The summer has come and gone, the mower is stored away for the winter months, but there is still plenty you can do in the garden, and growing your own vegetables is well worth the work you will put in now, to harvest in the spring and bring fresh vegetables from the garden to your table.
The summer has come and gone, the mower is stored away for the winter months, but there is still plenty you can do in the garden, and growing your own vegetables is well worth the work you will put in now, to harvest in the spring and bring fresh vegetables from the garden to your table.
Keeping your garden going through the winter gets you outside in the fresh air, gives you plenty of exercise and more importantly can give you wonderful home-grown produce. Garden seeds can be sown in cold frames or greenhouses and then planted out as mini-plants a few weeks later, but if chosen to sow outside, must be covered with fleece or perforated polythene, and although slugs and snails are less of a threat now as they start to hibernate, they can still ruin tender young seedlings.
If you have the space in your garden, it is well worth growing all your vegetables, but of course some vegetable plants if planted in the autumn will need canes or sticks to hold in position especially if they grow too tall over the winter, for example broad beans, sown in the autumn, will produce product a good month earlier than those sown in April, and they don’t get black fly, but they will certainly need propping up or may split if they are free to wave around.
So many plants are now available for autumn planting, asparagus, and for a late spring crop of peas and pea shoots it is well worth sowing seeds now, especially in mild areas, remember if you sow direct into the ground plant them one inch deep and about one inch apart, this will make up for a higher loss rate.
Every single part of these plants can be eaten, the pea shoots are very tasty, and can be added to stir fries and salads. For all garlic lovers this is a very easy crop to grow, also onions, spring onions, and shallots, if planted now can be harvested earlier in the year. Winter lettuce if a hardy variety can be picked right through the winter.
There are plenty of garden plants you can plant at this time of the year that will give you plenty of food for the table, and also plenty to catch your eye in the spring, many gardeners are now shopping for their garden bulbs, to give that fabulous display in the summer, and don’t be frightened to plant close together this will give you clumps of blooms rather than a line of ‘soldiers’.
A spokesman for Blooming Direct a horticultural business based on the Island of Jersey said, “we are busy all year round, but especially at this time of the year when gardeners are shopping for plants and garden seeds to plant now for next season, also we do stock a lot of gifts that especially the gardening fraternity will give to fellow gardeners for Christmas, a bonus is all orders to the UK is FREE, and we guarantee plants will get to their destination in pristine condition”.
Gardening has become the nations most popular hobby, but more importantly with prices rising all the time gardeners are choosing to grow their own, to keep costs down when it comes to the food shopping budget.
For further information visit: www.bloomingdirect.com or you can visit their Facebook page to discover more offers.