually just need a couple of sticks for whatever I’m making, so it’s perfect for being able to go out and pick what’s needed. Plus, things like chard can be picked while really young too, and added to salads! And who doesn’t love to snack on freshly podded peas?

  • Beetroot
  • Chard
  • Green Beans
  • Courgette
  • Kale
  • Pak Choi
  • Peas

Raspberries from the Garden

Fruit & Herbs

I don’t tend to grow much fresh fruit, because I think you need quite a few plants to get continuous decent harvests, but it is nice to have a few plants to pick from. I also love having fresh herbs in the garden and to just pop out in the summer while you’re cooking dinner and cut some fresh herbs for extra flavour!

  • Rhubarb (I already have some stems ready to pick)
  • Raspberries
  • Strawberries
  • Blueberries
  • Parsley
  • Chives
  • Basil
  • Mint

And that’s it! Who knows, I’ll probably end up popping to the garden centre and seeing something else I want to grow aswell, but that’s the list for now at least. I really need to get some of the seeds started indoors now, but things like the tomatoes I tend to buy from the garden centre later in the spring, as they take over my windowsills for months in the house till it’s warm enough to plant them outside.

Do you have a vegetable garden? What are you growing this year? Also, is there any posts you want to see, like container gardening, or things that you can grow indoors?

 

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  • Reply
    Georgina
    March 12, 2018 at 11:49 pm

    Growing your own must feel so satisfying! Everything looks so delicious 🙂

    http://www.georginadoes.co.uk

    • Reply
      April
      March 13, 2018 at 6:50 am

      It’s the best being able to go out and pick some fresh veg for dinner that evening!
      xo April

  • Reply
    Gemma Evans
    March 14, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    Runner beans are one of my favourite vegetables to grow — we have a tiny garden and planting them in large pots has been successful. They really don’t need much space if you plant them in the ground though. Homegrown rhubarb is THE best!! I made a rhubarb and strawberry cordial last year which was to die for. I better stop or I’ll end up writing an essay so I’ll just say good luck with your garden 🙂

    • Reply
      April
      March 17, 2018 at 11:13 am

      Can you believe I’ve never actually tried runner beans?! I just don’t really know what to do with them haha! I’ve done climbing green beans in containers though, and peas and both have done really well. I’m also terrible with the Rhubarb – we’ve had the plant in there for 3 years and I’ve never actually picked any of it to use, so I’m determined to try make something with it this year. That rhubarb and strawberry cordial sounds delicious!
      xo April

  • Reply
    Camila @ Adventitious Violet
    March 15, 2018 at 5:04 pm

    I am SO jealous of your garden! We have a wee plot at the back of our house that we can use and we may look into it when we’re back from North America in May. I really really want to start growing some of my own food! I want more herbs, tomatoes, strawberries, rhubarb sounds nice!

    • Reply
      April
      March 17, 2018 at 11:14 am

      Ooh do it! Homegrown tomatoes are the best! They taste so much better than shop bought ones and they’re so easy to grow too!
      xo April

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