My crusade for the new year is get everyone growing their own fruit and veg. I know that everyone is not lucky enough to have an allotment, a garden or even a patio. However, you can still grow your own food in even the smallest space, which is why I came up with the idea for my campaign – “Grow One Pot.” I want everyone to make a pledge to grow one thing this year and tell me what it is by leaving a comment below, and tweeting about it using the hashtag ‘#growonepot’

“Grow One Pot” came from the idea that you can using one pot or one container can produce a lot more fruit or veg than most people think.

Common things that people use are:
- A window box to grow herbs, or ‘cut and come again’ salads.

- A hanging basket to grow tumbling tomatoes

- A dustbin to grow your own potatoes

- Three canes to form a wigwam shape which can be used for all climbing plants such as peas, beans, etc to scramble up.

There are many wonderful reasons to garden partially or exclusively in containers. Growing crops in containers also gives you much more control over your plants. You can usually move them indoors if you are faced with an unexpected frost, or move them to another position if they do not appear happy where they are, perhaps getting too much sunlight? You can even grow some vegetables indoors if you have a suitable sunny or bright area where you can sit some pots. So it can be easy to have a fresh, year round supply of flowers, vegetables and herbs.

The great thing about container vegetable gardening is that, apart from buying a few essentials, like good quality compost, it can be done on a low budget and is extremely versatile. You can grow plants in virtually anything that holds some soil and has holes in the bottom for drainage. It’s only bounded by your imagination – a chance for some really creative recycling! I’ve used old bathtubs, 20-litre plastic containers with the tops cut off, baskets of various sizes lined with bin bags to hold the water in, milk cartons for seedlings, anything that comes to hand. I almost used some dumped toilet bowl …..only I didn’t like the colour as they were pink.

Using containers makes it possible to grow food in areas where it would otherwise be impossible, and by employing some simple and innovative methods covered in more detail in future blog posts, such as vertical gardening, raised bed gardening, and square foot gardening, you can extract some excellent, and money-saving crop yields from just a tiny amount of space.

I’ll also be resurrecting my monthly blog post of what to do in your garden each month, and include tips on what to grow in your ‘container garden’ that month.

So, start the new year by making a pledge to get your fingernails dirty and growing at least one crop this year. Don’t forget to tell me what it is by leaving a comment below, and by tweeting me (@wegrowourown) on Twitter, and using the hashtag #growonepot. I’ll retweet every one I see!

Happy gardening!

Looking back at my 2011 New Year’s Resolutions post, I was pleased to see that I had accomplished some of my ‘resolutions’ for last year, although lack of time and job hunting made sure that I never had the time to get round to doing all of them.

This year, I’m going to take more of a relaxed approach to things, and if they happen, they happen. More ‘plans’ than ‘resolutions!’

One of my goals for this year is to do more writing. I’m about to see one of my articles in print for the first time in Great Food Magazine, which will hopefully become a regular column. I’m also still writing my cookbook, but have still to find that elusive publisher!

I’m also going to be doing some guest blogging, and I have some plans to expand and revamp my own blog. More details about that soon!

Also, now that we have a larger allotment, it will give me more space to expand my chilli empire, although the freezer and larder are groaning under the weight of last year’s harvest, both frozen and pickled. Even though our growing space has been tripled, I’m still going to have to scale back my current seed order for 2012, as otherwise I’ll run out of space in April, never mind by the summer!

It doesn’t matter whether you have a small garden, or a large allotment plot, you always seem to run out of growing space, especially in the busy late Spring and early Summer months.

However, there are a couple of techniques that can be used, which will ensure that you get the absolute most out of your growing space.

Intercropping

Intercropping (also known as ‘intersowing’) is a method of growing two different crops in the same row or bed, one fast growing and the other one slow.

Although both may be sown or planted at the same time and then grown together, the faster of the two will have been harvested and out of the ground before the slower one is ready to fill the space. Tall crops, such as sweetcorn, also leave adequate space beneath them for lettuces to grow.

Fast growing crops include Oriental salad leaves, small lettuces, corn salad, spinach, radishes, and spring planted shallot sets. Slow growing crops, amongst which the quicker growing ones can be grown include sweetcorn, tomatoes, leeks, parsnips, and winter brassicas such as cabbages, cauliflowers, sprouting broccoli, and Brussels sprouts.

