How Do You Grow Food?

I got a lovely chatty email from a reader called Chloe the other day, she has recently started growing fruit and veggies and was having problems with some of her plants.  I hope she doesn't mind but I thought the answer I gave her might be useful to someone else who is having a struggle to get started this year.

But what I forgot to put in my reply to her is that this year has been an unusual growing year for lots of gardeners all over the country, she's not alone in struggling with the basics.  I thought what I was learning here in North Wales was what happens every year, but no, I've been talking to fellow veg growers and they are nearly all saying things are behind where they normally are, the rabbits have gone berserk and decimated crops for lots of them, and that this is a pretty unusual year.  Looks like I'll be learning all over again next year then .... something us gardeners do year on year.  So anyway onto the answer I gave Chloe to the question ....

...... ''How Do You Grow Food?"

Wow!!  What a question ....'How do you grow food'?'

It takes some luck and some learning, it takes LOTS of failures and learning from them, it takes perseverance and persistence but most of all it takes the willingness to keep going until eventually after making many, many mistakes things eventually start to go right.  

It took me a while, I started too many years ago to recount, when my boys were little, getting disheartened when everything keeled over and died.  Feeling embarrassed when it felt like everyone knew the latin names for everything they grew and I was the complete novice who barely knew a potato plant from a weed.

I learnt slowly but surely and picked up tips from reading, listening and watching Gardeners World ... which used to be so much better than I feel it is now.  I gave up for many years when my career overtook my gardening time but then like most green fingered folk I returned.  

Even now things go wrong ... frequently, and I do try to blog about it when they do so everyone can see that there are always failures to balance the successes.  This year for instance, the rabbits have eaten ALL my onion tops and half the garlic tops, leaving the onions and garlic to stay small in the soil unable to grow on any more, I've had to pull them up just when they needed only a couple more weeks to put on their good growth that would have seen us with enough to store to see us through the rest of the Summer and well into Winter  :-(

Before they ate the onions and the garlic they ate all but two of the runner beans, the two they didn't get were still under their 'pop bottle cloches' as they were the runts the tinyplants that I thought would come to nothing ... now they are my only beans and I daren't take the bottles off!!  The turnips were gone as soon as they appeared through the soil, they just didn't stand a chance.

So this year is a year of re-learning for me, I mean who would have thought the bloody bunnies would eat onions and garlic and leave the lovely little baby courgettes that are growing everywhere at a pretty alarming rate.  

And that is it with gardening and growing, just when you feel you are getting somewhere and developing confidence everything changes.  The soil, the weather, the pests, the time you can devote to what you have, there is always something different.

To answer your specifics, and it's only an educated guess -

Chilli plant - too much watering or not enough consistency with the watering, they don't like to be too wet or get too dry, did you feed it?  Maybe it needed feeding.  Most plants once they are bearing their fruit need feeding, tomato food is good for virtually everything and is one of the cheapest to buy.

Rosemary plant - they either live and thrive ... or drop down dead, don't blame yourself too much I have had some of each this year.

Peas - copper bands round the pots or beds will keep off slugs and snails, or sharp gravel, or a ring of salt, ring of crushed egg shells, they have tender little tummies that hurt if they cross these.  If all else fails slug pellets, spread thinly around your plants.  I do use these as a last resort and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

I've never grown Tayberries, but it sounds as though your bush needs a prune, then hopefully it will fruit much better next year.  At least it sounds healthy!!

Strawberries - same reply as above for the snails, it is the end of the season so you might not get any more fruit.  Now's the time to watch out for runners and peg them down to give you more plants for next year.  Then you can make the strawberry patch a hostile place for the slugs and snails.

I've struggled with Marigolds EVERY year until this year, and suddenly I've got something right and they are like triffids, I have no reason for this, I have done exactly the same every year!!

Your surviving plants are doing a brilliant job attracting all the beneficial creatures to the garden you have done something wonderful there, well done.  So don't feel unsuccessful, try and feel as though you are on a learning curve and you have almost got a whole season of learning out of the way.

All you have to do now is go to the garden centre, buy the healthiest Pepper plant and the most gorgeous Rosemary plant you can find and enjoy them . Go to Tesco and buy a big box of strawberries and a pack of frozen peas and tell yourself that this time next year these will be your very own.

My advice - never give up.

Oh, and I should have added ... collect gardening books or visit the library, and use Google to check everything you don't know, it's a wonderful way to learn about things.

Do any of you have any tips for budding food growers?

Sue xx