Edible plants can provide an equally stunning display as flowers and give you that little added bonus. As the New Year begins, it’s the perfect time to re-design your garden so why not think about including fruit, herbs, vegetables and edible flowers.
Benefits
There are plenty of benefits to growing your own edible garden. Health and gardening have always gone hand in hand and there’s nothing better than spending time in your garden to reap the benefits later with fresh produce! Produce can be expensive so growing your own can save those all-important pennies.
Getting Started
If you’re a beginner, try planting easy to care for herbs and vegetables that will give you prolific results. Tomatoes are the perfect starting point, mainly because they don’t require much care but also because they will grow almost anywhere!
You may also benefit from purchasing a range of edible plants or multi-packs for your first growing season, defining your choices next year. We offer multi-packs of tomatoes, chilli peppers, sweet peppers, mixed peppers and herbs.
Try planting to suit your culinary needs. If you or your family buy tonnes of herbs, tomatoes, peppers or beans grow what you will eat the most so nothing goes to waste.
You can create a stunning display using any mix of edible plants either in patterns or randomly to create a more varied look. If your garden is a little on the traditional side, try to mix things up by replacing your lawn or beds with rows of colourful vegetables, fruit trees or herbs.
Lacking Space?
Gardens come in all sorts of shapes and sizes which can often make a big design change seem daunting. There are all sorts of space-saving ideas that you can use in your garden, balcony or even windowsills!
Windowsills are an unlikely but effective place to grow an edible garden. Try our windowsill tomatoes ‘Tomato Sweet & Neat’ for a fantastic, sweet taste straight from the plant.
Containers aren’t just useful for flowers; they can provide the perfect environment for growing edible plants too! If you’re lacking space and only have a balcony or patio to use, container growing is perfect for you. We have a stunning selection of patio fruit trees, patio tomatoes, herbs and even potatoes!
Raised beds are ideal for building a thriving, accessible vegetable patch. Instead of treading on soil, create a maze of raised beds for you to walk around and reach all plants with ease. Raised beds also reduce the spreading of pests and diseases.
Vertical planting is a great space-saving method. Grow vegetables such as runner beans or tomatoes with rambling vines using a trellis to grow them in a specific direction.
Allotments
Allotment popularity, as you’ve probably noticed has increased tenfold in the past few years. This makes it difficult to get hold of space quickly but not impossible! Investigate where your local allotments are and contact the council for more information on how to join the waiting list. Also have a think about whether you’d like to share the allotment, making it easier to keep up with planting, harvesting and general maintenance.
Share with Your Neighbours
Buying gardening tools, feed, seeds and everything else that you need to buy to get started can be expensive. It’s likely that one of your neighbours will love gardening too and will be willing to give you a helping hand if you help them in return! Organise street events such as an annual seed swap to create a sense of community and get what you want for no extra cost.