Catch Cropping

Catch cropping means sowing and harvesting a fast growing crop in the brief period when a bed may be free or empty, in the period between two separate plantings of slower, more long term crops. For example, there may be a bed empty in late spring or early summer before planting out leeks or winter cabbages.

Or perhaps after lifting early season broad beans or new potatoes, you will have enough time to grow a fast growing crop before the ground is used for hardy kale or autumn sown Japanese onions.

So, as you can see, you can grow even more in that small piece of land than you originally thought!

It’s been gorgeous weather on a Bank Holiday for a change, and I hope you managed to spend as much time in your allotment or garden as I have.

Since I’m now the allotment site secretary, I was able to get advance notice of which plots on the site were becoming vacant, and I have bagged myself what I think is called a “project.”

The pictures don’t really do this allotment justice, as it is three times the size of our existing allotment!

Although it looks overgrown, it has many things going for it. It is right in the far back corner of the allotment site, and has an entrance which is off a separate avenue from the rest of the allotments on that row, so it is like walking into a ‘secret garden!’

This allotment was rented by an old gentleman for many years, who used to grow prize winning flowers on it year after year. This is why he has a fabulous old style glasshouse on the plot, which will be one of the first things that we restore, as since it is about three times of my greenhouse at home, it will a fabulous place for growing all my chillies.
Unfortunately the last person to sign the lease for the plot last year planted one tripod of beans and then buggered off.

So although it looks overgrown and derelict, with a little bit of elbow grease and patience, it will be up and running again in no time.

Since there is a lot of weeds on the plot that’s a good indication that the ground is still fertile, and amongst the undergrowth there are some fabulous fruit bushes, and also a raised her bed, so we’ll have to be careful when we’re chopping back around them. Also, since it is on the border of the allotment site there’s a line of mature fruit trees including apple, pear and cherry.

One of the first jobs on the new plot is to build an asparagus bed, as someone has given me six asparagus crowns, and I want to get them settled in as soon as possible.

However, in order to make it a little realistic, we have set ourselves six to nine months to get the new plot back to how it should be, as we’re keeping on our existing plot until March next year as we’ve already paid the rent for this year.

Our current allotment is doing very well, as you can see from the rows of garlic at the bottom of the picture, which continue out of shot to the bottom and to the left of the picture. I’m growing Tuscany Wight, Early Purple Wight, Lautrec Wight, Iberian Wight, Chesnok Wight, Albigensian Wight, Elephant Garlic and Solent Wight. ( I like garlic!)

Also out of shot is the frame of my polytunnel which was a casualty in the high winds at the end of last year, and since it was a ‘cheap and cheerful’ one the frame was a little bent of shape. However, in the best allotment tradition of ‘make do and mend’ it’ll be repaired with some gas pipe or similar. We also got down to the plot before the cover blew away, and miraculously it hadn’t torn, so that’s a job for next week.

I’ve also planted the rest of the potatoes, and also some peas and mangetout. I’m waiting to plant out the runner, broad and borlotti bean seedlings that are currently sitting in my greenhouse at home, as I’m sure we’re going to get a cold snap at some point and I don’t want to lose them.

However, the greenhouse is getting full with sweetcorn, rainbow chard, squash, broccoli, tomatoes, chillies, endive and melons all vying for the limited space in there! All the more reason to rebuild the polytunnel and get the glasshouse on the new plot restored.

The runner bean is a great British summer vegetable that is easy to grow and delicious to eat, but it seems that it has been forgotten by a large number of people, dismissed as old fashioned, probably because they have been used to it being boiled to within an inch of its life by generations of school cooks!

The number of households buying British runner beans is declining with only 12% of households buying runner beans during 2010, down 22.7% in the last 5 years. When you consider that over 85% of households buy carrots, the number of us enjoying great British runners just doesn’t measure up!

The British Bean & Pea Campaign contacted me as they are spearheading a runner bean revival, reminding us that runner beans are delicious, crunchy beans that are incredibly versatile!

They can be sown now, and most varieties should be ready to pick in July, and can continue until the first frosts, or sometimes even longer if the plant is protected.

Runner beans, and other beans are ideal if you only have a small garden. Firstly sow one seed about 4cm deep in a small pot filled with compost. Then either keep them in a greenhouse until they germinate, or line them up on a sunny windowsill. They should all have germinated within three weeks.

