Home-Grown Vegetables

By Diana Galligan

What could be tastier than vegetables, picked straight from your back garden? Growing your own vegetables can be a rewarding pastime and you don’t need a big garden or allotment to cultivate your favourite vegetables, as fare can grow well in containers and smaller urban spaces.

This beautiful and practical guide, marking a unique collaboration between the National Trust and Country Living magazine, celebrates the produce of allotments and gardens, from carrots and courgettes to artichokes and aubergines. Each vegetable entry details all you need to know about sowing, growing and harvesting with essential gardening notes and tips for successful planting.

With beautiful illustrations throughout, you will find all you need for a healthy garden bursting with fresh produce all year round.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Jun 13, 2013
• ISBN: 9781907892738

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First published in the United Kingdom in 2007 by

Collins & Brown

10 Southcombe Street

London W14 0RA

An imprint of Anova Books Company Ltd

Copyright © Collins & Brown

Text copyright © Collins & Brown

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

Published in association with The National Trust

(www.nationaltrust.org.uk) and The National Magazine Company Limited. Country Living (www.countryliving.co.uk) is a trademark of The National Magazine Company.

Commissioning Editor: Miriam Hyslop

Design Manager: Gemma Wilson

Illustrator: Carmen Carreira-Villar

Designer: Bill Mason

Editor: Jennie Buist Brown

First eBook publication 2013

ISBN 9781907892738

Also available in hardback

ISBN 9781843404170

This book can be ordered direct from the publisher atwww.anovabooks.com or try your local bookshop.

HOME –GROWN VEGETABLES

FOREWORD

WHY GROW VEGETABLES?

YOUR VEGETABLE PLOT

BASIC CARE

TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT

A YEAR IN THE VEGETABLE PLOT

VEGETABLE VARIETIES

COMMON PROBLEMS

USEFUL ORGANISATIONS

SEED AND PLANT SUPPLIERS

GLOSSARY

INDEX

FOREWORD

Welcome to Home-Grown Vegetables which, along with Home-Grown Fruit, Beekeeping and Henkeeping, is one of the books that make up this new Country Living and National Trust series on becoming more self-sufficient. Nowadays, we are all very concerned about where our food comes from, how it has been produced, how far it has travelled to reach the supermarket shelves and, most importantly perhaps, how the environment may have been damaged in the process. The National Trust helps and encourages farmers to reach and maintain the highest environmental and animal welfare standards, and both the National Trust and Country Living champion local, organic food and sustainable practices by British growers. Now, with help from these excellent guides you, too, can begin to produce enough organic and tasty food in your own garden or allotment – honey, fruit, vegetables and eggs – to help feed you and your family throughout the year.

There is nothing quite like being able to pop out to the garden to pick fresh, tender vegetables for dinner knowing that, when you grow your own, the only ‘food miles’ travelled will be those between your plot and your kitchen. In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in ‘growing your own’ with the demand for allotments now at an all time high. Working outside on your own patch of land, having control over what you and your family consume, brings a huge feeling of satisfaction. Cooperating with nature as you grow tomatoes for the summer or parsnips for the winter months, being in touch with your environment and, of course, getting your hands dirty, is therapeutic in every way. Full of practical information and charming illustrations, this excellent guide by Diana Galligan will inspire you to join the ranks of people up and down the UK who are reaping the benefits of growing their own vegetables.

WHY GROW VEGETABLES?

Fresh, tender, succulent vegetables, on your plate within hours — if not minutes — of them being picked from the ground or from the stalk. What better incentive is there for growing your own veg?

THIRTY YEARS AGO organically grown vegetables were only available in specialised stores or small, local outlets. Today they occupy shelves in all the major supermarkets. But there is no getting away from the fact that many vegetables have been kept in a cold store, irradiated, washed in chlorine to destroy bacteria and treated with preservatives to prolong shelf life. They have been transported miles up and down the country and across seas and continents before they even get within sight of a plate. All this at a cost to the environment, the loss of vitamins and minerals, and potential long-term effects on our health.

When you grow your own, there are no ‘food miles’ involved. The only preservatives needed to store them, the natural ones of earth, damp sand, air and a cool, frost-free environment. You will know that it is the humus-rich soil, chemical-free feed, water and care and attention that you have given them that have produced the flavoursome vegetables you are about to eat.

Growing your own means you can eat good wholesome food as it comes into season, and by staggering sowings you can extend that season so not everything comes ready at the same time. With careful planning, you can feed yourself and your family with homegrown vegetables for the whole year. And share any excess with friends and neighbours.

Growing vegetables is not an exact science – and the effects of climate change are beginning to turn established dos and don’ts on their head. There are few right or wrong answers, only general advice. It may take a few years, but get to know your soil, its benefits and drawbacks, learn the rhythms of the seasons and the vagaries of the weather in your own particular area, then work with that, no matter what the book says. When it comes to your land, you’re the expert. It’s primarily a question of commonsense as well as confidence – and that comes with experience.

Growing vegetables should also be fun. Experiment with some of the more exotic types that are starting to appear in seed catalogues. Try some of the heritage varieties, or grow familiar vegetables in unfamiliar colours – purple carrots for instance, black sweetcorn, or white aubergines. Aim for the smallest, sweetest peas, or the largest, plumpest marrow. Whatever you do, enjoy!

YOUR VEG PLOT

Take time to get to know your plot. The best will have an open aspect that gets the sun for most of the day. Trees or high hedges will provide shelter from winds, but dense shade or dropping leaves will impede growth. Avoid slopes if possible as they are subject to soil erosion and are harder to work, but if it can’t be avoided, work across the slope rather than down