Food ‘n Drink

Posted by Sarah

Read Part 1 of this series - Garden Preparation.

Regardless of whether you plan to grow plants in the ground or in large pots and hanging baskets (or both!), you need some plants to get started with. These days the garden centres can do the hard work for you and in April/May time you’ll find ready grown tomato plants, chilli plants, peppers, and more, at affordable prices. However, where’s the fun in that? Well, use it as a back up at least! Most salad plants such as lettuce, radish and spring onions, can be started from seed between March and August/September, depending on how long the good weather lasts. Tomato, chilli and pepper seeds should be planted in March/April time, kept covered and ideally in a warm environment such as a greenhouse or kitchen windowsill.

Starting with Seeds

So what do you need to get started? Work out what you want to grow first, especially if you’re short on space in the garden. Go to the local garden centre and have a look in the seeds section for the plants you want to grow. All seed packets will have information about sowing and reaping on the back of them so there’s no guessing needed. Follow the instructions and you should be fine. You’ll also need some seed trays of some sort, seed compost (John Innes No. 1 can be found in virtually all UK garden centres) and a sheltered area to store your seed trays - we have a 3 tier portable mini greenhouse which costs around £17. Substitutions for seed trays include egg trays. The idea with seed trays is that you just use the seed compost in it, place a few seeds (I usually do 2 or 3) per section, cover them over and just keep them watered. Once the seedlings start to appear you can thin them down to one per section. However I usually allow them to all grow (if you can try and space the seeds out a little within the little section then they’ll have a bit more space each).

Re-potting Seedlings

Once your seedlings appear strong and established (eg. they’re about 5cm high on lettuce and radish, perhaps a bit taller for spring onions) then you can take them out of the seed tray and either put them into the ground, if the cold weather has passed, or into a bigger pot with John Innes No. 2 soil based compost mixed with some soil. I personally have hanging basket and potting compost, also John Innes which I mix with top soil as I don’t have any soil available to me in the garden (besides digging up the grass and taking some out from under that!). For repotting you need to determine the size of pot or pots that you’ll need to use depending on how long the plant will be in the pot. For plants that will eventually go into the ground then a small pot should be fine to allow the roots to expand more, providing a stronger plant ready for the garden. However, for plants that you’re intending to keep in the pots for their lifetime then I’d start with a medium to large pot for a couple of weeks until it’s grown a bit stronger, and then move on to a larger container.

Growing in Pots

If you’re not intending to plant anything in the ground then you need to look at using pots and grow-bags. Most salad plants that you continually replace - lettuce, radish, spring onion, rocket etc., will not grow massive roots and so won’t need a great depth of space. You can get about 10cm deep long window type boxes which are about a metre long. These will work quite well for these plants, as will medium sized flower pots. You could also get a few large pots to go out on the patio and just fill them up with standard soil in the bottom, leaving the top 5-10 cm to be the mix of potting compost and soil. If you don’t have pots then look at what else you have. I’ve got empty 5l plastic water bottles at home and will be cutting a few of these up, taking the top off, adding a few holes in the bottom of them and voila, cheap large tubs for growing plants

If ground space is lacking you can also use hanging baskets to grow plants in. Strawberries work quite well in baskets, keeping the strawberries away from woodlice and slugs that have a habit of eating them, and can look colourful hanging down from the basket, ripening in the glorious sun. Treat hanging baskets in the same way as growing in pots.

Growing in the Ground

If you’re planting out in the garden then make sure that your plants will get the sunlight they need, keep the ground watered (do this at night to allow the water to seep deeper into the ground), if there’s a risk of cold weather or even frost then you’ll need to keep your plants covered. You can make a mini polytunnel with some corrugated plastic curved over the plants (use some canes or sticks to hold the plastic curved), and cover up the ends with some flat plastic. This will create a mini greenhouse over the plants which is great when the sun isn’t so warm. Also if the sun gets too hot (unlikely in the UK but it can happen!) then you may need to cover your plants with some fleece or covering that blocks out the hot midday sun. Also, be careful to not have water droplets on your lettuce leaves if the sun is out, else the leaves could burn.

Posted by Sarah

Seeing as I’m not doing much gardening myself this year I figured I’d just write more about it! After chatting to a few friends both offline and online, I’ve noticed a lot of people in my age range would like to try out growing their own fruit and veg but don’t necessarily know where to start. I’m pretty lucky in that I have my Dad on hand to ask all of my questions to, plus my parents gave me The Complete Gardener by Monty Don (a celeb TV gardener in the UK) which is a pretty good read.

Anyway, so I figured I’d start a few posts on setting up a new garden, what you need to do, think about and where to start, along with when to start planting your seeds etc. The timings on this are designed for people in the UK (and will probably suit Europe), but the information should apply to most people.

Getting Started

Okay so first off you need to look at what you’ve got to work with. Don’t let the lack of a garden put you off gardening. A sunny windowsill is all you need to get started, of course the more space you have the better. So you need to decide how much you’re going to do or how much you have the potential to do.

1. Growing in pots on a sunny windowsill.
2. Growing in pots and a grow bag or two outside on the patio or clearing.
3. Digging up the ground, growing larger plants in the ground along with smaller plants in pots.
4. You’ve got the space in the garden for every gardener’s dream. A salad garden here, a strawberry patch there, plenty of space for all your favourite foods plus a fruit tree or two.

Depending on which level you intend to garden at, some of this info won’t be relevant however I’ll cover all aspects as best I can.

Garden Preparation

For those who are going for the actual gardening aspect, and are ready to attack the ground in their back garden, then you need to determine what you’re going to do and grow there. Also, what type of soil do you have, what areas catch the sun and when. For most plants you’ll want them to get the morning or afternoon/evening sun. The midday sun is usually the hottest, and in the peak of summer a lot of plants won’t like the midday sun, especially your salad plants, but if you can cover these over then it shouldn’t be so much of a concern.

