Num Num not only bakes she gardens – Getting Started
This is Rebecca‘s second guest blog post for Beyond The Wild Garden and she is continuing on with her adventure of growing fruit and vegetables for her family. Her first post where she explained the plans for the year growing food with her husband and father can be found here.
Getting Started
What a difference a month makes, for the past few weeks I’ve just looked on in awe as my scutty little shoots have transformed into hardy young vegetables. And there’s no doubt in my mind that they are happy little things as the vibrancy from them is amazing .
I am using two methods of growing for my veggies as not all veg are the same. Some are quite delicate and need a cozier environment such as my tomatoes, strawberries and peas. I keep these beauties at home. My tomatoes are in a super small green house I bought from Aldi. It has three shelves with a plastic cover which brings the temperature and humidity up to what my tomatoes and germinated seedlings would call “paradise”!
As it was my first time growing tomatoes I decided to buy young plants and go from there. When I first brought them home I transferred the four plants to larger pots. Not too big as they would put all their energy into growing roots to fill the pot but pots maybe three times larger than the pots they came in. I used the compost from grow bags as I knew this would keep them happy and I also feed them once a week with an organic vegetable feed. Et voila we have have gorgeous yellow flowers on each of the plants I confess I squeezed with excitement when I saw them.
Still in my greenhouse are the pumpkins, corn and beetroot which are all coming along nicely. Now I know corn and pumpkins are a little ambitious for my first crop but I couldn’t resist. To give you an idea on how cosy it is in the green house I caught the cat “marmalade” snoozing in there early one morning last week , he’s the kind of Tom cat that likes to hunt all night and sleep all day. I’m getting side tracked here talking about my cat back to the veggies!
I keep the peas lined up along the wall at the back of my house as they love the heat retained in the wall from the summer sun. In each pot I have put four or five long shoots of dried bamboo from my large bamboo plant. My dad calls it elephant grass as in mid-summer it displays a fantastic purple broom from its super long bamboo that reaches the top window. So with these bamboo shoots the pea plants can climb and wrap itself around them with their skinny tentacle like anchors that alone is astonishing to see.
The same goes for the three varieties of strawberries that are bursting with excitement at the moment. All the flowers have lost their petals and in their place we have been rewarded with tiny green strawberries. Before growing strawberries this year I have always grown the one variety but seeing the three types grow side by side I’m surprised how they each grow in a different way.
The most popular variety Fragaria Ananassa is a strong sturdy plant that has broad leaves that almost protect the fruit that grows underneath. This was the first plant to produce the young green fruit and seems to be miles ahead than my other two types of plants.
The second variety is the Fragaria purple fresh framberry. It is rounder in appearance this fruit looks like a cross between a strawberry and raspberry. It will yield a small crimson red fruit I’m banking on it being a zingy succulent fruit that will go nicely in my summertime tart, that I should mention is a huge hit with all the men in my family . This variety is less abundant in leaves but still has plenty of fruit appearing on it the stalks are skinny and grow up and out.
Last but not at all least is the Fragaria white dream Pineberry. This strawberry is aesthetically appealing to the eye as it is a white strawberry. I am very excited to sample these little fellas as I have never even seen them for sale in the supermarkets before.
Unlike the two previous varieties this plant grows very different, right from the get go the stems grew down over the pot and kept low to the soil with a small delicate leaf. Initially I thought I had failed and let it go thirsty but then I realized that this was just its nature.
In my next blog I will show you all the amazing progress our other veggies are making like the kohlrabi and Brussel sprouts.
By for now
Rebecca x
Notes:
You can find Rebecca aka Num Num Bakes on Twitter and Instagram.
Her fantastic food blog can be found here.
Rebecca’s first post for Beyond The Wild Garden can be found here
Paul Smyth is also blogging about growing his own food for us and his first post can found here.
