Win: get gardening with What You Sow
***Rachel Khoo would like to thank all the inspiring people who helped make the Khoollect studio a hive of creativity. Although the Khoollect studio’s doors have now closed, you can keep up with Rachel’s newest adventures on RachelKhoo.com and on Rachel’s Instagram and Facebook pages – and, continue to enjoy the Khoollect website’s stories and recipes, which will remain available.***
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My top tip is to encourage children to help out. My daughter is always asking to do things, so my daughter will be looking after our fruit and veg this year.
Ensure you plan out your planting for the year, to ensure you plant what you need when you need to
Top tip:
If like me, you are rubbish at knowing the difference between plants and weeds. Just take a quick snap and tweet it with #gardening and somone usually gets back to you to identify it within a few hours – I’ve avoided the sacrifice of many an ‘ugly duckling come beautiful swan’ plant this way 🙂
Start small with simple crops like tomatoes and potatoes and then expend to more delicate varieties once you have more confidence. And only plant what you will look forward to it.
I have a small garden in a end terrace Victorian town house. I love food and I’m vegetarian. Grow lots of herbs in pots and plant tomatoes and strawberries in hanging baskets. Tumbling Bella and Romello are great tomatoes. Toscana and Elan are fabulous strawberries bearing fruit bearing fruits from June to October.
My friend just made some Ginger biscuits, Surprise Surprise they tasted of Ginger, where-as those from the Supermarket just taste of sugar, the thing with gardening is you can get back to natural flavours,
Fruit and veg from the Supermarket have all been washed in some sort of chemical even Organic I have yet to find a carrot that comes out of the ground spotlessly clean, all they need is a bit of water and a scrubbing brush.
Nature has feed us as far back as the Historians can record perhaps it knows more than science. Gardening also saves a fortune on GymFees!
Know your soil and research the preferences of the plants that you plan to use.
Teach your children that dandelions are good to pick- stops them setting seed.
Basil can sometimes be tricky to grow from seed, but one cheap supermarket pot can be split into five or six smaller clumps, which can be potted up in compost and will grow on quite happily on a sunny windowsill. Water in the mornings (not in the evenings) and you’ll be able to make more pesto than you’ve ever dreamed of!
Grow what you love to eat, keep notes and take photos. You may not be able to improve on nature, but you can always improve your growing skills with the benefit of hindsight!
Pot on the runners from the strawberries at the end of the summer, look after over the winter and come spring you have a new batch of strawberry plants ready.
Don’t be discouraged if you don’t have perfect gardening conditions. All it takes is some courage. Once you start growing your own veggies and herbs, you will never go back !
You haven’t really tasted a carrot until you have grown your own . My tip is to grow in light sandy soil so the roots can burrow down. Also concentrate on growing 4 or 5 things really well rather then being too ambitious and letting it run away with you
When you’re a newbie to gardening like me.. get inspired! Pintrest gives you loads of ideas no matter your garden size or area.. then get out there and feel the sun on you!
Don’t be afraid of trying new things… and remember to prepare yourself well earlier – I’m always searching the Internet for useful advices 🙂
Keep baby C. away from cherry tomatoes. Will devour them without even waiting for them to ripen. 🙂