Growing Vegetables at Home
There cannot be anything more satisfying that picking and eating vegetables grown in your own garden. It is much easier than you think especially now with concerns over the rising cost of food and worries over pesticide usage. You can produce your own low cost pesticide free food in your own garden. Modern varieties of vegetables have been specially bred for growing at home and are therefore easy to grow & cultivate. They can be grown in containers as well as the open ground, meaning crops can be grown in all sized gardens and even patios & balconies. With just a little help and advice you will soon be producing fresh and healthy food at home.
Here at Reigate Garden Centre we aim to supply a wide range of vegetable & herb plants to supply all your culinary requirements. Most are available as young plants ready for you to plant out immediately. Certain other popular lines are best grown from seed which we will have in our seed section. Just imagine if you add to this a few fruit trees & bushes all of which can be grown in the smallest gardens(subject to variety). Should you require help in choosing please ask a member of our staff for help.
Any of the vegetable plants that you buy from the garden centre will generally come in one of two forms. They will either be grown in a small plastic pot containing one plant or they will come in a small plastic tray containing six cells. These individual cells may contain one or two young seedlings.
Whichever way you purchase these plants they will need planting into a larger container, a grobag or the open ground. You will find a section on planting out young vegetable plants on the back page of this leaflet.
Baby Leaf Veg
We will also be stocking a range of the more popular baby leaf vegetables which have a wide range of textures & flavours & are perfect for salads and asian cooking, eg Rocket, Mustards & Pak Choi. Please keep any eye in our vegetable section for the selection.
We also have a wide range of herbs which can be grown along side your vegetables to compliment their flavour. Listed below is a selection of the more popular varieties.
Angelica, Basil, Bay, Chives, Coriander, Dill, Fennel, Garlic, Chives, Horseradish, Lavander, Marjoram, Mint, Oregano, Parsley, Curled Parsley, Flat Leaved, Rosemary, Sage, Tarragon, Thyme.
Other varieties are available within our herb section.
To ensure freshness of plants all varieties listed are while stocks last & subject to seasonal availability
Planting out your vegetable plants
Most vegetable plants that have been grown in pots or modules can be planted directly into the garden soil when the weather is suitable and the danger of frost has passed. Some vegetable plants such as broad beans, peas, and leeks are hardy and can be planted out earlier. Make sure you understand whether the plants you are growing are ready to plant out before you do so. A late frost will kill a crop of plants that have been planted out too early. Whenever you plant them, the method is the same; simply follow the steps below.
Step 1Ideally your plants should have been acclimatised to the outdoors for a week or two before planting out. This is called hardening off. Place your plants outside during the day and then take them back into the shelter of a frost free greenhouse at night. This will help to toughen them up. When you are ready to plant out. water your pots of plants so that the compost is thoroughly moist. This makes it easier to remove the plants from the pots, and reduces the risk of damaging the roots.
Step 2Prepare the planting area by digging over the area first with a garden fork. Choose a day when the ground is not too sticky or wet so that it is easy to work the soil. Remove all weeds, especially perennial weeds and their roots. Break up any large clods of soil until the surface is made up of fine crumbs of soil; this is called a fine tilth.
Step 3Work out the correct spacing for your plants and position them in their planting position so that you can make sure that you are happy with where they are planted. Dig a hole for each plant and loosen the soil at the bottom and on the sides with a hand fork. Mix Organic Multi Purpose Compost or John Innes No 2 into the hole and also with the soil you have dug out. Add Fish, Blood & Bone, or Organic Chicken Manure Pellets to the soil/compost mixture.
Step 4Take each plant out of its pot and position it in a prepared hole, making sure that the top of the roots is just below the level of the surrounding soil. Fill in around the roots with the soil/compost/fertiliser mix and firm in gently. Water each plant and keep them well watered throughout the growing season. Tall plants such as runner beans, peas and outdoor tomatoes will need additional support and stakes to support their growth.
