Shirley Lanigan says the rewards of growing your own vegetables are many. Even if it won’t solve your financial problems, the satisfaction from growing your own vegetables, herbs or fruit is enormous.
Will growing vegetables be the saving of the nation? Is it at all possible that getting back to nature will prevent our going to the fiscal wall? Can we dig our way to victory, either on an allotment, in the back garden or on a balcony? Of course we can’t. Growing a few spuds is not going to rid us of the woes that government, unfettered market economics and greed have landed us in.
But even so, the garden is arguably the best place to take troubled minds off dwindling bank balances, disappearing pensions and tottering career prospects. It is the perfect retreat in which to recharge before getting back out and into the fray.
h4. Something special
There is something special about eating something home grown – from a modest few herbs sprinkled over the dinner, a rhubarb tart made with sticks from your own patch or a full-blown feast made up entirely of vegetables, fruit and herbs grown by you from seed and scratch.
The satisfaction enjoyed from the diversion and exercise of growing vegetables is not just multiplied, but it is squared and even cubed when you bring the resulting crops into the kitchen. It may not be saving the planet but you will do yourself physical and mental good growing vegetables. And the chef will thank you.
Those who already grow food know and have always known these things. But anyone who has yet to try, should do so. A few hours work and a few weeks waiting is all that it takes to get hooked.
h4. Growth is everywhere
The real experts and enthusiasts started off months ago getting ready to begin growing this year’s vegetables as soon as spring arrived. But leave the experts to their own devices. Early May is as good as any time to start. The ground is warm. The temperatures have risen and growth is everywhere.
This is a perfect time to plant seed. It will germinate quickly, grow like lightening and by the end of June there will already be a few crops ready for harvest as you wait for others to mature. Start with salads. The reasons for beginning with these are many: Firstly, lettuce, in all its guises is almost foolproof to grow. It grows fast and unlike many vegetables, it can be planted anywhere you have a bit of space. It can also be planted in the same spot for several years and does not require rotating in the way many crops do — in order to prevent a build-up of diseases and pests in the soil.
Planted in containers or window boxes, it is possible to be self sufficient in lettuce with nothing more than a windowsill. Into the bargain, you can begin to pick baby leaves a few short weeks after planting the seed. Pulling and eating these makes space for the reduced number of remaining plants to grow bigger and fatten up.
Depending on the space available to you, choose about three of four complimentary varieties. Mix green and red leaves, strong substantial cos-types with softer, loose-leaf and butter-head varieties and some strong tasting endives. Include rocket for a peppery taste and, if space allows, a few Chinese leaves will widen the palette again.
h4. Specially chosen
If working on a small scale, rather than splashing out on a lot of separate packets of each, buy specially chosen mixes of seed. There are thousands of seeds in one packet.
Something to remember with a crop like rocket is that you will rarely need to sow rocket seed for a second year. Rather like parsley, once introduced, it self-seeds around the garden, springing up in unlikely areas in future years and providing free crops. Considering the price of a few wilted rocket stalks in the supermarket, it would be mad not to grow rocket.
If planting directly into the soil, start by digging over the area, removing all weeds including the roots. Rake the ground to take out the stones. Then firm down the area to level and rid it of air pockets.
If the ground is in any way fertile, lettuce will be happy to grow without the addition of fertilizer but some well rotted farmyard manure dug in will always be welcome.
Gluts of any crop are a curse. The secret of growing is to sow little and often.
Draw a stick across the plot making a drill about 1cm deep. Water the drill and sprinkle the seed lightly along it. Cover it with a light dusting of soil and label it. A metre-length drill sown every two weeks through the summer will give enough leaves to feed a family right up to winter.
h4. Initial thinning
The reasons for growing in straight lines are mainly aesthetic. Doing this also allows you recognize the crop as it begins to grow — preventing it being mistaken for the weeds, as there will be plenty of those too. An initial thinning can be made in the line when the little plants are about 10cm tall.
After that, simply cutting or pinching out a few leaves along the length of the row, but leaving the roots in place will allow the plants re-sprout as they are harvested. This is called the Cut-and-Come method of cropping. It is much more productive than simply pulling the whole plant out of the ground. (There is a particularly militant group among Vegans who believes that cut-and-come is the only justifiable way of eating plants. The reasoning is that they do not ‘kill’ the plant while raiding it for food).
Summer spinach is another easy crop that can be sown now. Unlike lettuce it does need a fertile soil. But on the plus side, given our climate, it does not need too much sun. In fact, in full sun it germinates very badly and runs to seed too quickly. Disliking hot dry conditions, its instincts are to set seed and reproduce quickly before it shrivels and dies in the heat. The unremitting rain last year made it a great year for spinach in Irish gardens. But assuming we will enjoy a decent summer this year, choose a moist, slightly shaded soil for best results. Plant it about 3cms deep and keep it well watered.
Spinach beet, also known as Swiss chard, is a less demanding plant than true spinach. It too can be sown now in the same way as spinach. When it grows, thin it so that there are about 16 cms between each plant. The baby leaves can be eaten while the remaining developing plants will deliver right up to next spring. There are several varieties of chard with beautiful red and gold stalks, making it a crop that can earn its keep in a flower border or decorative container garden.
h4. A great vegetable
Beetroot is another crop that can be sown now and in staggered stages up to July. Many of us in the past few years have discovered that there is more to beetroot than the beetroot we grew up on – the pickled slices from a jar.
I would not want to make little of that eye-watering salad beetroot which I still love but it was like revelation when I eventually experienced beetroot — warm, sweet, steamed and tossed in butter. This was a horse of a different colour. Beetroot is one of the greatest vegetables. Thankfully it is also one of the simplest to grow.
Responding to the new-found interest, seed companies are now offering a wider range of beetroot varieties to the gardener in a range of colours — including yellow and white, as well as red and white striped. Actually the red and white striped varieties were always with us but considered to be unwelcome, flawed aberrations.
Today, we seek them out as an interesting variation. I am trying a striped variety called ‘Barbietola di Chioggia’ this year.
h4. Italian
A good number of the more interesting and tastiest vegetable varieties available today are Italian. This is good but remember that coming from warmer climates, some might need slightly better shelter to thrive than tougher varieties bred in Ireland and Britain.
Beetroot seeds generally come in little clusters. Soak them for an hour or two before sowing and they should germinate faster. In any case, in six weeks the baby beets will be ready to lift and eat.
Keep sowing small numbers up to mid-summer and the later sown batches can be left in the ground for use over winter. Beetroot is a great winter vegetable.
Again, as with spinach, make sure not to let beetroot seedlings dry out. If not watered sufficiently, beetroot can taste woody and the globes will obviously, not develop greatly.
Sow it, like spinach about 3cm deep. The leaves of thinned plants can be eaten in salads, steamed of stir-fried.
h4. Make notes
Finally, make notes of the varieties you found particularly tasty, strong-growing and trouble-free so you will remember to include these in your next year’s vegetable garden. Also of those you would prefer not to grow again.
About Gary Culliton
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