The best garden is a south facing garden. This gives you maximum sun exposure on at least 3 sides of the garden. You also then need to think about what will sit best where. The west facing side will get the morning sun, however once the sun goes off that side, it will start to cool, and if it gets too cold over night and then a strong sun on them first thing in the morning this could cause the plants damage. This side is better suited to plants that are happier in cooler conditions and that can perhaps withstand the potential colder temperatures such as garlic (the colder the temperature the stronger the garlic) and potatoes.

Your ground will also need inspecting. If it’s clearly not been touched in a while then you may need to give the ground a dig through, check for any rubbish (plenty of builders and non gardeners will happily dump and bury rubbish, bricks, empty plastic cannisters etc.), and also inspect the type of soil you’re dealing with. If nothing’s been growing in the ground or if the ground seems in quite a bad state then it would probably be a good idea to dig in some compost or farm manure. You don’t need to dig very far down. Also if the grounds seems fairly solid with clay, you’ll need to build up the soil with manure and perhaps some top soil to give the ground a big of drainage as clay will hold water when it rains and dry out and crack when it’s hot and sunny.

A good idea can also be to build your beds up by setting up an additional barrier around the garden bed, a length of wood on its side held up with pegs in the ground. This allows you to raise the bed above normal ground height, so that rather than digging too far down into the ground you can skim the surface and instead add the new decent soil and manure on top.

The ideal time to get your garden ready is now. Any plants grown from seeds won’t be going into the ground just yet, so this should give you a couple of weeks to start preparing your ground ready for when the spring and warmer weather hits.

If you’ve already got some plants in the ground such as raspberry canes, strawberry plants, fruit bushes, herb plants, then obviously you don’t want to dig these up to dig any nutrition into the soil for the year ahead. Take your compost or manure and add this onto the top of the soil around the bottom of the plants. This is known as mulching and should be done in either October/November time and/or in early spring (so… now!).

Posted by Sarah

Despite talking about it a few times I realised I haven’t posted up my own recipe/method for Risotto. The following great for using up any left over meat from a roast dinner, or using raw meat cooked up. I also find it’s great for padding out with vegetables as you can add in so much easily.

So you need (this is designed for 2 people, you may have to vary things a little for more)
2 flozs of uncooked long grain white rice or basmati rice (or proper risotto rice I guess!), per person.
3/4 pint of boiling water
1 knorr chicken stock cube or beef stock cube
Diced cooked meat - roast chicken left over from sunday roast, beef, pork, lamb (again from sunday roast), or quickly fried chicken breast
handful of peas
other veg you want - leek, spring onion, fine beans, courgette, green pepper - all chopped small(ish)
1 medium onion, diced

Optional
1 dsp of cream or sour cream if you’re not concerned about calories
Grated Parmesan cheese
Pinch of Saffron infused in a small amount of hot water

Method
Melt a little butter or heat a bit of olive oil in a hot frying pan, add onions and fry until softened. Add the rice and stir occasionally until all the butter/oil is absorbed.
In the mean time disolve the stock cube in the 3/4 pint of water. Also infuse the saffron in a little additional water and leave to one side.
Add the stock to the rice, put on a low heat and cover. Leave for 10-15 minutes (perfect time to now chop the veg!)
Add meat and vegetables, stir in, leave for another 5 minutes.
Once the stock has almost been absorbed by the rice and veg it’s finished unless you want any of the following in it

Stir in your cream if you’re using it.
Stir in saffron infusion (strands ‘n all) if you’re using it. Should go a nice yellow colour now!
Stir in grated parmesan for a slightly stronger taste.

Of course you can also throw in prawns, smoked ham, chorizo (can’t spell that) sausage etc. just add it when the meat and veg go in. I know saffron doesn’t strictly go in Risotto as that’s more Paella, but it gives it a nice yellow colour and does add to the flavour a little, however it’s not necessary. The parmesan cheese in it is very nice though! I know the true way to do risotto is to just add a little bit of stock, allow it to be absorbed and keep doing it that way. However that’s too faffy! This comes out pretty okay I think. Once you try it once I’m sure you’ll alter things to suit your own taste!

Posted by Sarah

If you’re a member of Costco Cash and Carry in the UK then grab your spring wallet of savings and get on down to your local store to pick up a couple of boxes of Torres Vina Sol, a dry white wine currently costing just £17.50 per box of 6 bottles (usual price is around £4+ a bottle from most supermarkets). This wine is a great, light white wine that can easily be drunk with or without food, and no need for any soda water.

Take a look at a Wine Review of it, or just take my word for it

Posted by Sarah

This year I won’t have a proper garden to look after and grow food in. Whilst we have a garden at our new house, there’s no beds, the sun doesn’t really get into the garden and if it did, there’d be a nice Silverbirch tree to hang over the plants too anyway! Plus we’re planning to move from here by October, and I don’t want to have to worry about getting my plants out of yet another garden. So this year I’ll be growing strawberries in pots, I’ll probably get a grow bag and do a couple of tomato plants, I’ve got my herbs in pots already, and I’ll maybe do a few lettuce, radish and spring onion in some large pots as well.

At least this year we have a kitchen windowsill which the sun gets on at around 12pm and once the sun stays higher it should stay on the window for a couple of hours at least, so I may not bother with putting my greenhouse up and just start off any seeds on the windowsill instead. I’ve given my raspberry canes to a friend as I can get more of those from my Dad next year if I’ve got the opportunity to plant them out.

So there won’t be as much going on with the garden here this year, but I’ll let you know how my plant pot garden is going