Saving money on your food bills is a very relevant concern for a
lot of UK households. Inflation on fruit and veg is spreading rampant
across the supermarket industry, and the recession required increased
frugality on the part of hundreds of thousands of citizens. Growing your
own food can be both profitable and satisfying, and there's no better
time to hop on the healthy eating bandwagon. In the interests of getting
you started, here are a few handy plants to consider.
Tomatoes
These are a great starter food, since they're so widely used as a base ingredient. If you're just beginning it might be better to invest in a semi-established plant to plant. You can stake them to the ground or grow them in a container. If you're interested in a garden I'll assume you actually have the floor space to grow one, so stick with ground planting for better returns.
With watering and a lot of direct sunlight, tomatoes will ripen to edibility throughout the entire summer. Two or three plants will keep you fed almost constantly for a few months. As a spot of advice, get some sealable sandwich bags and place them over the ripening fruit, with a little gap for air flow. Insects love ruining a tomato crop, but this will let them ripen in peace.
Lettuce
Again, one of the most used ingredients, making up the delicious lion's share of any salad. In addition to the vastly superior taste of fresh fruit and vegetables cutting out the need for extensive salad dressing, lettuce is uniquely easy to grow.
You don't even need a proper garden. Just dig up a little earth and sprinkle the lettuce seeds across it. Even planted chaotically about four square feet of lettuce will provide daily salads for six weeks, assuming only one person is eating them. They grow quite densely as a rule, so most weeds are unable to gain a foothold. Lettuces come heartily recommended purely for the minimal effort involved in growing them (they sprout very quickly) and the heavy use they'll see.
Basil
With a little sunlight basil is supremely easy to grow. Plant in early June, either on a windowsill or in a sunny area with decent drainage. There's not much meat to the plant, admittedly, but we all know it makes excellent seasoning while carrying a pleasant aroma to boot. Remember, you'll be harvesting it in the summer, but with a decent planting area you'll be able to dry enough of the leaves to store for the entire year. Basil's great to grow purely because it can take you entirely off the grid as far as the ingredient is concerned.
Get Planting!
There's no time like the present, and each of the above plants will get you started on a strong footing. Dig a bed, throw seeds at it, and enjoy. Over time you'll hone your skills and get more efficient, but nothing's stopping you from getting started today.
These are a great starter food, since they're so widely used as a base ingredient. If you're just beginning it might be better to invest in a semi-established plant to plant. You can stake them to the ground or grow them in a container. If you're interested in a garden I'll assume you actually have the floor space to grow one, so stick with ground planting for better returns.
With watering and a lot of direct sunlight, tomatoes will ripen to edibility throughout the entire summer. Two or three plants will keep you fed almost constantly for a few months. As a spot of advice, get some sealable sandwich bags and place them over the ripening fruit, with a little gap for air flow. Insects love ruining a tomato crop, but this will let them ripen in peace.
Lettuce
Again, one of the most used ingredients, making up the delicious lion's share of any salad. In addition to the vastly superior taste of fresh fruit and vegetables cutting out the need for extensive salad dressing, lettuce is uniquely easy to grow.
You don't even need a proper garden. Just dig up a little earth and sprinkle the lettuce seeds across it. Even planted chaotically about four square feet of lettuce will provide daily salads for six weeks, assuming only one person is eating them. They grow quite densely as a rule, so most weeds are unable to gain a foothold. Lettuces come heartily recommended purely for the minimal effort involved in growing them (they sprout very quickly) and the heavy use they'll see.
Basil
With a little sunlight basil is supremely easy to grow. Plant in early June, either on a windowsill or in a sunny area with decent drainage. There's not much meat to the plant, admittedly, but we all know it makes excellent seasoning while carrying a pleasant aroma to boot. Remember, you'll be harvesting it in the summer, but with a decent planting area you'll be able to dry enough of the leaves to store for the entire year. Basil's great to grow purely because it can take you entirely off the grid as far as the ingredient is concerned.
Get Planting!
There's no time like the present, and each of the above plants will get you started on a strong footing. Dig a bed, throw seeds at it, and enjoy. Over time you'll hone your skills and get more efficient, but nothing's stopping you from getting started today.
Home gardens are great for growing vegetables in, Alan Cray uses a veg cold frame to help his grow with a better pattern he can follow which will really help him when he comes to harvest what he's grown.
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