Once you’re ready to plant them out, fill a large planter up with compost, then make a wigwam with tall canes lashed together with string at the top. Then wind the string around the canes until you reach the bottom, tie it tightly and put this into the planter. Your runner bean seedlings can then be planted at the bottom of the canes, and they will happily climb up to the top of the wigwam all summer long.

So it’s time to re-discover this great, traditional British veg. Just remember that if you are boiling them, they need no longer than ten minutes to become tender, rather than the best part of the morning like the school cook used to do.

I know that I’m a little late to the party with this, but after seeing this on other people’s blogs, I thought it would be good for me to share my allotment based resolutions for the year, and also for me to look back in a year’s time to see how many have been achieved.

So far, I have decided that my resolutions are:-

1. I will bake bread at home more often. and also build a bread oven. I have always tried to bake bread at home, but last year, people were kind enough to send me some sourdough starters, so that has spurred me on to be more creative with my bread. Also, the ‘BBQ Man’ in me wants a bread oven in the garden!

2. Make my own sausages, salami and chorizo. I have already taken a step forward in this by taking delivery of my mincer and sausage maker! However, the local butcher looked at me like I was from planet Zog when I asked whether he could get the sausage casings for me, so I’ll have to order those online before getting creative.

3. Although I am writing a cookbook of my own, I now have enough cookbooks. I tell myself this every year, but I am now running out of shelf space, so this is one resolution I will have to keep to this year, otherwise I will be tripping over them.

4. Hatch my own chickens. After reading about other people’s exploits on Twitter, and also converting my wife so that she has now fallen in love with our ex-battery chickens, we have decided that we want to hatch our own. However, I think a little bit of reading and getting advice from other people is needed before we start on our chicken empire.

5. Plant lots of wildlife friendly flowers. This was a plan for this year, but time and other things meant that it was put on hold. However, we need to attract more bees and wildlife to the garden. Which nicely leads us onto ….

6. Keep bees. We have a hive on our allotment site, but my ultimate aim is for us to have a hive on our plot.

7. Forage for wild food. My allotment site has a plot where sloes are in abundance, and for some reason, the plotholder has no interest in using them. I’ve always made sloe gin and vodka, but after seeing what is out and about, I want to use more food from our wild larder in my cooking this year.

8. Get better at composting, feeding and sustaining my crops this year. I made a start on composting this year, but could definitely try harder this year.

…. and finally ….

9. I will not get seduced by the exotic sounding seeds in seed catalogues. So many times this year I have found myself saying ‘oooh that sounds nice,” just as I hit the send button to order the seeds. Then, later in the year, I found that I had run out of space to plant the stuff I originally wanted to!

So, that’s my resolutions for the year, and I wonder how many I will stick to?! Have any of you come up with food related resolutions for the year?

Hopefully, your New Year’s Resolution is the same as mine last year, and that you have decided to get an allotment and to grow more of your own fruit and vegetables.

Taking on a new plot can be daunting, especially if it has been left and not cultivated for a while by its previous occupants.

It is always useful to have a book to guide you along the way. Those nice people at New Holland Publishing have sent me a copy of their new book, The Allotment Source Book by Caroline Foley which will help you on your way.

Before I start the review I’d like to make clear that I have received no payment other than a free copy of the book for posting this review, and the discount code mentioned at the end of this review is for readers of the blog, and I do not receive any commission for sales.

The Allotment Source Book is a hefty size, and weighs in at 384 pages, but it is split into manageable chunks, guiding you along the way.

The book gives you tips of how to find and choose a plot in the first place. This can be a potential minefield as allotments are now definitely more popular than in the past, and have definitely shed their ‘flat cap’ image!

You are then given a full guide on how to manage the soil and prepare the ground for your first crops, so that your seeds have the best chance of survival when you sow them. This chapter includes tips on how to check your soil’s PH, what type of soil it is, and how to improve its structure by compost or green manure.

By this point in the book, you’re probably itching to get planting, but the next chapter in the book reminds you that it is a VERY good idea to make a planting plan first, and how to practice ‘crop rotation’ so that you avoid a build up of pests and diseases in the soil.

