Grow a good looking, edible garden

One of the positives to come out of the pandemic is much greater awareness of our food: where it comes from, how it’s been produced, and how rewarding it is to grow our own. Not just vegetables, but fruit, herbs, even edible flowers to give a pretty and personal touch to all kinds of dishes.

Plenty of crops can be sown or planted now to give a harvest this year, particularly leafy crops like lettuce, rocket, mixed salad leaves, parsley, Oriental vegetables, radish, Swiss chard, and spinach. Hardy veg that tolerates frost can be planted or sown outdoors to harvest next spring or early summer, particularly brassicas such as spring cabbage and kale, and onion sets or seed that are suitable to stand over winter. Fruit trees and bushes are best planted in autumn, but you can order plants now and prepare the ground thoroughly with plenty of time.

Regardless of whether the size of your outdoor space is large or small, there are plenty of ways to pack in plants. Any vertical surface such as walls, fences, posts, or trellis can support ‘living wall’ planters: innovative designs that vary from flat panels to troughs on frames, which can be as small or as extensive as space, time, and budget permit.

Traditional containers like hanging baskets and window boxes can be made more productive and easier to manage with products such as special composts; ‘self-watering’ designs with integral reservoirs; and a variety of watering devices from low-tech bottle top watering spikes to fully automatic irrigation systems. A ‘no-dig’ bed system is the easiest and most soil-friendly way to grow crops in the ground, while raised beds are great for patios and small gardens.

Sue’s tips for growing your own

• Choose a site that gets sun for at least several hours a day and is sheltered from strong winds.
• Don’t feel you have to grow everything from seed. Ready-grown plants are fantastically easy and particularly good if you only want a few plants. Local markets and nurseries usually offer a good range of excellent value plants.
• Most crops need a regular supply of water. Collecting rainwater in butts or tanks saves using valuable mains water.
• Keep on top of weeds – they’ll compete with your crops for water and nutrients.
• Sow seeds into moist soil, rather than watering afterwards which can disperse seeds where they won’t grow.
• Slugs and snails are very active in summer and can demolish seedlings overnight. There’s a wide range of barriers, traps and baits available to buy: choose wildlife-friendly to avoid harming creatures such as birds and hedgehogs (which will also demolish the pests for you).

Seasonal gardening jobs

• Summer-flowering bedding plants can be encouraged to keep blooming until well into autumn by regular deadheading plus a liquid feed every week or two, using a fertiliser high in potash.
• If you have bare spots in borders or your patio needs a lift, add bursts of colour with a few bedding plants. Although it’s comparatively late in the season, if the autumn weather is kind you could enjoy up to three months of colour.
• Order bulb catalogues or bulbs themselves for next spring. Early flowering bulbs like crocus and narcissi are best planted by the end of September to make lots of root growth.
• If you have a greenhouse, give it a thorough clean inside and out before it fills with plants for the winter.
• Take cuttings of tender perennials such as African daisy (Osteospermum), shrubby Salvia and geraniums. Once rooted, pot up individually into small pots and keep on a windowsill over winter.

By Sue Fisher