A couple of weeks ago I caught the tail end of a television programme in it they were talking about how easy it was to grow certain vegetables in plant pots, you didn’t need a garden or any great knowledge, yeah, yeah I thought.
While doing some shopping at Sainsbury’s a couple of days later a display of seeds caught my eye, so I went over to have a look, not really with any great plan in mind, or with the intention of buying anything. There was a whole range of seeds, cucumbers, kohl rabbi, carrots, peas, beans, herbs of just about every variety, courgettes, cabbage, peppers, even asparagus. Two hours later I was back home, with tomato seeds, fennels seeds, two types of cut and come again lettuce seeds, radish seeds and beetroot seeds - also a variety of pots, trays and compost from B&Q purchased on the way back from Sainsbury’s.
For a couple of days they just sat there, looking at me, then on Sunday afternoon I took some time out and armed with only my bare hands and the information on the seed packets I decided to venture into the world of vegetable growing.
In a little propagator tray complete with self expanding pelts of peat, purchased from B&Q, I planted some tomato and fennel seeds, from these seeds I hope to get one tomatoes plant and nine fennel plants. I will pot up the tomato plant and it will go in the conservatory, one of the fennel plants will be potted up and allowed to grow for the leaves, the others will be potted several in a pot and be eaten small. Once these plants have left the propagator the current plan is to repeat the process so that hopefully the harvesting of the crops is staggered. I covered the seeds over with their little plastic lid and they have been sitting in the kitchen under a cloud of mist every since, nothing much happening there yet!
Then I turned my attention to the cut and come again lettuce and beetroot, I sowed two medium sized pots with the lettuce and one big pot with the beetroot and placed them on the south facing kitchen window sill. The plan with these is to eat the thinnings of the beetroots as they grow in salads then eat the rest small as and when, and seed some more beetroot at a later date. In another week or so I plan to plant some more cut and come again lettuce so as to hopefully have a staggered supply of that too and the radishes, as they apparently grow quicker than the beetroot. But hopefully in the summer I can look forward to eating my own home grown lettuce, tomatoes, beetroot and radishes, but it is all a bit of an experiment really, the beetroot and radish is supposed to have far more space than I am giving it and the salad leaves are supposed to be planted outside, although it is a variety for growing in pots, the fennel on the other hand isn’t and should be outside and will need soil banked up onto it to keep the bulbs white, so how they might or might not turn out is anyone’s guess, anyway as the old saying goes – nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Today, after days of peering into the pots, like an expectant child only to be disappointed by just seeing a layer of brown soil, I peered and saw little shoots pushing the soil out of the way, their heads still bent over from being cocooned in the seed, most of the leaves still folded tight shut, it was just like Christmas!
