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Finding Time To Grow Vegetables.

February 6, 2017 By Jill Anderson 2 Comments

There’s no doubt that growing your own vegetables is good thing, but when I first had an allotment I got completely carried away.

 Finding Time To Grow Vegetables.-RHS Britain in Bloom- Hampton Court Palace Flower Show

For inspiration, a handsome vegetable garden at The Hampton Court Flower Show last year.

In my enthusiasm I grew lots of vegetables from seed, & when they nearly all germinated, I didn’t have the heart to get rid of most of them, “Why not just plant them all?’ I thought. This was my first rookie mistake, because as they grow, all those baby plants need watering, weeding & feeding, which takes up lots of precious time.

How To Find Time To Grow Vegetables.-tomato seedlings

I love home-grown tomatoes, but 10 plants?

The result were gluts of vegetables & deciding what to do with it all. I love the idea of preserving fruit & vegetables in some form or other to use through the year & give as little gifts. But when there’s too much it becomes less of a pleasure & more of an ordeal. By the way, freezing fruit & storing in crumble-sized batches is the quickest method….which explains why we had so much of it in the over-flow freezer in the garage.

Please don’t be put off though, learn from my mistakes, because:

  • It’s more sustainable, especially growing from seed, there are no air-miles just a few steps outside the back door to pick what you need that day.
  • You know your food hasn’t been sprayed with chemicals (& if you want to use chemicals you’ll know exactly what they are, though reading the label could put you right off ) & stored for goodness knows how long in cold-storage.
  • It’s as fresh as anything, with more flavour than most shop-bought stuff.
  • You can grow fruit & vegetables that just aren’t available in the shops. My favourites are Chioggia beetroot with its’ pink & white striped flesh & jostaberries, a flavoursome berry that’s a cross between gooseberry & blackcurrant.
How To Find Time To Grow Vegetables.-allotment-jostaberries

Highly recommended Jostaberries

raised vegetable beds, oak sleepers

Raised vegetable beds in the new garden, ready to be filled.

This year we’re in a different garden, having moved here 2 years ago. We’ve said goodbye to the allotment & there’s a small vegetable garden instead. So how to find time to grow vegetables?

I have to be more organised because we have less space, just 6 raised beds & a couple of small borders, which is probably a good thing.

This is the plan for this year:

I’ve planned what to grow & how much for the two of us, with some extra to give away.

To avoid feast & famine, I’ll sow small amounts every couple of weeks of beetroot, carrots & salad leaves & the like.

I’ll be ruthless about discarding/giving away surplus seedlings.

However, I’ll grow more courgette seeds than I need  & sow them in stages over a couple of weeks. One year I planted 4 seeds in their own little pots, by the time I noticed that they hadn’t germinated, it was late in the season & they produced very little when they finally grew.

courgette plant

A baby courgette plants, I’ll grow 2 plants only this year.

I eventually learned, that things never go according to plan in the garden. The weather is unpredictable, bugs attack or your time gets used up elsewhere. A few of my crops are affected this way every year, & I don’t take it personally anymore, it’s just an inevitable part of gardening, & there will always be something else to pick.

An excellent source of information is a book called The Half Hour Allotment by Lia Leendertz.  There’s a particularly useful section about how much to grow for a family of four.

Finding Time To Grow Vegetables- The half hour allotment by Lia Leendertz

Please keep reading my blog to see how I get on, as I get the new, little vegetable plot up & running.

Jill

all photos: Jill Anderson.

