Growing Fruit/Vegetables

Strawberries Really fresh fruit and vegetables picked straight from the garden have a flavour second to none. Every small garden or patio can produce some healthy vegetables even if you need to grow them in pots.

If you have children or grandchildren growing vegetables is a great way to get them to help you sow the seed, identify the plants from the weeds and get to gather, cook and eat them. Perhaps Jamie Oliver will soon persuade our schools to grow vegetables as part of our children’s education. Why don’t you start growing fruit and vegetables in your own small way? You won’t be disappointed.

Vegetable plot or allotment

A traditional plot devoted solely to fruit and vegetables is a luxury in most small domestic gardens, but well worth the space. If you have enough room such as an allotment you can grow all the fruit and vegetables that appear in the seed catalogues, selecting the tastiest varieties that provide unusual servings.

Unless you have space to spare, avoid growing maincrop potatoes, as a wide variety of them are always on sale in every supermarket at reasonable prices. Instead, grow your favourites such as asparagus (always expensive to buy) peas (picked fresh they taste different to anything you’ve ever bought) and pull carrots early (when they are bursting with flavour). You can also try the exotics that are rarely found in the shops such as globe artichokes, salisfy and scorzonera.

Improve your soil whenever you can, following the directions in the ‘Improving Soil’ section of this site.

Move your vegetables around your plot so that they are not grown in the same spot year after year. In this way you can avoid encouraging soil pests and diseases and provide the right nutrients and conditions that keep your soil in general good heart. The same crop on the same spot will lead to unbalancing of nutrient reserves and is best avoided. Follow a crop rotation plan for long term cropping.

Group 1: The cabbage family of brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, sprouts, cauliflower, swede, turnip).

Group 2: Root vegetables (beetroot, carrots, parsnips, potato, salsify).

Group 3: Others (beans, leek, onion, pea, spinach, sweet corn and tomato).

Many allotment owners follow the standard 3 year crop rotation system so that the same type of vegetables are not grown on the same spot year after year. Divide your plot into 3 sections and each year grow a different group of vegetables on each.

Prepare each plot differently. The area for Group 1 (brassica) crops should have manure or garden compost dug into the soil in Winter and the surface dressed with lime unless you know the balance is already alkaline. Dress the soil with a general purpose plant food such as Miracle-Gro Controlled Release Plant Food or Miracle-Gro Organic Choice Fruit & Vegetables Plant Food about 2 weeks before sowing or planting out brassicas.

The area for Group 2 (root vegetable) plants needs no manure or lime, just some balanced plant foods before sowing or planting the ‘Other’ group of vegetables.

A separate area for Group 3 (other) crops should have plenty of manure or garden compost incorporated into the soil when digging and a general purpose plant food worked into the surface about 2 weeks before sowing or planting your root vegetables.

Move the crops on one plot so that the same vegetables are not growing on the same area. As you can see from the chart below, last year’s area for brassicas should be prepared and used to grow root crops in year 2. In year 3 it should be used for ‘others’, reverting to brassicas in year 4, and so on.

Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4
Brassicas	Root Vegetables	Others	Brassicas
Others	Brassicas	Root Vegetables	Others
Roots	Others	Brassicas	Root Vegetables

Flower borders

Growing a few tomatoes, lettuce, herbs and carrots between your flowers will add another dimension to your flower border which can also be backed by raspberry canes, blackberry plants interspersed with gooseberry bush or blackcurrant. Brightest veg in Winter will be chard ‘Bright Lights’ with yellow and red stems that deserve front line display space in December.

The keen vegetable grower however can usually find some extra space at the back of a flower bed where tucked away he or she can plant less attractive but worthwhile crops such as sprouts, cabbage, leeks and parsnips.

Pots, Tubs and Containers

The original container for growing fruit and vegetables on a patio or balcony was the Fisons Original Gro Bag. 25 years after its introduction, you can now find bigger and better growing bags that produce even better crops. The Levington Tomorite Giant Planter with Seaweed contains seaweed and nutrients for a tasty crop of tomatoes. The Levington Organic Blend Giant Vegetable Planter is enriched with organic nutrients to produce an amazing crop of tomatoes, peppers and aubergines. There is even a Levington Organic Blend Strawberry Giant Planter so you can pick your own organic soft fruit at home.

Now that patios are so popular there is no reason why you can’t grow tasty and convenient vegetables and fruit throughout the Summer. Any container will do as long as it has sufficient drainage. Terracotta may look good, but it takes more watering than a plastic one. With vegetable growing the bigger the container the better. It provides a good cool root run and watering is required less often.

Most plants will grow well in a John Innes compost that contains a good proportion of loam because this is a heavy compost that will firmly anchor the pot in place and is good for tall growing crops. Sow seeds in Levington John Innes Seed Compost and transplant the seedlings into Levington John Innes No.1 Compost. When large enough, pot up in their final growing containers filled with Levington John Innes No.3 Compost - a potting compost that is rich in nutrients that will grow plants to final maturity.

Potatoes are the only crop that grow better in an ericaceous compost. That’s because the tubers are more susceptible to a disfiguring skin disease called scab when they are grown in a neutral or alkaline medium. The rest of the commonly grown vegetables will grow happily in standard potting composts.