You don’t need much room to grow TASTY VEGGIES this summer…
6 EASY PROJECTS TO DO NOW!
THE ONLY ONION YOU NEED
Onion ‘Long Red Florence’ is no ordinary onion. It’s long and tapered, has a gorgeous pink tinge and is mild with a sweet flavour. Eat it young like a spring onion, or leave for larger bulbs.
They’ll be happy in any pot in the sun and you can squeeze some into flowerbeds, mixing some soil improver into the soil first. Sow seeds thinly 13mm deep and, once the seedlings pop up, pull out the weaker ones so you’re left with strong seedlings 10cm apart. Use as needed for spring onions through summer, then harvest the whole crop in late August or September.
WHAT IT COST
✽ Terracotta Pot – 31cm, £5.99 therange.co.uk
✽ Tomato seeds, £2.99/50 thompson-morgan.com
✽ Multipurpose compost: Miracle-Gro Peat Free All Purpose, £8/50L diy.com
✽ Fertiliser: Levington Tomorite, £5.99/1L crocus.co.uk
TOTAL: £22.97
FAIL-SAFE TOMS
Tomatoes are the UK’s favourite homegrown veggie, and as long as you get the basics right, they’re super-easy to grow and absolutely worth the effort. Grow from seed now and you have the widest choice of cherry, grape, plum or standard toms in red, yellow, orange or purple tones. Or buy young plants later in the year if you want.
Sow seeds in pots of multipurpose compost and pop on a sunny windowsill. When they’ve developed two true leaves (not the initial seed leaves but the more shapely leaves that follow) carefully move each seedling into its own 9cm pot and grow on inside on a windowsill.
Wait until late May or early June to move your plants outside, then pop into any pot 25-30cm in diameter, again filled with multipurpose compost. Cordon (upright) varieties will need supporting with canes and string, and pinch off any sideshoots (the shoots that grow in the angle between the main stem and the leaves) as soon as you spot them. Once they’re flowering and fruiting, feed with a high-potash fertiliser.
PATIO POTATOES
Just wait till you’ve tasted freshly harvested potatoes! You can buy all sorts of bags to grow them in but an old compost bag (min 40L) is fine. Turn it inside out to improve its appearance, or stand it inside a more attractive hessian sack.
Make a few drainage holes in the bag base, roll down its sides and put a 10cm-deep layer of compost in the bottom. Stand five seed potatoes on it, with the end with all th
