GARDENING

Grow Your Own

By Emma Sousa

As I sit and write this, we are just moving into a new phase of easing the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, which shocked us all, despite the fact we knew they were coming, but which strangely now seem part of normal life. It has certainly been a strange year so far but one of the good things to come from these trying times we are going through is that many of us have discovered how wonderful our gardens are and, for those without a garden, how wonderful being outdoors really is. There has been an online dash for seeds, seedlings and all sorts of gardening goodies. Compost has literally been like gold dust and during the peak of lockdown you couldn’t find it anywhere. I had dahlia tubers still sitting in storage in mid-May because I couldn’t get hold of compost to pot them up - which I usually do some time in March depending on how organised I am! People were literally going crazy for their gardens and what with the quite frankly wonderful weather we have had during the last few months, those lucky enough to have access to a green space in the form of an allotment, garden or park have been very spoilt indeed.

Of course, what has made this all much easier is that people have had to time to spend planning and working on their little pieces of paradise. This goes for me too, because usually at this time of year I am so busy working on my wedding commitments (I’m a florist for those of you that don’t know) whilst juggling the other side of my business, which is growing seasonal flowers on my little London flower patch. This year I have had more time to manage the watering and weeding and sowing of seeds, potting them on and planting them out… you get the idea, but what has also been lovely is having the time to plan my teeny tiny home garden vegetable plot and grow healthy seedlings (and not leave them

to shrivel up in the greenhouse because I don’t have time to water them). Each night I have been there like a trooper, watering the vegetable beds before I sit down for the night, and each morning I am sowing more seeds and potting on the seedlings before hardening them off and planting them outside. It has been such a pleasure rather than the task it can sometimes feel like when you’re so busy and so tired, that I seriously could get used to a life pottering around my garden and cooking all the wonderful things from its bounty … nothing quite beats walking to the greenhouse to snip some fresh rocket or basil for our dinner!

Another thing that has come out of the lockdown is that a lot of people have been experimenting with cooking and new flavours … and I love food! It’s in my top five most important things in my life and is one of my greatest pleasures (more the eating than the cooking to be honest). My biggest problem is usually not having the time to spend on cooking, so again it has been fantastic in recent months coming up with new dishes and just enjoying the process rather than rushing to get food on the table at the end of a long day.

I think gardening has been a real life saver for some - something to occupy their minds, maybe while missing their families and friends, and I hope that the joy of being outside and spending time escaping from our ever more stressful lives will continue now that things are slowly returning to some sort of normal (the new normal of course!).

This year I have definitely focused on a more productive way of growing and using the space more efficiently - since giving up my allotments (again there was no time to manage them in the end) I have a much smaller space to grow in so it’s all about vertical growing and container growing for me. Spinach is growing in pots (keep sowing every couple of weeks for a continual harvest throughout the summer months), salad leaves such as rocket and lettuce I have simply been growing in small seedling trays in the greenhouse, sowing every few weeks and cutting them young and fresh as and when I need them: they are literally cut and then eaten within a few minutes! We have courgettes and cucumbers growing vertically up canes behind the outdoor tomatoes and broccoli plants.

The strawberries this year have taken off - they tend to do better the second year round as does the Portuguese cabbage we grow to feed our hens and make the delicious Portuguese Green Soup or Calde Verde as it’s known (two out of three of my kids would eat this everyday if I made it!). Various herbs are growing in just about every pot going - chives, mint, thyme, rosemary, sage and basil to name a few and planted amongst the beds we have pots of nasturtiums, which is an edible plant with a peppery taste to the leaves and the most beautiful flowers that you can pop into your salads - these have been sown as a sacrificial plant, as white cabbage butterflies will lay their eggs on these rather than on the brassicas. And although we did have a bit of a caterpillar infestation at the end of May, that seems to have disappeared come June thank goodness.

Calendula and chives grow amongst other crops as they are also supposed to

help ward off pests. Sweet peas grow up the side of our hen house just because they are so beautiful and I love to cut them for our table - they are so worth growing even in a pot up against a sunny wall and they are so giving as long as you keep cutting them. The dwarf beans and runner beans grow towards the back of the raised beds giving beautiful flowers - red for the runner beans and lilac for the dwarf beans.

It’s so beautiful in my little veggie plot and I can’t tell you how good it makes you feel to grow and cut and eat produce you have grown yourself - and yes, you might think, “Is that it? Is that all you get from all that hard work?”. Just remember you get so much more than good wholesome food - you get tranquillity and satisfaction and it’s literally like therapy - people pay good money to get the same results that getting out and growing stuff gives you. Whether you have a large garden that means you can spare a few metres to put in some beds or if you just grow out of a few containers on your balcony or by the front door - do it! It’s so rewarding and honestly so good for your mental wellbeing. The act of nurturing something from seed to plate is like nothing else … it makes you feel alive. Ok, maybe I sound weird, but when you know, you know, right?

