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Vegetable Plots
The past few years has seen popularity of home vegetable growing dramatically increase because there are just so many benefits to be gained from ‘growing your own’. The nutrient content of organic, fresh harvested food will be far greater than any shop bought equivalent. You know exactly what has gone into the produce and the taste sensation you get from fresh home grown food, which goes from harvest to plate in minutes, is unbeatable. I’ll never forget the first time I ate my own sweetcorn, it was far sweeter and juicier than any I’ve had before, and is something that is grown every year in my garden!
Home growing can be fun for all the family. There is great enjoyment to be had, in terms of the aesthetic pleasure of a plot in season, with all the lovely flowers and fruit on display, but also the activity of tending to your plot can be great fun and exercise too. You can get children involved to help them understand where food has come from, but also the effort required to produce the food (a great advantage with fussy eaters!). The satisfaction you get when you know your efforts have paid off is immense.
Of course when we think of vegetable growing we tend to imagine large allotment plots, however fruit and vegetables can now be grown in so many different ways that in even the smallest of gardens you can grow your own. Where space is limited then container growing may be the solution, and there are a whole host of produce that can do brilliantly in containers. Herbs are great grown this way, but lettuce, tomatoes, beans, strawberries, potatoes and many more will all do well in smaller pots or sacks. You need to choose the correct variety, ones that are best suited to this method, but you also need to keep on top of watering when pot growing.
In larger situations you could go for the conventional ground level option; however we find that raised beds often allow for produce to be grown more successfully. Raising the levels mean firstly that you can bring in fresh soil, compost and soil improvers so that you start off with really good soil from year one. Soil quality really is so important when growing vegetables and will greatly affect yields. Secondly, well-designed raised beds are also easier to tend.
They put less strain on the back and if you are not treading and compacting the soil there is no need to dig over from one year to the next. You just feed and top dress the soil in the autumn and let the worms do the rest. Depending on what you are growing you would also need to feed the soil at regular intervals throughout the growing season.
Raised beds can look very attractive, especially with some well laid pathways in between. I strongly believe that although this is the productive part of the garden, it should also be part of the integral design and look good too.
If you are thinking of growing brassicas and want to stay organic, then poly tunnels with mesh are the way forward. Your investment will soon pay for itself with increased yields, but also more appetising meals!
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