Adventures in vegetable growing!

As mentioned in my previous post, attending to our vegetable patch has become a fairly big part of my free time. If you follow me on instagram you'll have been inundated with pictures of our veg growing progress. The tiny seeds we planted have come a long way over the last four months and, although the herbs were ready earlier, veg has started to appear!

This is going to be seriously old news for anyone who grows their own food but, the satisfaction of digging up your own potatoes or cutting off your own courgettes or plucking your own tomatoes, you just can't beat it, it's bloody brilliant! Our tomatoes have been the biggest revelation. Sure they don't look as uniform as the ones in the supermarket but by god are they flavoursome!

Our first couregtte // herb haul (basil, corriander, fennell, cammomile and chives) // beetroot! // first load of potatoes

Now, growing veg isn't hard, you plant the seeds, water them regularly and make sure they get lots of sunlight. But we've learned a few things along the way, including: get your carrots in the ground quick or they'll end up tiny; protect your cabbages - ours got completely munched within a week of planting them; potato plants are supposed to die, that's when you know they're ready to dig up; don't plant runner beans near a hedge - they won't get enough sunlight (silly us); the best way to take a cutting from a tomato plant is to put the cutting in a jar of water and wait for the roots to grow, then you can plant it in soil; your battle with weeds is never over; and lastly, take lots of pictures, it's cool to be able to look back on how everything changes.

our beast of a courgette plant

Mitch moved one of the tomato plants outside and it's doing better than the ones inside my nan's conservatory (it's actually got six toms growing on it now), so we've moved a couple more outside.

one of two tomato cuttings showing some roots :)

  Last weekend's fruits (or should I say veg). Still gutted about the carrots.

I'm very aware that it's massively unlikely that Mitch and I will buy a property with a garden (to buy a property in London at all is proving to be a mean feat), which is why we're so enthusiastic about the opportunity to grow stuff at my nan's. In terms of our future London abode, I've got my fingers crossed for a balcony (somewhere for the tomatoes, herbs and chilli plant to hang out). Ultimately though, my end game is a house (preferably near-ish the sea) with a decent sized garden with a bit of lawn for lounging, wild flowers for the bees, a fruit tree of some sorts and lots of room for veg growing. Ah garden lusting - something I never thought I'd do, this late 20s thing is ace!

Have you been growing food this summer? I'm nosy to know what other people grow :)