insideKENT Magazine Issue 36 - March 2015 | Page 105
OUTDOORLIVING
grow your own
Although the idea of growing your own fruit and vegetables might sound like something other
people do, it’s not as hard as you first think. Once you’ve done the initial planning and preparing,
many foods take care of themselves, with little need for any technical skill. As long as you have
patience, you should get some great results from your veggie patch. BY LISAMARIE LAMB
clay), then raised beds could be a great idea for you – you can add inches
of good quality topsoil to enable your seeds to grow to their full potential.
The first step is to choose where to set up your new food-producing garden.
A lot depends on what you want to grow, and how much room you have
in which to grow it. However, generally, you can start in containers, a
greenhouse, a few feet of lawn turned over or, if you are lucky enough to
be able to become part of one, an allotment. A good tip when it comes to
location is to ask yourself where you would like to sunbathe – somewhere
sunny with some shelter from the wind. Don’t allow overhanging trees or
garden sheds to get in the way of a bountiful crop.
Once you have decided on the place and type of vegetable patch you want,
you need to prepare the ground. Remove all of the turf and turn over the
earth, making sure that any stones or lumps of brick and building debris
are removed. All of the weeds have to go too. It may be tempting ju