My garden! I never thought that I’d have my very own garden! Of course, it’s Blai’s too but he’ll be the first to admit that I’m the crazy one who insisted on growing almost all our vegetable plants from seed (our living room is south facing with lots of light and I’ve been treating it like a greenhouse). It’s a modest little patch (about 10 square metres plus a number of pots – the rest of the garden is lawn and herb/flower bedding) but so far I’m quite pleased with what I’ve managed to harvest from it, even this early in the season.
The tally so far in our garden is: 9 tomato plants, 2 courgette plants, 8 cucamelon plants, a small patch of carrots, 3 purple bean vines, 3 runner bean vines, a tiny patch of wild rocket, a small patch of cime di rapa, countless radishes dotted everywhere, a few spring onions looking like string, 2 little cavolo nero plants, 5 rainbow chard plants, 1 pot of pea shoots, 2 pots of cut and come again lettuces, 1 pot of strawberries, and 1 small potted fig tree. As you might be able to tell, I’ve aimed for variety and experimentation with yields in this first year and we’re not in any way looking to be self sustained from this little plot.
We’ve had a few great salads, radishes with butter, cime di rapa pasta, and quite a few strawberries. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.
Of course, not everything has gone to plan. My aubergine seeds didn’t germinate earlier this year and now I suspect that some of my tomatoes in pots are damaged by possible herbicide in the compost I purchased. But what really surprised me was how much I’m enjoying gardening and how happy the garden is making me. And the bees! I love seeing the bees do their thing with the flowers. I do know, of course, how lucky we are to have some green space (we have had no green space whatsoever prior to this), especially in London…
I should say that I really had nearly no experience whatsoever before embarking on this wild and crazy sowing scheme! Books that have been helpful include The New Vegetable and Herb Expert, the same in the series for fruit, and Alys Fowler’s The Edible Garden. The last book has an accompanying television series that’s watchable on YouTube. Useful websites and blogs are You Grow Girl (I’ve been reading this one for years!), Mark’s Veg Plot, Grow Your Own, the gardening section of the Guardian, and the Royal Horticultural Society.
If you have any tips/suggestions on what I ought to grow, do let me know!
Thu, 2 Jul, 2015 at 11:01
oh, u have tempted me by asking for tips and suggestions of what to grow. can u grow curry leaf plant? i hope u would and i hope i can then ask u for a seedling so i can pot it too. well just a thought. haha.
Mon, 13 Jul, 2015 at 12:02
Hehe, I don’t have one but it looks like you can possibly get one from ebay. And here’s a guide to growing it: http://www.thehomesteadgarden.com/howtogrowcurryleaf/
I think it’s probably best in a pot indoors in London.
Thu, 2 Jul, 2015 at 11:29
What a great post. I have a similar sized garden and gone for the widest possible choice I could get.
You could buy more mini fruit trees which can be potted and rarely grow bigger than 1m in height. But be aware to water them daily when it’s sweltering hot and maybe every other day when cooler. I have a half size greenhouse complete with potting table which I use to sow my seeds and later keep the plants under glass.
I’ve heard asian greens are especially easy to grow but expensive to buy. So it might be best to concentrate on expensive or rare plants. I’m intrigued by the cucamelon as James Wong was talking about it in his book.
Potatoes might be ideal for you as if you go into Poundland or 99p soon after the new year. You can buy seed potatoes in packs of five. Ideal for the small garden. Plus they sell seed packs such as the hot and spicy range featuring garlic chives, chilli, mizuna… Etc.
And yes gardening is very good for the soul. I get excited seeing plants flower and fruit. Then it get picked and eaten!
Mon, 13 Jul, 2015 at 12:10
Thank you, thank you! Another thing I’ve just discovered recently is sorrel – the French use it a lot and apparently it’s easy to grow.
I’ll update again later in the summer, especially after the cucamelons ripen. My vines are full of flowers and I’m just waiting for the fruits to swell (fingers crossed).
Thu, 2 Jul, 2015 at 11:57
so excited with your harvest and look forward to seeing more!
Mon, 13 Jul, 2015 at 12:12
Thank you!
Thu, 2 Jul, 2015 at 12:48
You are lucky indeed! Great haul so far, too. I love my terrace garden (snails ate all my zucchini flowers grrrr) and found this website really interesting:
http://www.verticalveg.org.uk/
Mon, 13 Jul, 2015 at 12:18
Yes, I forgot about that site! Vertical Veg is definitely a great one. Shame about the snails! On wet evenings, I’m doing a slug and snail patrol with my “gardening chopsticks”…
Thu, 2 Jul, 2015 at 15:52
lovely🙂
Mon, 13 Jul, 2015 at 12:20
Thank you!
Thu, 2 Jul, 2015 at 19:03
Productive! We’ve settled for just growing chillies.
Mon, 13 Jul, 2015 at 12:56
That’s the one thing I’m not growing this year! I think I ought to try… I’d like to try growing peppers too.
Tue, 7 Jul, 2015 at 20:55
amazing! I have a balcony and it suits me well as I’m pretty terrible at gardening, but I have a variety of chillis, kaffir lime leaf plants, blueberry plants, basil and laksa leaf plant. Suttons Seeds are really good for plug plants.
Mon, 13 Jul, 2015 at 13:02
Brilliant – thanks for the tip! I’m thinking of buying a few fruit plants from them later in the year!
Fri, 1 Jan, 2016 at 11:11
[…] new year! This is an end-of-year update from our vegetable garden! Since my introduction to our vegetable garden, we’ve had quite a good summer and autumn of harvests. Of course, things are relatively […]