 Friday, April 24, 2009 by Barbara Pleasant (7 comments)
Around 1570, potatoes brought back from South America by gold-hungry conquistadors were fed to a group of prisoners in Seville, Spain, to see if the potatoes would kill them. The prisoners survived, and monks soon began carrying tubers with them as they traveled around Europe. Two hundred years later, the potato had become a staple food. These days there are thousands of varieties to choose from and it is fun to grow the potatoes you like from one year to the next... Read more...
Categories: potatoes,vegetable gardening |
 Friday, April 17, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (4 comments)
In discussions about the growing obesity ‘epidemic’ in the affluent countries of the world some people point to vegetable gardening as part of the solution. Obviously diet is a major factor in obesity and gardening helps people to reconnect with good food sources and increase their intake of nutritious substitutes for over-refined foods. Exercise is also listed as a reason for taking up gardening and I have heard many keen gardeners scoff at people who go to a gym, saying that if they just got out in the garden more they wouldn’t need it. So I thought I would take a look at whether gardening really is good exercise and how to maximise the benefit... Read more...
Categories: gardening exercise |
Friday, April 10, 2009 by Jeremy Dore and Barbara Pleasant (0 comments)
GrowVeg.com started life in Britain as a way to help gardeners organize their vegetable gardens and achieve more success through good planning. From the start we wanted to make a tool which made it intuitive to plan, space and rotate crops without having to wade through encyclopedias of gardening. What soon became apparent was the exploding interest in home-grown food developing around the world. Within a few weeks we had people emailing us from North America, Australia and across Europe. Just over a year on we are now a truly international company and I am delighted to welcome American garden expert Barbara Pleasant to introduce herself as our second regular contributor to GrowBlog… Read more...
Categories: GrowVeg.com, vegetables, gardening |
Friday, March 27, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (11 comments)
Plug plants are seedlings which have been germinated and grown in trays of small cells. When the roots have grown sufficiently they can be easily pushed out of the trays and either transplanted into larger pots or planted outside in the ground. Plug plants used to be largely confined to bedding plants and flowers but all that is now changing as edible gardening becomes more popular. Many nurseries and seed companies have started to sell a range of vegetable plug plants and these offer a very easy route to starting a productive garden. So what are the benefits of using plug plants and are they worth producing yourself Read more...
Categories: plug plants gardening vegetables |
Friday, March 20, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (6 comments)
The media image of the vegetable gardener is the typical suburban house in beautiful surroundings with plenty of space to grow things. In reality, many people who want to grow their own food don’t have a large back garden or convenient access to a plot of land. Particularly in cities, living in a shared house or an apartment can mean that there is only room for a few pots of salad by the back door. So what do you do if you want to grow more food but don’t have the space? One option that is becoming increasingly popular is the idea of sharing someone else’s garden or backyard... Read more...
Categories: garden vegetables city |
Friday, March 13, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (3 comments)
Every now and again I get asked how much money you can save by growing your own fruit and vegetables. Of course this is a very narrow way of looking at the benefits of gardening. The exercise and fresh air, the sense of working with nature and the health benefits of freshly grown produce are all very important factors and for many people this will outweigh the economic benefits. Yet the question of monetary value is still a valid one - increasingly important as food prices continue to rise and new building developments have to balance the desirability of garden space against extra houses. So just how cost-effective is a productive fruit and vegetable garden...? Read more...
Categories: gardening, cost |
Friday, March 06, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (5 comments)
One of the most confusing terms that new vegetable gardeners come across is ‘bolting’. Also known as ‘running to seed’ this is where a plant suddenly, often in a matter of a few days, starts to grow flower stems, simultaneously stopping all useful growth of the vegetable itself. It is not just a problem for people new to growing edible plants – experienced gardeners also have to manage this problem as I found out last week when several salad plants I have been carefully over-wintering in my greenhouse suddenly shot up central stems. Once the flower shoots form not only is growth slowed as the plants put all their energy into reproducing but they can rapidly become unusable in the kitchen as well. Lettuce, for example, becomes bitter tasting and the leaves are less tender once the plant has bolted. So what can be done to prevent it? Read more...
Categories: salad vegetables bolting |
Friday, February 27, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (14 comments)
Many gardeners are very creative people. I think this stems from working with nature itself where rotting compost can be transformed into beds of beautiful plants and colourful harvests. However, the opportunities for creativity are not limited to growing things. Many gardeners find new uses for discarded materials and some of the most productive vegetable gardens I have known are filled with items which have been salvaged from the rubbish heap. Plastic piping, old bath tubs, CDs, cardboard and many other thrown away items can all be put to good use in the garden... Read more...
Categories: recycling, gardening |
Friday, February 20, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (19 comments)
Soil quality is the most important factor in any garden and even more so when you are planning to eat the resulting produce. To enrich my soil I have been composting my own garden and food waste for years but, like many gardeners, I find that it is hard to produce enough to cover the whole area. This year I have been transforming my front garden into a network of raised beds to be built up with high-quality compost. I wasn’t content to go for the cheapest stuff I could find, so a bit of research was in order. This culminated in a visit to a composting site, to find out just what goes into compost and how organic it really is... Read more...
Categories: compost organic gardening |
Friday, February 13, 2009 by Jeremy Dore (3 comments)
Talk to any environmentalist and they will tell you that there are two major issues facing the world in the 21st Century: climate change and peak oil. These problems may seem overwhelmingly large but in the last couple of years an initiative called ‘Transition Towns’ has developed, offering an inspirational way to tackle them. Interestingly this new movement has its roots in permaculture: a design system for sustainable living that grew out of the first oil crises in the 1970s, when the need for a ‘Permanent agriculture’ emerged. So it will come as no surprise that vegetable gardeners have much to offer the emerging Transition Town initiatives... Read more...
Categories: vegetable growing transition towns |