It then moves on to tips on how to buy your seeds and plug plants, and there is a massive 124 page directory towards the end of the book, which gives information about different varieties of vegetables, fruit and herbs, and gives lots of detailed information about which varieties to buy, when to plant them and how quickly you will be able to harvest them and enjoy the fruits of your labours!

It also gives you tips on how to make cold frames, hotbeds, and nursery beds, so again your plants are given the best possible start in life, and also helpful hints about harvesting and storage.

You’re then taken through the ‘allotment year’ with a comprehensive guide for each month on what’s in season, what you should be planting, all those other jobs you should be tackling to make sure that you keep on top of your plot, and also how to deal with those annoying pests and diseases, which always seem to crop up, no matter how careful you are.

This book is perfect for all types of plotholder, or for the person who grows veg in their garden, from the non-working person who can spend time every day caring for their plot to the busy parent and worker who only has an hour or two at the weekend, and has enough information to make sure this is one New Year’s Resolution that you stick to!

The Allotment Source Book by Caroline Foley is available from New Holland Publishers. If you enter the discount code WGOO at the checkout before 31st March 2011 you will also be able to receive 20% off and free P&P.

So while that resolution is still fresh in your mind, grab a copy of the book, and make sure this year is the year that you enjoy your own homegrown fruit and veg!

My Heritage Seed Library catalogue from Garden Organic for 2011 arrived in the post today.

As a member of the Heritage Seed Library I am allowed to make 6 choices from this list of vegetable varieties which are no longer commercially available, and can choose whether to receive a 7th ‘Lucky Dip’ packet as well.

Like a lot of HSL members I’m concerned by the control big business has over the food chain and the resulting loss of biodiversity. The Heritage Seed Library work to safeguard rare vegetable varieties, that were once the mainstay of British, European and American gardens.

This only costs £20 (or £15 if you join Garden Organic at the same time) which is a bit of a bargain when you think that these are seed varieties that you cannot find elsewhere.

Even better is this year sees the return of the informal Seed Swap section run between members themselves. This is at the back of the catalogue, and not only contains varieties that are in the catalogue, but also others that aren’t because Garden Organic did not have enough seeds.

So for your £20, you could end up getting quite of a lot of veg for your cash, which makes it a great idea if you are looking for a last minute Xmas gift for a kitchen gardener.

As you will have picked up from yesterday’s post, I’m a big fan of Cafe Direct’s ‘Sow Your Own’ campaign.


So taking their ideas to heart, I started to have a look around what the previous tenants of our allotment had left behind.

My eyes lit up when I saw some solid old drawers from an old chest of drawers, and I immediately knew what I could do with them. I took the bottoms out of them, unscrewed the handles, and put them to use as raised beds!

It was obviously meant to be, as they are the same height as the other raised beds on my plot and fit in perfectly!

These were put to use straight away, and I planted my baby ‘Red Top’ turnip seedlings in the new raised beds.

I then turned my attention to what I could use at home to plant some more salad, as I like to do successional sowings throughout the summer to have a continuous supply.

For some bizarre reason, the previous owner of our house left behind one tyre, which had been lurking at the back of the garage for some time, and everytime I saw it, I made a mental note to get rid of it.

However, after a bit of hadywork, and a quick paint job, I had a nice little planter for the next sowing of my salad.

I’ve now got my eyes on the colander in the kitchen for my next ‘Sow Your Own’ creation, but I think my better half will break my fingers if I try!

The lottie took a back seat this week, as I had to pot on the numerous chilli plants from the 19 different varieties of chillies that I’m growing this year.

I was worried earlier this year that the majority of the crop was going to fail, as they took such a long time to get going compared to last year. It must have been the long winter/cold spring, as they have most definitely cranked into life. It is a good job, as I’m now reaching the end of last year’s crop which were either dried, pickled or frozen, as I had more chillies than I knew what to do with at that point.

A lifesaver last year was finding out that I could freeze the surplus chillies that I had by spreading them out individually on baking trays and putting them in the freezer. When they are frozen, you just bag them up, and pop them in the freezer, and they don’t stick together or turn into mush. When you need one, all you do is take it out of the freezer bag, run it under the hot tap to defrost it, and then use it as normal.

Now that I’ve wrote this, I have a craving for some pickled chillies, so I’m off to dip into my final (very large) jar of them!