Growing Your Own Veg

Growing your own veg (vegetables, veggies) can be a very pleasant pastime, which also has many positive benefits such as: healthier food (you know what chemicals, if any, have been used), exercise, working outdoors etc. Growing your own veg can also be a great activity for all the family to join in with, as it will help children have a better understanding of how nature works. There is another benefit that is becoming ever more relevant in today's economic climate, growing your own veg can help reduce your grocery bill. It also reduces the total food miles for your family so is more environmentally friendly.

There are many people who think that growing your own veg requires a large amount of space, while this is certainly true if you are looking to provide a variety of veg for the family every day of the year. It is not true if you are growing your own veg to provide some fresh veg to supplement your grocery shopping. As an example 10 or so runner bean plants in a container on the patio will supply more than enough beans for a family of four for a couple of months.

Another example of how growing your own veg can be done in a small space would be have two or three cherry tomato plants in a growbag against a South facing wall (North facing if in the Southern Hemisphere). Not only will these provide food to eat but will also add colour to the garden.

However if you are growing your own veg to provide fresh produce on a daily basis throughout the year, then you will need to set aside part of your garden for this . If your garden is not large enough to allow you to do this apply for an allotment (UK). This means that you will be able to grow a much wider variety of veg and to have the chance of having seasonal veg available throughout the year

There are many varieties of vegetables that can be grown in home gardens all year round. Different vegetables have different harvest time so by growing them in your garden you can ensure a fresh supply of home grown veg throughout the year.

When it comes to growing your own veg every country in the world has different varieties of veg that grow best in their particular climate, indeed in some countries a particular vegetable that grows well in one part, will not grow at all in another as the climate and environment is different. It is here that some of the excitement comes into growing your own veg, as you can experiment with different varieties of vegetable from different parts of the world to see what you can and can’t grow, it will also need experimentation to create different growing conditions for these unusual varieties for your climate

In the UK the Victorians were masters of looking a particular plant from another part of the world and the providing a means to create the right growing conditions for that particular plant. These methods include: hotbeds, sunken gardens, walled gardens, raised beds hothouses and cold houses etc.

I am not suggesting that you have to go to these lengths, but trying to give you a glimpse of the variety of possibilities available to you for growing your own veg.