 

Related posts:

Looking after your garden in April Three favourite evergreen herbs. Join me on a little tour of my allotment. shallots for saleThings to do in the Vegetable Garden in March

Related posts:

Looking after your garden in April Three favourite evergreen herbs. Join me on a little tour of my allotment. shallots for saleThings to do in the Vegetable Garden in March
Filed Under: Blog, Growing Food, Plants, Recycling & Sustainability Tagged With: finding time to grow vegetables, growing vegetables from seed, how many vegetable seeds to sow

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Comments

  1. Amanda says

    February 8, 2017 at 8:08 pm

    Hi Jill, it will soon be time won’t it, I’ve had a constant garden this year from Rocket Garden, I haven’t got a greeenhouse yet and thought this would be the easiest. That book is a revelation isn’t it! Happy sowing 🙂 xxx

    Reply
    • Jill Anderson says

      February 13, 2017 at 8:13 am

      Hi Amanda, just looked rocket garden up, that must make life so much easier! ses, the book id great, so helpful, because it can all seem a bit overwhelming at times! I’m just happy & grateful for what comes up1 xx

      Reply

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Hello, I’m Jill Anderson.
This is where you’ll find good, solid information about gardening, growing fruit & vegetables and how to keep it all looking good.
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The healing, calming power of nature in one photo. The healing, calming power of nature in one photo.
These wonderful autumn colours won’t be around for much longer. But that’s ok, because now is what matters, & their fleeting beauty makes them even more precious.
It’s easy to see how being among trees & nature is so beneficial for our health & wellbeing. 
Have a great Sunday.
Savouring all the autumn colour, & doesn’t it lo Savouring all the autumn colour, & doesn’t it look spectacular with this bold front door.
Today has been hard work, after a lovely time last week in Norfolk. The north coast there is spectacular. Realising these last few months, that there are so many beautiful places here. 
Have a nice evening.
Charming glasshouse at Houghton Hall, Norfolk. Vis Charming glasshouse at Houghton Hall, Norfolk. Visiting to see the Anish Kapoor sculptures, which are amazing, but unprepared for the beauty of the grounds & garden. 
Such a treat, worth coming to Norfolk for this alone!
Hope you’re keeping well, & managing to smile some of the time. x
P.S. more of Houghton Hall & Anish Kapoor on my stories
We stopped off on the way home to pick blackberrie We stopped off on the way home to pick blackberries, after coffee & cake, sitting in the churchyard - the cafe was full, & the churchyard is a quiet, peaceful spot..... as you’d expect.
-
One little advantage of lockdown is walking so much more, rather than using the car. Though it shouldn’t have taken something as momentous as this, for me to change bad habits 🙁
Hope you’re weekend is going well.
My hazel arch, a bit lopsided 🙄 using wood from My hazel arch, a bit lopsided 🙄 using wood from a random clump of hazel on the garden. Now looking much better covered in winter squash plants, so you can’t see just how ramshackle it is. I like to think it has a certain home-spun charm .

Great for small space gardening, imagine how much room you need to grow these without vertical supports.

I’ve got 2 Uchiki kuri, lovely nutty flavour.
1 Turks turban, for its flamboyant shape & colours, though it also tastes good.
One unknown, grown by my grandsons in their homeschooled science lesson.
Close-ups of the squash over on my stories.
Stay cool my friends x
I wanted to show you this lovely lily ( Lilium reg I wanted to show you this lovely lily ( Lilium regale) which is flowering right outside our bedroom window. 
It gets sun for about 4 hours only, you can order the bulbs now for planting in September. It’ll reappear every year & waft delicious scent around your garden, or through your windows.
Have a very happy Monday x
It’s British Flower Week, there’s a lot to be It’s British Flower Week, there’s a lot to be said for fabulous seasonal flowers that haven’t travelled thousands of miles ...... & are wonderful for biodiversity
A bit of rain, nice long days (it’s almost mid-s A bit of rain, nice long days (it’s almost mid-summer!) & it’s, mostly, all growing nicely.

Spinach, courgettes & garlic in shot here. 
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday x
Hope is a decision I’ve thought long & hard abou Hope is a decision
I’ve thought long & hard about how to view the tumult in the world we’re living in now. 
The only thing that works for me, is to choose hope.

It’s a tall order, but avoiding mainstream news & speculation helps avoid the anxiety, that’s often waiting in the wings.

One day soon there’ll be grandchildren clambering over this again.
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