One of the things we are most excited about living at Waterloo Farm is being able to grow our own fruit and veg. On our garden design we know exactly where our ‘kitchen garden’ is going and we have plans for fruit trees and a fruit cage, so hopefully at some stage in the future we will be able to grow plenty of different fruit and veg. However, at the moment, where the veg patch will be needs a lot of work – it was once a redundant ditch which we have had to fill in and is covered in nettles and other weeds, so a lot of preparation is going to be required before we can grow anything on it! So the irony is, with a 2 acre garden, we currently don’t have anywhere prepared for growing vegetables!
However, I am the ‘pot’ queen, so not to be deterred by our lack of suitable soil, I am going to grow some veg in pots. I have done this before with varying degrees of success, but I just love watching things grow so I’m prepared to give it a go. I ordered my ‘Digin’ seeds from Gardener’s World, and last weekend spent some time planting them. I have planted all the butternut squash (5), some carrots in a large pot outside, a third of the beetroot in an old animal feeding trough which was in our outbuilding (will plant some more at fortnightly intervals for a continuous supply), and also planted the tomatoes even though it’s really a little late. I now have loads of little pots on windowsills around the house! I also got some tomato and runner bean plants from my mother-in-law which are in another feeding trough. Once the squash get big enough the plan is to transplant a couple into a large old butler sink that is sunk into our lawn (a lovely ‘feature’ left by the previous owner!). I emptied it out and filled it again with new compost mixed with manure, so in 4 weeks time when the squash are ready to go outside, the soil in the sink should be ready! Not sure how they’ll get on as it’s quite shallow, but I don’t have anything to lose really do I?
Who knows, maybe by the summer we will have our own first crop to look forward to! And then next year we might have some proper space in the garden to grow some more 
Tags: Beetroot, Butternut Squash, Carrots, Digin, Gardener's World, Kitchen Garden, Planting Veg, Runner Beans, Tomatoes
Categories: Fruit, Kitchen Garden, Living the Country Life, Self Sufficiency, Vegetables
Very excited as 3 out of my 5 butternut squash have germinated and I have an abundance of baby tomato plants too
Haven’t checked the carrot and beetroot for a couple of days but no signs of life last time I looked!
My runner beans plants you kindly donated are being consumed by a rout of snails we have. Are snails good or bad? In this case bad!
Snails (and slugs for that matter) are NOT the gardener’s friend as you are finding out! Great way to keep them off your beans or other prize veg, is to put crushed egg shells or sharp grit round the base of the plants so the slithering little so-and-sos can’t physically get across to the plants! I have some more spare beans if those ones have gone to bean heaven
Or just pick them off, put them on the floor and crunch time!!