Grow your own – it’s easier than you think

With hardly any previous veg-growing experience, Joe took on a 250sq m allotment a 20-minute train journey from his home in north London, and in less than a year created his own urban oasis, producing fresh, organic produce for his family.

The new series of Gardeners’ World features his work in progress, and Joe has also found time to chart his experiences, offering some useful advice in his latest book, Joe’s Allotment.

Yet allotments are not just about growing fruit and veg – they create communities and provide social gatherings where adults and children can connect with nature and learn from each other.

“Most allotment holders are very chatty people and you can get a lot of information from them when you first take on a plot,” he says.

It’s not all about the cloth-cap brigade either; new generations have also caught the bug. “A lot of the new plots are taken over by young families, people who want to get their kids involved and who want to know where their food is coming from. Even on my site, there are some teenagers who’ve taken over a plot,” Joe says.

“There’s a whole new generation of younger people who are taking the spare plots. It’s fantastic.”

Time is a big consideration when you take on an allotment.

“You’ve got to assess how much time you’ve got, how physically capable you are and do a little bit at a time. If you take over a whole plot, think about sharing it with one or two other people, or some councils will just rent out half or a quarter of a plot.”

His own two children became quite involved in the process, growing easy crops like radishes, spring onions and strawberries. “I gave them a patch of their own and let them plant anything they wanted. They were also given a load of sunflowers from another plot holder. It’s great to give them a little patch of their own, but you can guide them a bit as well if they plant things too closely.

“My son also loves ‘barrowing’, so when compost turns up he’ll be there, or if I need a big hole dug I’ll give him a spade. They also meet other kids on the plot, so it’s a social thing.”

If youngsters learn early how to grow their own, it may lessen the problem of children growing up fussy eaters.

“My kids will try anything they grow and are picking up skills, soaking it all up. When they get older and have an outside space of their own, they will know how to garden.

“There are no down sides. It’s healthy, they sleep well at the end of the day and are growing loads of fruit and veg. It’s also cheap entertainment. I go up there for an afternoon and all I’ve spent is the train fare.”

Fellow gardeners swap tips, seeds and information on the allotment, he enthuses. “Last year when I got going, people were giving me seeds and sometimes plants I hadn’t grown and bags of veg. For the first two months last year, all the stuff I was bringing home I hadn’t actually grown myself. It was like a free supermarket.”

The BBC is calling on the nation to Dig In with a new learning campaign, encouraging people to grow their own vegetables through a dedicated website and national tour. It will be launched on Gardeners’ World and by the Green Balloon Club on CBeebies, and is getting growers started by offering free seed packs, available through www.bbc.co.uk/digin.

Starter packs contain five varieties of plants suitable for a range of growing locations, soils and climates including Gardener’s Delight tomatoes, Lolla Rossa or Red Salad Bowl lettuce, Boltardy beetroot, Harrier or Hunter butternut squash and Early Nantes carrots.

Throughout the growing season, the Dig In website and tour aims to help growers nurture their plants successfully.

Joe’s Allotment, by Joe Swift, is published by BBC Books, priced £17.99.

GOOD ENOUGH TO EAT – Carrots Among the most versatile of vegetables, carrots can be added to casseroles and stews, grated raw into salads and coleslaw, are delicious roasted in the oven.

If you have deep, free-draining and stone-free soil, you can grow longer varieties, otherwise create a raised bed or just grow some in pots. Sow seeds direct into the soil in drills around 13mm (1/2in) deep and 6in apart. Water the base before sowing and cover seeds with dry soil.

Cover early crops with cloches to keep the soil warm. This will encourage germination. To deter carrot fly, sow onions either side to put them off the scent.

Thin seedlings in stages until the roots are 5-7.5cm (2-3in) to allow the rest to grow to full size. Earth up from time to time, as the top of the root will turn green if the sunlight hits it.

They can be left in the ground until needed, unless you live in a cold area with a lot of slugs, in which case lift and box them in sand.

Varieties include Atlas, which is good for containers, and Maestro F1, resistant to the carrot fly.

Best of the bunch – Hyacinth

These fantastically fragrant bulbs, which grow to between 20-30cm (8-12in) should be left by a patio door or on a wall so that you can take in their delicious scent as you walk past.

They are great planted in single colours in pots, or in spring borders, where their spikes of waxy, tubular, bellshaped flowers in a huge variety of colours from whites to yellows, pinks and purples, can be fully appreciated.

Plant bulbs about 10cm (4in) deep, spaced 8cm (3in) apart in autumn, in a sunny or partially shaded spot, in moderately fertile but well-drained soil. Containergrown bulbs need a loam-based compost, mixed with some grit for extra drainage. Place the containers on pot feet so the damp doesn’t rise from below and rot the bulbs. Shelter them from excessive wet weather in winter.

Lovely varieties include H orientalis Delft Blue (right) and the primrose-yellow City of Haarlem.

WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK

● Pull off dead outer leaves of phormiums and divide congested clumps.

● Once indoor bulbs have finished flowering, plant them outside and water well with a liquid feed.

● Sow peas and mangetout outside at monthly intervals, for a continuing supply of crops.

● Transplant young seedlings of cabbages and other brassicas sown in seed beds earlier in the year.

● Cover rows of strawberries with tunnel cloches, opening the sides each day to allow access for pollinating insects.

● Tie in climbing and rambling roses.

● Sow new lawns or repair bare patches.

● Sow beetroot, carrots, Swiss chard, summer cauliflower, kohl rabi, lettuce, leeks, radish, turnip, spring and pickling onions, peas and perpetual spinach in well-prepared soil.

● Trim sage plants to keep them neat and to encourage fresh shoots.

● Divide clumps of herbaceous perennials that you want to propagate or those that have become too large for their allotted space.

● Deadhead pansies, primulas and other spring bedding plants. Pansies will carry on into the spring and even to early summer, if attended to frequently.

● Collect dead foliage or stems from marginal plants, scooping them out of the pond with a small net if necessary.

THREE WAYS TO...

Look after herbaceous perennials

● Mulch flower borders in early spring when the soil is moist and weed-free, using a 5cm (2in) layer of organic matter.

● Feed plants in mid-spring when some growth is showing, but don’t let the fertiliser lodge in the crowns of plants as it may scorch them. Flush it out with plenty of water.

● Support tall or floppy perennials with pea sticks, canes or other frames, putting the supports in place before the plants start to flop.