Below I have some top tips for creating veggie beds without too much backbreaking work (maybe just a little at first) and a few top tips of having a more eco-friendly garden set up that you can enjoy and use for many years to come …

The most important thing is to choose a growing area that gets at least six to eight hours of sunshine each day. My plot is part sunny and part shady throughout the day but it just about works to grow pretty much anything. Location is everything and although my particular space is not the best, I make it work: planting the cabbage in the shadier part for example, where it seems to get on just fine - tomatoes wouldn’t thrive in that part because it’s too shady for them. - Beds can be laid direct onto the ground or in raised beds. There are advantages to both but I grow my veggies in raised beds and pots. This makes it easier to weed and maintain, they warm up far faster at the front end of the season but they do need a bit more watering as they dry out a little quicker than other beds. They do however seem a little less daunting than large expanses of soil that quickly get covered in weeds and I would definitely recommend starting with a few raised beds to get you going! - The method for both beds is the same - start by laying down a thick layer of cardboard (packing boxes with the tape removed do the trick). This suppresses the weeds. And you can literally put card straight onto grass, there is no need to remove the top layer. On top of that, if you are having raised beds lay your ‘walls’ down – wood or metal, there are a variety of things you can use. I have corrugated coated beds - they look really nice and they will last a long time but if you don’t have the money to spend on ready-made structures, some wooden pallets would also work. It’s important to make sure you line them so they don’t rot and don’t forget to leave drainage at the bottom so water can go deep into the ground rather than sitting on the

liner. Sleepers also work well but not old sleepers as they will leach chemicals into the ground. Do make sure that any wood you use has not been treated with harmful chemicals - the idea is to attract nature not harm it! I NEVER use chemicals to get rid of weeds etc - it can really harm the biodiversity of your soil and wild animals or pets can become seriously ill if they touch or eat something which has been treated. Learn to love weeds - ok, horsetail or couch grass is not really a great thing to battle with but dandelions for example are the first food the bees will go for in the early spring - so leave them be and let everyone enjoy them. Also, the leaves and flowers of dandelions actually are edible - Google it and you will be surprised how you can use them although as I said I leave mine for the bees! - Over your cardboard lay a good layer of compost (at least 20cms and 30cms if you can afford to) and over that a layer of mulch - well rotted manure or I use our garden compost. The worms will work their magic but you can pretty much plant straight into a newly laid bed with shallow rooted crops after it’s been allowed to settle for a week or two, provided the manure you are using is very well rotted. - The depth of your beds will depend on personal choice - if you want to grow crops such as potatoes or carrots that have a deep root system then you will need to have beds that are slightly deeper. For things such as lettuces, spinach etc you can get away with shallower beds. - I would always suggest keeping a corner of the garden where you can set up a couple of compost bins - so much waste gets thrown away otherwise. In my household nothing ever goes to waste. If the chickens don’t eat it, it goes into the compost bins (we are a meat free household so literally everything goes in there including newspaper and dog hair - don’t ever put meat or fish or raw eggs onto the heap or you will attract rats). You can bake your eggshells and either use them to sprinkle around new seedlings to keep the slugs off or add them to the compost but only after they have ben baked. Every year we get loads of beautiful compost to top up the raised beds, feeding the soil and putting everything good back that we have taken out - which is exactly how it should be. So, once you have set up your beds and maybe paid for new top soil to start them off you should then be self-sufficient by producing your own compost to top the beds up each year. If you don’t have the space for compost heaps then look into getting a wormery - they take up much less space and produce feed much faster than a traditional compost bin. The key thing is not to waste anything! Re-use, re-cycle, re-purpose! - Collect rain water. Water butts - you can never have too many - most councils offer cut price butts and compost bins because they actively encourage you to re-use and re-cycle. You can also use your grey water to keep the garden hydrated in the summer months. Again, Google is a great place to search for easy methods to do this. - Have little wild areas if you can - we have log piles, bug hotels (another lockdown project with my son), hedgehog houses (an upturned clay pot that has broken makes a great hedgehog house), lots of covered areas where wildlife can shelter and feel safe. Try and grow a few flowers amongst your

beds - foxgloves for example come back year after year, tolerate some shade and are an early source of food for the bees. Borage is another great plant - easy to grow from seed, great for wildlife and you can use the flowers to decorate your salads or to add to your G & T or Pimm’s - it also encourages pollination and is great planted next to pumpkins, squash, strawberries or tomatoes. Chives as I mentioned before are a great companion plant to keep away some pests, plus you can use them in your cooking and they have beautiful flowers that the bees love too. I am also growing wild garlic this year - it has pretty white flowers and flat leaves which have a subtle garlic flavour and sprinkled raw over your food it’s high in Vitamin C … what’s not to like! - And just a quick word on wildlife ... leave some dishes of water out for the birds, bees, foxes, hedgehogs etc, especially with the hot weather that we are getting these last few years. Feed the birds (all through the year) and encourage them into the garden. We have so many birds that come to feed and nest in ours that sometimes the noise can literally be deafening at night when they are going to sleep, but they are such a joy to watch bathing in a tiny little dish. Please don’t forget our fellow animals with whom we share our planet, they are so very important to us and to maintain a healthy and biodiverse planet, and we need to protect them as much as we can. And as always enjoy!

July Jobs at the Veggie Patch

You can still sow this month ... French beans (last chance), sow your autumn and winter Swiss chard towards the back end of the month. Keep sowing salad leaves - rocket, lettuces etc - and you Keep watering and do regular checks for pests. Keep harvesting courgettes while they are young (or you will have lots of marrows!) and keep picking those beans otherwise they become tough and stringy. If you grow flowers now is the time to sow your biennials (foxgloves, wallflowers, Sweet Williams, honesty and Icelandic poppies).

Most importantly get out and enjoy! Any questions you may have please email me at hello@urbanflowerfarmer.com