Autumnal blues?

A couple of days ago I walked along a sunlit River Thames, light dappling through the trees and onto the water, geese and herons paddling on the edges and rowers cutting through the still clear water. Now the sky is grey, the wind is howling, it's forecast to rain and I'm shivering my socks off indoors and switching on the heating.

Yes folks, after our Indian Summer, Autumn is well and truly here! Meanwhile our friends Downunder are hitting the beaches - and the trouble with Facebook is you get to hear all about it and see the photographs.

Looking out of the window into the gloom of the garden, the plants are also looking rather down in the dumps, with frazzled leaves and dying flowerheads. Apart from the dash of colour from the pink sedum, it's all starting to look a bit depressing and rather sorry for itself.

Rather than start indulging my SAD syndrome (Seasonal Affective Disorder) - or as the Italians call it "cambio della stagione" I'm going to console myself by planning the garden for next year. Now is a good time for taking stock of what worked and what didn't. For thinking about next year's display and for ringing the changes by introducing some plants for the winter.

If you're going to be growing vegetables - and if you haven't tried then give it a go - it's so rewarding - there's a fantastic offer from the lovely people at GrowVeg - a 30 day free trial of their really useful software for planning your vegetable planting. It enables you to make a scale drawing of your vegetable plot or allotment and populate it with the vegetables you want to grow. It even shows you how much space each plant needs, which plants go together and how to rotate crops.
>> Take a free trial

Digging for Victory....again!

Wouldn’t you just know it…No.10 Downing Street have started their own vegetable garden! Apparently the first harvest from their veg patch has just started to appear on the menu of the No.10 staff canteen and staff are also allowed to buy fresh vegetables to take home. Apparently they are little pricey at £1.98 for a lettuce, but as one official said

“How many people can say that their salad comes direct from the Prime Minister’s back garden?”

The Browns aren't digging for victory themselves (the patch is actually tended by staff from the Royal Parks Agency), but they are said to take a ‘keen interest’ in how their vegetables are doing (well they would say that wouldn’t they!) and staff are encouraged to post photos of their produce on the No. 10 website or their No 10 Veg Flickr gallery.

The Prime Minister is allegedly very keen to show off his patch to the ‘all party gardening group’ and is hoping to encourage others people to try their hand at growing their own vegetables.

Admittedly it is unlikely that people will jump on the bandwagon of growing their own organic veg just so they can be like the Browns (There aren’t many people I know that are desperate to emulate our Gordon), but it is at least raising awareness and getting the message into our newspapers.

So whether this is just a desperate attempt to keep up with the Obamas (and the Queen) or a cynical ploy to endear themselves to the voters, let’s give them points for at least trying and for getting veg onto the political agenda for the first time since our wartime efforts of Digging for Victory.

Related Links

>> Dig for Victory - look at the original wartime film

>> Our tips on growing veg

>> Top tips on making your own compost

>> How to grow your own strawberries

>> Ten Downing Street

Blooming bras and pants

It seems that our ideas for unusual plant containers have been taken up in the most influential circles – the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) no less.

A little while ago we wrote on our website about turning bras into unusual plant containers (see link below).

Now the RHS has created the ‘Hanging Bra-sket’ as part of its drive to encourage sustainable gardening and food growing. (The bras were apparently donated by ‘enthusiastic gardeners’ and Marks & Spencer.)

They have since upped the ante and come up with ‘plant pants’ which are, yes, you guessed it, pants with plants in and what we’ve christened ‘window boxers’. (Think horticulture’s answer to Linford Christie.) The RHS has gone for a combination of blooms and veggies. Something for the lunch box, so to speak.

The containers were on display at the recent Hampton Court Flower Show.

>> Watch a video about the RHS bra-skets and plant pants

>> See our orginal bra container article - as well as lots of other ideas for creative containers

According to Georgie Webb of the RHS: “Due to their conical shape, bras are ideal containers for turning into hanging baskets, and if you sew two together, you have what is best described as a ‘hanging bra-sket’.

“Once filled with compost you can grow salad leaves, herbs, alpine strawberries and even tumbling cherry tomatoes in them; the bigger the bra the more you can grow. But the serious message behind the ‘bra-skets’ is that you do not need a lot of space or even a lot of money to start growing your own food – just a bit of imagination.”

Top 10 Vegetables to Grow when space is limited

Vegetable seeds are outselling flowers. UK allotments have a waiting list of 100,000 people. Towns are turning their public spaces into vegetable plots. Garden centre carparks are overflowing. Growing veg has become very fashionable. The credit crunch has got us all longing for the crunch of a fresh grown carrot and everyone is walking around with dirty nails!

