The Kitchen Gardener: Grow Your Own Fruit and Veg

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I also harvested brussel sprouts which I overwintered. Somehow the cold enriches and intensifies the flavors. Most of them made it through the winter without rotting or dying. I learned too that the best sprouts come from survivors who were more deeply buried in leaf mulch.

All you need to do is pop your scraps in the base of the regrow kit, which should be submerged in water. Place the kit in a sunny spot and keep an eye on the water levels every few days. After a few weeks, you should notice some growth, at which stage you can transfer your veggies to a plant pot. How do I start a small kitchen garden? Penny Hemming, head gardener at Riverford Organic, offers this basic recipe for a nice, crumbly, rich-smelling and loose textured compost that makes a fantastic soil conditioner within six months:Shallow (6 – 12 inches/15 – 30 cm): Beet, broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, celery, greens & herbs, onion, pepper, radish, and spinach. These garden beds need to be kept moist.

Choose an area you can get to easily,’ says Sarah Mead, head gardener at Yeo Valley Organic Garden. ‘That way you can harvest and add successional plantings throughout the season. Don’t be afraid to mix edibles and ornamentals for a really interesting display.’ So I planted this week. I put in seeds for all the early spring vegetables: lettuces in abundance, spinach, French arugula, microgreens galore, kale, Swiss chard, pac choi, radishes, peas. There are 16 garden plant families, but the eight most prominent vegetable families include most of the plants.

Tomato seeds

Potatoes– Plant chitted seed potatoes in the ground or containers – early varieties in late March and main crops in April, ready to harvest in 10 to 13 weeks. They grow best in fertile, slightly acidic loose soil, and need regular watering. M. D. (1901) "Formation of the Fruit and Kitchen Garden", in: Thompson, Robert The Gardener's Assistant; new edition, revised ... under the direction and general editorship of William Watson. Vol. IV, pp.1–32. London: Gresham Publishing Company.