Grow your own veg
Published: 11 Nov 2021
Just take a look at these interesting studies.
Growing your own fruit and veg at home or on an allotment is a great way to enjoy more seasonal tasty produce whilst helping your children learn where food comes from and is also valuable exercise.
See here for more information on allotments, including how to apply for one.
If you have a bit of space, grow a kitchen herb garden, it’s fun, helps bees and saves you money
Grow to Give is also a nice project you might be interested in. Maybe you could suggest this to others in your area too?
Picking your own fruit and veg can be a fun way to save money and pick fresh produce if you don’t grow your own. There are plenty of places in Wales you can do this
Did you know that growing your veg can cut climate emissions by 2 kilograms for every kilo of homegrown vegetable when compared to a store-bought counterpart?
Of course, how you garden and if you use organic principles and produce your own compost will affect this. There are also many other benefits to trying to produce more of our own fruit, vegetables and herbs. It’s fun, gets us out and about, helps teach our kids where food comes from and things like home grown peas and tomatoes taste wonderful!
As you would expect, there is an absolute stack of information out there to help you grow your own fruit and vegetables. Did you know that ‘more than a third of all global trade in vegetable seeds originates in the Netherlands.’?
Sarah Raven and Gardener’s World have lots of good information for example. Garden Organic have some great ideas and advice for going organic. If you fancy trying your hand at permaculture then Permaculture Wales are a great place to start.
You might like to think about using green manure which is a technique that can help smother weeds, improve soil structure and return valuable nutrients to the soil. You might even like to try a smaller version of this ‘compost tea’ process!
Young Welsh gardener, Huw Richards, has a successful vlog which is definitely worth checking out.
Need any more help?
SmartPlant can help you identify any plants you might be struggling with and you can check what your soil properties are with the mySoil app. GrowVeg can help you plan your garden and has loads of information about which veg to grow and how to manage various pests. There are plenty more useful Apps out there too.
Allotments
If you don’t have room at home to grow your own, then allotments are an ever popular alternative. The Welsh Allotment Society are also a handy source of information. If you would like to apply for an allotment then contact your local council or use this online facility. There are many innovative projects going on around Wales, Cae Perllan allotments in Newport for example have even started a scheme where they donate fresh food to a local food bank.
Allotments have also been shown to be a very valuable habitat for pollinators.