Grow Your Own....

As some of you know by now this year I decided that I wanted to grow some of my own food. Now this has been a bit hit and miss because I only have a landing outside my apartment which only gets sunlight for a few hours a day, not only this everyone who lives on my floor has to walk past my plants to get to there apartments.

I have learnt a few things about growing your own that I thought I would share with you.

1. You have to think small to be big. When your growing food in a space that has little or no room the best way is up and down, go for beans, this plant is happy climbing up a wall. You could even go for potatoes mine are planted in a bit of a big pot but you could plant them in a tall trash can, this also makes it easier to turn the tub around if you only get limited light.

2. Plant flowers that you can eat, you get something to look at as well as something to put on your salad at the end of the day.

3. Plant it and see… the photo above is of my pumpkin, I was eating one the other night that looked really nice, the seeds where just sitting there on the chopping board and I thought what the hell. I planted 4 and one came up, this leads me onto my next point…

4. Plant more than you think you will need, they do die or get damaged by yourself and others, as I said lots of people walk past my plants its only logical that some would be broken. It can be sad when this happens but you will find it easier if there are lots of plants growing.

5. Only plant things that you will eat… you will find starter seeds for everything in your local store, you will get great plans and want to grow everything, I don’t like radishes so please someone tell me why I bought them to grow? I was told they were very easy to grow but as I don’t eat them they are now taking up space that I could grow other things in.

6. Make it look nice… your neighbours will like you more if it looks nice and has nice flowers, and don’t forget they may help themselves to some of your crop, it’s a small price to pay.

7. Ask for help, it may be your idea but trust me it helps if you have someone to help with the watering and they will get as much out of it as you do.

8. Ask people at work if they want some of your extra seeds and in return they can give you some back when the plants produce some later in the year. Seed swapping is fun and its good to see how others get on with the same seeds as you…

So this is a small in site to the life of a very small veg holders plot, I will post some more photos later so you can have a look at some of my great plants.

Happy growing (even if its just ideas)

Bear. x