CONNECTIONS to HEALTH

Grow Your Own It's easier than you think! Last year we decided to have a go at growing some of our own vegetables, with great success, enjoyment and very little effort. If you have contemplated this in the past but it has seemed like a daunting task, please give it a go. It is very rewarding and the vegetables taste great. Plus our son Nathan, who is 6 years old, was very actively involved in the whole process, he especially liked weighing the potatoes we dug up and comparing the yields as we went through the season. To begin with we decided to convert a flower bed into our vegetable patch and dug out the bush, bulbs and weeds and dug in some well rotted compost. This was warm work but got everything off to a good start. Then we decided what to grow in our limited area and potatoes were high up the list along with beetroot, leeks and broad beans. We followed the recommended instructions on the packets of seeds and seed potatoes and were rewarded with wonderful crops of each. We also tried tomato plants, but they were not so successful due to the cold wet summer, but we used the green tomatoes to make some chutney at the end of the season. We were given a courgette plant an interesting cucumber plant and some other broad beans which all produced in abundance, it's great how people share seedlings and ideas once they know you are starting out on a project like this. It was such a good feeling going into the garden and picking something for the evening meal. Nathan suggested that all our flower beds should be converted into vegetable patches and so we are preparing another slightly bigger one this year and will trying a wider variety of produce. We'll soon be down the Farmer's Market selling our excess! Last year we were lucky in that it rained regularly so we didn't have to water the plants that much ourselves, but maybe this year will be different and we will be carrying water around the garden so it might not be as easy. But it won't put us off, the better taste, texture and freshness of the produce means that we are now converted to being urban grow it your selfers! If you would like to give it a go then this book is a good introduction to growing your own:- Grow Your Own Vegetables (Paperback), By Joy Larkham, available at Amazon for £6.49. Buy from Amazon

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