But we don't all have the luxury of a sizeable dedicated vegatble plot. That doesn't mean you can't grow vegs: you just need to pick them wisely. We have already written about growing vegetables in containers instead of flowers and recently reviewed a fabulous book Crop in Pots to give you some inspiration about veggie displays as attractive as flowers. Now here are some ideas on which vegetables can be grown when space is at a premium.

1. Herbs. Even if you only have a window-sill you can grow herbs in pots. They're mostly easy to tend and cost a fraction of the exorbitant amounts you pay in the supermarket. Some suggestions for getting started are Rosemary (very easy and hardy), Thyme - lots of varieties and rather decorative, Mint - as this is very invasive it is actually better confining it to a small space ( if you do have a bed to plant it in it's better to put it in a bottomless pot and plant this to be keep it contained), and Sage with its lovely velvety leaves. I have also planted Oregano in a container this year and it's doing brilliantly. One of our readers Eileen Riddiford has just posted on the Make it and Mend it Forum that she buys a pot of basil from the supermarket, so she'll have fresh basil for salads and cooking onboard when she goes sailing. "Then I take the pots home and pot them on to a bigger pot, harden them off and put them outside. Result: three or four huge basil plants in pots." Not sure if this is due to the salty sea air or Eileen's greenfingers as generally supermarket basil is not reknowned for potting on.

2. Potatoes - the received wisdom used to be that you needed a big open plot for these - but they do well in containers too. An increasingly popular method is growing them in old tyres, if you have the space. Otherwise a dustbin or a large plastic container will do. Now you can also buy potato growing sacks and custom potato barrels.

3. Carrots - these are very easy and can be grown happily in pots. If you are growing from seed and have the room, it is a good idea to do so in batches every few weeks so they crop at different times and keep you in supply.

4. Radishes - these are really easy and produce very rapid results from seed - again like carrots you may want to phase the sowing from March to July so you get a continuous supply.

5. Tomatoes - grow-bags make tomato growing very easy - even if the bags are a little ugly (which remonds me - Anne was going to design and give instructions for a grow-bag cover to pretty them up - come on Anne!). You can even grow tomatoes in hanging baskets if you get the tumbling variety - and they look very attractive mixed in with other stuff.

6. Lettuce - try Little Gems or mixed salad leaves. Again if growing from seeds. phase the sowing so you can get a continuous supply over the summer months.

7. Courgettes (zucchini) - grown from seed these re easy to sow as the seeds are large like melon seeds and germinate very quickly. As long as you keep them protected through the frosts, harden them off before planting out, and can give them plenty of sunshine they will be fine. As well as the courgettes themselves you get to enjoy the yellow flowers - which are also delicious tempura style.

6. Dwarf runner beans - compact varieties grow well in pots and also reward you with red and white flowers.

9. Rocket - fast and easy to grow and lovely nutty taste to mix in with salads or serve with cold meats

10. Peppers - you can grow chillis or sweet peppers in pots. These can also look very decorative - the brilliant ed against green leaves. Once grown you can dry chillies and use for ages.

A top tip if you have very limited sapce is to buy and share seeds with friends. You can share the seeds or grow and swap seedlings or just divvy up the vegetables.

Useful resources:
The Royal Horticultural Society great advice on selecting and growing vegetables as well as other plants - and the RHS gadens are a great source of inspiration as a well as a good place to buy plants and seeds
I Grow Veg - we love this blog by a lady who shares her learning as she goes - great advice for the novice including pest control
Buy seeds, containers, tools and helpful books
Incredible edible Todmorden - a village that aims to become self-sufficient in vegetables

How to grow vegetables when you have no space

Now that many of us are facing tough times with the economic crisis, growing some of our own food has to be a good idea. But what do you do if you don't have much space? I had always thought you needed a sizeable vegetable plot or an allotment before you could even contemplate growing vegetables.

How wrong I was! I have now discovered the joys of sneaking vegetables in amongst the flowers in the few small beds I have in my little town patio garden. I had no idea how decorative they can be and how well they mix in with the flowers that are already there. Courgettes for example give a plentiful crop from a couple of plants and also reward you with their flowers.

This olive tree in a tall container last year was surrounded by geraniums. This year I've planted Mediterranean herbs (thyme and oregano) around it with some colour to come soon from a few blue sweet peas and some blue salvia. The different shades of green, different leaf textures and shapes make a wonderful combination. I'm now going to grow some real peas in with some sweet peas in a different corner of the garden, so I can have the benefit of the colour and scent of the sweet peas and the yummy taste of fresh peas form the pod. I can't wait!

(That's a fig tree just behind - there's already quite a lot of fruit appearing so fingers crossed!)