If you would like to grow your own vegetables - tomatoes, potatoes and runner beans throughout the summer in your own garden and you haven’t much space, a few tips will get you on the right path to success. Just follow a few simple guidelines and you’ll have the best tasting and freshest fruit and vegetables available - at a fraction of the cost.

Choose varieties that are easy to grow.
You’ll see a lot of seed varieties that are attractive but the following are a few of the best one to grow in the UK.

Tomatoes
Bush varieties are easy to grow in large pots and do not require their side shoots removed.
Of these, Tumbling Tom, Garden Pearl, Red Alert and Maskotka are all fantastic cherry varieties and will usually mature earlier than larger cousins.
 

Sow seeds indoors in April - don’t sow seeds directly into soil outdoors or some bug will eat the little seedlings!
Plant seedlings into their own 3” pots three to four weeks after germination.
Pot on to larger pots to prevent young plants from becoming root-bound.
Use fresh multi-purpose compost to fill containers or use grow bags.
Plant outside after last frost in your area.

A bush tomato plant will give you over a hundred cherry tomatoes if grown well. The larger the tomatoes the fewer a plant will produce.

Potatoes - start March-April but keep them sheltered from frost.
Best grown from seed potatoes - that’s potatoes that you buy at the garden centre or DIY store that have already started to make shoots.
First and second earlies are the one to grow. and they can be grown in barrels or even heavy duty plastic rubble or gravel sacks.

Plant three potatoes onto about 4 inches of compost/soil and cover with more soil to about a 2 or 3 inch depth. Shoots will grow out of the soil and more soil should be added to cover the potatoes growing underneath - light turns potatoes green which then become poisonous so keep adding soil regularly.

Runner Beans - sow indoors around end of April, outdoors end of May when all danger of frost has passed.
They can be sown into individual pots then planted outside at the end of May which is the best way for container growing.
Very easy to grow even in a wet summer - they like lots of water!
Prolific crops from just a few plants that will grow in containers or grow bags etc.

Pick before the beans inside their pods begin to swell (about 6 - 8 inches).You can freeze what you can’t eat for later in the year - cut them up, boil them for a couple of minutes then bag them for the freezer and they taste fantastic.

Tomatoes, potatoes and runner beans are among the most useful fruit and vegetables to grow and - all being well - your efforts will be well rewarded.

For those who would like more “in-depth” information about vegetable growing, watch the video and a link to the website may be found here.

       About Nick | Privacy Statement | Tomato Growing © 2009 | Site Map | Contact