I've always grown my own food as long as I can remember. The amount I grow varies from year to year - some years I'll grow all sorts of plants and other years I just grow whatever perennials I already have. It's quite rewarding to grow your own food, and I'm not just talking about the food itself - you get to see how these plants grow at every stage and you are more grateful for the food you've grown. It feels quite special to be able to eat something you sewed and cared for.
This year I'm growing peas! I have about 25 sprouting right now. Most of them are in their own pots but I still have a few to plant out. Peas are brilliant for improving soil quality as they have little nodules on their roots containing nitrogen-fixing bacteria. This means they convert the nitrogen in the air (N2) into a form plants can use. Instances like this where two organisms work together like this is called mutual symbiosis. Both the peas and bacteria benefit here - the peas get nutrients, the bacteria get a safe place to live.
Another plant with this symbiotic relationship is broad beans. In fact, all legumes have nitrogen-fixing bacteria nodules. I mentioned broad beans because that's another plant I'm growing! Back in 2018, a field on top of the hills I take evening walks along was growing broad beans but the crop failed due to the intense heat that summer. When I took the beans from the blackened pods, the beans were already dried. I only took a handful of beans, planning to go back for more in a few days, however it rained heavily the next day (for the first time in a while). By the time I went back, the beans had already started to grow mould. I couldn't save any more beans but out of the ones I did, every single bean has germinated! Broad bean flowers are rather beautiful so I look forward to their growth!
Herbs are very important to me as I use them liberally and often. This year I'm growing heaps of catnip and basil. I'll also be growing thyme and possibly hyssop and safflower (two of the plants in a 'shake & rake' packet I bought contained hyssop and safflower, as well as bee balm and even more basil). Strangely, some of the old bee balm patch I used to have is starting to grow back, probably from dormant seeds. I absolutely love bee balm, or lemon balm as it's also known, so I'm quite chuffed about this. My cats on the other hand aren't so pleased. The younger one, Smudge, actually gagged at the smell!
I have some old seeds that I'm giving a chance but I'm not sure whether they'll grow due to their age (most of them are at least a decade past their 'sew by' date). It's worth sewing them despite the low chances of success, just in the hopes that something might grow. I may as well grow them seeing as there isn't really any other way I could use them. One of the 'newer' seed packets was for courgettes but I'm pretty sure I got them in 2012 as part of that year's vegetarian week, so it's unlikely I'll have much success there. I also planted 4 or 5 packets of poppy seeds, which I should have some better results with seeing as poppies can stay dormant for up to 50 years.
One of my perennials is strawberry plants. I've had them so long that I can't remember a time without them. For the entire month of June, I eat strawberries every day - 30 or more each day at the height of strawberry season. When I think of summer, I think of strawberries. It's basically a ritual for me now to grow strawberries. They've been taking over the garden for years now they just keep spreading (not that I'm complaining!). Ozzy, my older cat, loves a little bit of strawberry once in a while. My rabbit Nibbles used to eat half the strawberries before I could even get to them! Both Ozzy and Nibbles have/had white fur so you could always tell when they ate strawberries as they'd have a big pink stain around their mouths.
Two of my more recent perennials are raspberries and blackcurrants. I got them as a gift for my mum back in December 2013. Since then the raspberries have grown considerably in size and are almost as plentiful as the strawberries. The blackcurrants have been quite a bit slower to grow. In fact until 2018, they didn't actually produce any fruit. I didn't even realise they were still growing until I noticed one day a huge, hidden bunch of nearly-ripened fruits.
I've written before about how much I love rhubarb in one of my recipes but I'll say it again; rhubarb is so underrated! It can be used in a variety of sweet and savoury dishes, yet it seems most people only use it for Crumble. I have plenty of rhubarb recipes to share with you in later blog posts. Because of how big the rhubarb I grow is, I'll have plenty to try on all sorts of recipes all the way from spring to autumn! I've added some rust to the soil near the rhubarb this year, so it'll hopefully be extra flavourful. The rhubarb has even bigger growth spurts each year and it seems this year will be no exception! I counted eleven crowns this year, up from about 5 or 6 last year, which was a great year for my rhubarb. I had never seen it grow so big. Many of the stalks were as long as my arms and one was longer than my leg. With rhubarb, it's important to water it often as it's a large plant.
Next year I'm going to grow tomatoes. I would have grown some this year but I couldn't get a hold of any seeds. Tomatoes are a great plant to grow as the fruits are practically a necessity. I'm thinking of growing yellow pear tomatoes and green zebra tomatoes. The green zebras will be perfect for making green tomato chutney.
Are you growing anything this year, or planning to next year? Please leave a comment down below! Thank you for reading and goodbye until next time! :) ~Jay
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