Grown Your Own Veg

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A beginner’s guide to growing veg

If you’re planning to grow a variety of vegetables, it’s a good idea to consider ‘crop rotation’ from the off. Not as complicated as it might sound, it simply means thinking about veg in terms of four ‘families’, then dividing your plot into four beds. Every year, you move each family to the next bed along – and by avoiding growing the same plants in the same place each year, you avoid a build-up of pests and diseases. The four areas look good divided with paths and each one edged with low-growing plants such as lavender, to create a traditional ‘potager’ look.

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Family 1

Roots such as potato, beetroot, carrot, chicory, artichoke, parsnip

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Family 2

Leafy greens, such as broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, cauliflower plus swede and turnips

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Family 3

Peas and beans, including runner, broad and French beans, sugar snap peas and mangetout

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Family 4

All other vegetables and salad crops, including all varieties of lettuce, herbs and tomatoes

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Include some low-maintenance veg crops

Much of the veg in a kitchen garden needs to be sown and regrown annually, so it’s good to include a few plants that will happily go on giving you a harvest year after year with very little attention

Asparagus

Although it has only a short season, asparagus has to be one of the tastiest veg you can grow yourself. It needs space in full sun as well as shelter from wind. If your soil is very wet or heavy, grow it in a raised bed. The crowns are best planted between March and May. Dig in lots of well-rotted manure or compost and make a trench about 30cm wide and 20cm deep, then make a 10cm high ridge along the length of the trench. Sit the crowns on top of the ridge with the roots hanging down, then backfill. Cut only a few spears from April to June (but not in the first year, to allow the plant to build itself up), and mulch well each autumn

Horseradish

The perfect accompaniment to a Sunday roast? Plant the roots in a deep container or in the garden in sun or partial shade. Harvest in late autumn after the first frosts to add to the flavour

Globe artichokes

As well as being delicious to eat, they’ll also reward you with stately flowers to bring indoors each year if you can bear to leave them unpicked for a few weeks longer. Not only that, their large, silvery leaves add height and a touch of drama to the veg patch too. Plant them in full sun in moist but well-drained soil

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What is companion planting?

Gardeners of old were very familiar with the principle of ‘companion planting’ – growing certain plants together to help banish pests, ward off disease and get bigger harvests. So why aren’t more of us still doing this in our veg patches? Here are some easy ways to start:

  • Strong-smelling plants can be used to throw pests off the scent of precious crops. For example, peppery nasturtiums can help keep black fly off broad beans by attracting them towards themselves instead, while basil will keep aphids off tomatoes and could also improve their flavour too! The little-used but delicious herb, summer savory is also a good black fly deterrent for broad beans. If you’re growing carrots, interplant them with salad onions as the onion aroma can deter carrot root fly, and use mint to keep flea beetles off radish leaves.
  • Other plants can be grown as ‘sacrificial crops’, attracting pests away from key plants in the veg patch: try planting spare lettuce seeds around the edge of your plot so the slugs will go for that first.
  • If dill and fennel are allowed to flower they attract hoverflies which in turn will help to see off aphids, while sweet peas grown near any kind of bean will attract pollinators to them
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WHAT VEG TO PLANT WHEN

Broad beans

Sow indoors Jan-Mar
(plant out Mar-Apr)

Sow outdoors Mar-Apr
or Oct-Nov

Harvest May-Aug

French beans

Sow indoors Apr-May
(plant out June-July)

Sow outdoors May-July
 

Harvest July-Oct

Runner beans

Sow indoors Apr-May
(plant out June-July)

Sow outdoors May-July

Harvest July-Oct

Beetroot

Sow indoors Mar-May
(plant out May-June)

Sow outdoors May-July

Harvest June-Oct

Broccoli

Sow indoors Sept-Oct
(plant out Nov)

Sow outdoors Mar-July

Harvest Apr-Oct

Cabbages

Sow indoors Feb-Aug
(plant out Apr-Oct)

Sow outdoors Mar-Aug

Harvest All year

Carrots

Sow indoors NA

Sow outdoors Apr-July

Harvest Aug-Dec

Courgettes

Sow indoors Apr-May
(plant out May-June)

Sow outdoors May-June

Harvest July-Oct

Kale

Sow indoors Mar-May
(plant out June-Aug)

Sow outdoors Apr-July

Harvest Nov-Apr

Leeks

Sow indoors Jan-Feb
(plant out Apr-Aug)

Sow outdoors Mar-May

Harvest Aug-Apr

Garlic

Sow indoors NA

Sow outdoors Plant cloves
Jan-Mar or Sept-Dec

Harvest May-Aug

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Use your leftovers: soft herbs

Soft herbs like parsley, coriander, basil and mint are delicate and best used raw to finish dishes. The stalks have lots of flavour, so be sure to use those too

See herb guide