It is interesting to see the new trend of gardening where more gardeners are turning their hands to growing their own vegetables because of the constant bombardment of “food scares” as a result of chemicals being used on our food.

There has been a definite regeneration of allotment gardening and seed companies are finding that sales of vegetable seed as well as fruit seed is far surpassing those of ornamental plants. 

However, not everyone has the facility of an allotment or even a large garden for growing a variety of vegetables, but that does not mean that vegetable growing is impossible for those with little or no space.  Everyone can grow vegetables even if it is just outside your back door or on your windowsill of the kitchen.

Seed merchants are now catering for the ‘small space’ vegetable grower and there are many new additions to the market with new ranges called ‘Pots of Flavour’ and ‘Patio Veg’ and a considerable amount of work is being done by these companies to promote ‘cut and come again salads’ which are container grown.  These salads can have surprisingly good results even when grown in relatively small pots and are extremely successful if they are grown in the the Rootrainer propagation trays (Compact Rapid, Rapid and Sherwood) where they can be left and harvested as and when needed.

A steady supply of herbs to add zest to cooking can be sown either on the windowsill in small pots or using the Rowplanter or in Rootrainer propagation trays where once again they can be left and harvested at will.

Early peas are extremely easy to grow and can be sown in October or November as well as in February and March.  ‘Feltham First’, ‘Deuce Provence’ and ‘Meteor’ are extremely hardy varieties which can be sown directly into the ground before covering with cloches or alternatively they can be sown in Rootrainers cell trays (either Sherwood or Fleet) in the greenhouse and planted out next spring.  The beauty of using Rootrainers propagation trays is that you do not need to re-pot or disturb the young plants until it is time to transplant and then the hinged cells can be opened and the contents can be transplanted intact.

An even better start for peas is to sow them into The Rowplanter and when ready to transplant just prepare a trench and gently slide the whole row of plants out into the trench with absolutely no root disturbance at all. (The Rowplanter is a modern approach to the old method of gutter planting).

For more information about growing beans, carrots and parsnips, herbs all the year round, tomatoes, sweetcorn, leeks and garlic please follow the highlighted links