Growing Your Own Food – Container Gardening
Cold wet and windy, March has announced itself in traditional blustery style! For those of us with a garden to tend the busy season has begun in earnest, with pruning, planting and potting high on the long and ever increasing list of jobs.
The Good Life
Now is the time to seriously consider the benefits of growing some food. Most DIY outlets and garden centres have an almost overwhelming choice of ‘grow-your-own’ paraphernalia, but armed with an assortment of boxes, tubs, pots and containers, some compost and a few packets of seeds we have managed to produce our own vegetables fruit and herbs for a number of years now with a minimal outlay.
It is most satisfying tucking into a Sunday lunch with a pile of delicious home grown vegetables or a lovely home grown salad. Herbs too are an easy to grow and attractive addition to any garden and as you generally only need a handful or a few leaves in recipes it is a great money saver too.
No Wheelbarrow Required
Growing food in containers is not just a good idea if you are short of space, it is also a very practical way of minimising the physical effort that more traditional kitchen garden plots can involve. With less bending and digging, much easier weeding and pest control, and the delightful option of having your garden right outside your back door you can easily pull a few carrots for lunch without venturing too far out into the cold.
What to Grow?
There are many online resources, television programmes and an enormous amount of literature available but I would recommend as a starting place for ‘container gardening’ you take a look at http://www.container-gardening-for-food.com . Most national newspapers have a gardening calendar too offering advice on what to plant and when to plant it.
Harvest Time
Look for good croppers – seeds that offer a high yield and don’t forget to keep sowing throughout the planting season so that you can enjoy the fruits of your labours again and again. Food really does taste so much better when you have grown it yourself!
