NO GROWTH FOR GARDENS

This week is 'National Growing for Wellbeing Week', a celebration of the positive impact of growing your own produce for your physical and mental wellbeing. There are currently an estimated 300,000 allotments across Britain, although many people utilise space in their own garden to grow their own vegetables.

The average size of a UK domestic garden at 14sqm (150 sq ft or 10ft x 15ft) so there is not a lot of space for a large vegetable patch and the average UK household spends £150 on their garden each year, so you have to be quite clever with the type of products you purchase. The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) reports that the ‘grow-your-own’ trend has seen fruit and vegetable seed sales outstrip flowers in their garden centres. 

If you have some outside space and would like to grow some vegetables, it's not too late for these:

• Salad Leaves - Can grow throughout the Summer, they take 3 weeks to grow and need to be watered well.

• Peas - Can grow through June, they take 2-3 months to grow, you need to support them with canes.  The more you pick the more you get!

• Spring Onions - Can grow through Junes & July, they take about 8 weeks to grow and if you leave them to flower they will self-seed.

• Runner Beans - You can grow through June & July, they take about 2 months to grow up a frame, keep picking as you get more that way.

• Beetroot - Can grow to end July, they take 8-10 weeks to grow juicy bulbs, plant the seeds 5cm apart to give them room.

The sad news is that across the UK, the number of homes with a garden is declining. Forecasts from the Government indicate that by 2020 2.6 million homes, the equivalent to one in ten, will have no garden. This is up from 1.6 million in 1995.  So if you do have a garden, make the most of it this Summer.