Small Pleasures...

Small Pleasures
number 3... Growing stuff.

Growing stuff is fun. Growing stuff you can eat is even funner.

I know that all the TV gadeners say it, and that it's become a cliche, but you really don't need very much space to grow fresh fruit and vegetables.

I have strawberries in a tall strawberry pot, an apple tree in another (this year with 22 apples on the way), peppers (chilli and sweet), cucumbers (two plants), tomatoes (three varieties in pots growing in a tiny plastic tomato house), herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary, and tyme), more herbs (dill and mint), even more herbs (chives, basil, oregano, and lemon balm) all growing in pots of various sizes, dotted around our little garden in Wales and even smaller one at home in Altrincham.

I'm growing cougettes in deep hessian bags full on compost, and potatoes in two old dustbins at the bottom of the garden!

I grow watercress in our small stone fountain and Gaynor is even growing carrots in a carrot bag!

Now, I'm not claiming that we are going to be self-sufficient sufficient this summer, nor am I saying that our store cupboards will be full ready for the long, cold, winter - but we will have a dozen or more meals where everything will be home grown!

How fantastic is that for someone with a limited amount of spare space for a few pots and garden bags!

Herbs from seed are so easy. I can't remember the last time we had to buy parsley in the summer, or had to use a dried bay leaf - and a home-made bouquet garni in a lamb casserole adds such wonderful flavour - especially when the lamb is some of Holly's, and the potatoes are from one of my old dustbins.

Lettuce is a good place to start.

This year I've grown individual pots on a 'lettuce tree' that I've made from an old candle holder. I bought the steel buckets from Asda for fifty pence each in the end of season sale.

I'm really pleased with it - it works and is saving us a fortune.

When we want a salad we simply wash the pot down with the hose (lettuce and all), bring it indoors and snip away with the kitchen scissors as we need it. Far fresher and cheaper than packet lettuce bought from Sainsbury's, or the 'living lettuce' pots that they've started to sell.

And when the pot of lettuce is gone I simply empty the pot, refill with a little compost, plant some more seed, and start growing again.

So far, from my twenty-eight pence packet of mixed salad leaf seed fom Lidyl, we have had a dozen pots, and the packet is still almost full - bargain!

Still not convinced?

You will be if you try the lettuce. Go on get a couple of pots and give it a go.