Vegetables for the small garden

by Julian Brandram

If you have not got a separate vegetable patch or allotment you can still fit a few vegetables in somewhere. Choose those which you can’t buy really fresh or are expensive. Courgettes are surprisingly easy and so much nicer when you can just pick what you need and use them straight away! Start the seeds off in a heated propagator or if you have not got one, use a sunny window sill or an airing cupboard and do not over water them. Put one seed in each pot and when they are about 6" high harden them off and plant them outside under a cloche or cold frame to protect them from frost. By the middle of May, it is usually safe to take the cloche off. Pick the courgettes when they are small, as they are tastier and it stimulates the plant to keep producing more

Sugar snap peas are well worth growing, you don’t need to pod them, eat the whole lot! The pods are sweet and juicy, just like a tasty apple! You don’t need many plants, so you can grow them up a sunny wall or a fence. However, they do grow much taller than ordinary peas so they will need good supports.

A few lettuces are worth including, the frilly leaved ones are less attractive to slugs, you can dot them in among the flowers if you like. Varieties such as Salad Bowl are ”cut and come again” types, so instead of picking the whole lettuce you just pick a few leaves and the plant continues to grow for a lot longer. Two or three plants should be enough.

Radishes are best grown in spring when they will grow fast and can be picked while still succulent and crunchy. The variety called French Breakfast is best avoided as it soon gets woody, try White Icicle which is a long thin root with a fiery taste.
Happy eating!

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