Growing vegetables

Growing vegetables is fun, exciting and delicious! It’s also quite easy and you don’t even need a garden to do it.

Here are some tips for growing four common vegetables and everyone’s favourite garden giant – the sunflower. Download these tips to keep at hand when you start your planting.

Cress

Cress, is one of the easiest crops to grow at home. Use a saucer, place some cotton wool in it, make (and keep) it damp, and sprinkle on the seeds….place on a window sill and in a very short time
you will have tasty homegrown food to eat. You can even make it more fun by adding food colouring to the water and watching the cress grow in different colours.

Spring onions

These are some of the easiest and quickest salads to grow in the garden once the weather warms up. Planted together they make a great addition to salads, and add some colour too. Sow them directly in the ground or in pots outdoors from the end of March and in as little as 6 weeks you will have some tasty produce.

Sunflowers

Everyone loves sunflowers, and the seeds can be eaten too. Plant the seeds outside from the end of March and watch them grow. Plant sunflowers in the position you want them to flower as they don’t like being moved once set. Also ensure you have some stakes ready to tie them to as they grow rather tall and will need help to stay upright. If you have brothers or sisters, why not see who can grow the tallest?

Beetroot

Sow from Spring onwards. Try to sow every couple of weeks so you have a constant supply of beetroots when they are ready for picking. These can be sown directly into the soil and should be well spread out. After 60-70 days they should be ready to harvest. Wash the root and leaves and cook in boiling water. Beetroots stain everything purple so be careful.

Carrot

Carrots should be sown April to May in moist soil and should be ready in around 10 weeks. Plant these near onions or in raised pots to prevent the threat of pests and insects. After 10 weeks you should be able to easily pull a small carrot from the soil. Once ready, fresh carrots make an easy picnic snack or grated to add colour to salads and soups.