Save a Pound and Grow in the Ground

With every weekly shop at my local supermarket i cant help but notice that the prices of fresh vegetables have rocketed in price to an all time high……………….and quite honestly i think its disgusting.

When we are trying to encourage families to eat healthy foods and eat there “5 a-day” the main stay of the basic staple diet is costing us a fortune, and the vegetables we buy as fresh are sometimes up to a week old by the time they make it to the store shelves.

A couple of years ago before the prices went crazy i decided to start growing my own vegetables at home in my own back garden and had great success and without the need of an acre of land to do it.

These days you can pick up a packet of lettuce seed for less than a pound and get a full years crop from just the one packet, in my garden i grow a range of lettuce, cabbage, carrots, beans, peas, beetroot and the sort of common veg i enjoy to have with my Sunday lunch and excess amounts of salad dishes in the summer months.

I grow my lettuce in monthly intervals to ensure i have a constant supply for when i need it and i also grow some in a window box for the use of being able to pick the young shoots for garnishing my salads etc, the lettuce and other vegetables in my garden are grown organically without the use of any harmful pesticides or insecticides thus adding to the extra taste and well being of my crop, as i suffer from slug attack (just like any other gardener will do on this planet) i prefer to use the simple lager trap in my garden, i simply half fill a plastic beaker with lager (any brand will do as slugs are not too fussy) and sink it into the soil at ground level and this attracts the slugs to it, they fall into the beaker and drown (what a way to go!) when there’s enough candidates in the beaker simply dispose of the contents and start again…………its that simple!

I have found that butterfly’s cant resist the likes of my cabbage and cauliflowers so i check my crop everyday for the sign of eggs, when i find them i simply rub them off the leaves with my thumb crushing them in the process, butterfly’s don’t eat the crops but there caterpillars do so getting rid of the eggs breaks the reproductive cycle.

When growing carrots i prefer to do so by growing them in an old plastic dust bin filled with fresh crumbly soil from my garden with a little used compost mixed in, keeping them off ground level prevents them being attacked by the dreaded ‘carrot root fly’ as these little devils can only fly around an inch or two above ground level they cant make it to my treasured carrots planted safely in the bin.

Peas and beans are a must in my plot and i grow them angled against the wall of my home with a layer of pea netting over the top to keep the local bird population at bay as you can guarantee once the pods are nice and ripe ready for the picking the damned birds would always beat me to it and have there lunch first!

Beetroot is another favourite of mine and i grow them in planters on my patio area alongside my potatoes which are also grown in large planters, i find this a lot easier than growing them in the ground as you can harvest them when you need them without having to grab the garden spade and dig the garden up and there unusual foliage always makes a good talking point during barbecues in the summer, i love picking my beetroot at the baby stage when they are the size of golf balls, they are great when pickled in jars and i always share them amongst my neighbours

This is just a view on how i like to have my five a day safe in the knowledge that what i am eating truly is fresh, and has no food miles attached whatsoever, once i harvest from the garden it travels ten feet into my home and straight onto the dinner plate…………………………..and it tastes delicious!

So why not take a leaf from my book, grow fresh, eat fresh and save a fortune on your weekly shop too.