Radishes Almost There...

Saturday morning on the London Vegetable Garden has brought about great excitement and it's radish-shaped! That's right, whilst I'll readily admit that I planted my radish seeds too thickly to bear a large crop (the benefits of hindsight...), the radishes that have been growing are now looking ready to be harvested.

When growing vegetables, or any plants for that matter, it's always important to regularly check the surface of the soil and clear it of old leaves, dead flower heads etc, as this can decompose and have a detrimental effect upon the health of your vegetables and plants.

As you can see from the picture, the radishes are so leafy now, that it's very hard to see the top of the soil in the plant pot, so imagine my surprise (and delight!) when I checked them this morning to see this:
I'm going to leave them in for another week and then harvest the ones that are poking out of the surface, like these ones. I'm hoping, in addition to fresh radishes in a salad, that the smaller radishes that have struggled will now have some more room to grow – it'll be interesting to see what happens. Ensure you check back regularly to find out what happens when they're pulled out!

From Seed to Plate - Edible Produce!

It may not be a particularly spectacular harvest, but the London Vegetable Garden has enjoyed its first taste of edible, balcony-grown organic produce! Over the past week, the rocket has looked good enough to eat - so we did precisely that! Accompanied by the other half's exquisite lasagne and accompanying many salads, we've enjoyed a surprising amount of rocket from such a small window box.


They say that giant oaks grow from tiny acorns and I hope that although this humble rocket is a modest start to my project, it's a prelude to exciting vegetables to come. Simply a few window boxes are more than enough for any amateur London gardener to produce some enjoyable results and I'd imagine it's not too late to enjoy some of your own.

In just under two months, I've planted, grown and harvested plenty of tasty rocket. All I used was grow bag compost, a window box and plenty of water. If you're diligent enough to check your rocket plants each night for watering, this really is the maximum extent of your efforts. The window box on my balcony faced inwards, so whilst gaining a lot of sun, had some partial shade too. Good luck growing your own - if anyone else has had a rocket revolution, please comment and share your findings!

New arrivals!

So, two weeks down the line and things on the balcony are well underway, highlighted by the impressive size of the newly re-potted runner beans! Now that there is once again a little bit of space back on the balcony windowsill, I’ve made a few new additions to the London Vegetable Garden.

Many of you have emailed in to say that herbs are an easy and space-efficient plant to grow on a balcony or on a sunny kitchen windowsill. I’ve taken this on board and am looking to start a varied herb garden over the next few weeks. The first of these, planted yesterday, is Coriander (Coriandrum Sativum). The packet instructions say that it is enough to grow this in pots on a windowsill, so this is a great way for city gardeners to maximise the variety of produce they can grow whilst economising space.

The second batch of new additions to the London Vegetable Garden this week is French Breakfast Radishes (Raphanus Sativus). The packet states that these are high-yielding crops, ideal for use as a ‘catch-crop’ between slower growing vegetables, so we’ll see if they arrive before the carrots! I’ve planted these in deep pots – as a shallow vegetable, hopefully they’ll have plenty of room to grow.

On a non-vegetable note, my other half is beginning to get concerned at the amount of compost-ridden pots taking over the balcony, so I’ve invested in some more flowers to ensure the balcony retains its aesthetic qualities and keeps her happy – White Foxgloves (Digitalis Purpurea). Progress will be reported here first!

Carrots are go!

Two weeks to the day and the London Vegetable Garden has its first glimpse of carrot! As you can see from the attached picture it really is just a glimpse, but 14 days down the line and all of the seeds have now sprouted. That’s the easy bit out of the way…

What a difference a day makes...

Whilst I’m keen to stress that this blog won’t be a daily photo gallery recording pots of soil and minute growth spurts, I wanted to add a brief entry for today remarking on the incredible progress of the runner beans in just 24 hours. Still no signs of life on the ol’ carrot front…

The Origin of the Species...

Whilst this recent horticultural hobby has indeed made me go ‘a bit Darwinian’, the latest species originating on the London Vegetable Garden is the sturdy runner bean. We’re now on Day 9 of the project and overnight the runner beans became the latest plants to break through the soil and show themselves to the world.

We’re only waiting for the carrots to get started now and then we’ll be fully underway. As an update, the rocket is going great guns at the moment. As many of you will be aware, this Easter Bank Holiday weekend hasn’t had the sunniest of weather, although the temperature has remained quite mild, which seems to have suited the plants very well. The rocket shoots are outside and all are leaning towards the sun (whenever it does periodically appear), so I may move these around to a sunnier spot in the next few days.

The tomato seedlings are also now well on the way. I’m keeping these inside the flat, on the balcony windowsill, to make up for the lack of a greenhouse. Hopefully, by the time they’re big enough to be transplanted into grow bags, the weather will be a lot hotter. Investing in a small cloche (or making one myself) may be an option later on down the line.

Tomatoes off the mark...

A whole 7 days have still yet to elapse since I started out on the organic odyssey that is the London Vegetable Garden project, however we have more signs of life in addition to yesterday’s rocket arrival!

That’s right, more shoots have started showing already and today it’s the turn of the tomato. Now if I’m being honest, I really do believe that my tomatoes will be the most difficult things to grow on my balcony, due to the lack of a greenhouse. I debated about including them in the project for this very reason, however their early appearance has given me renewed vigour and encouragement.

This Bank Holiday Easter weekend has seen some gloomy weather over here in east London, however the temperature has remained relatively mild. I’m hoping that this is good for the plants that are outside on the balcony, namely the carrots. The rocket has shot up considerably since yesterday and I really am interested to see just how quickly I can harvest this variety. Rocket and tomatoes are off the blocks, runner beans and carrots await!

We have lift-off!

We do indeed, and we’ve got well and truly underway courtesy of the humble rocket seeds! It’s only Day 6 of the London Vegetable Garden Project, yet already we have signs of life in the soil.

Planted in seed trays, the rocket has started breaking through the shallow compost less than 120 hours since it was planted! I’m hoping that there is enough soil for the rocket to grow nicely. Once I’ve established how long the timeframe is to grow edible rocket leaves from planting, I may see if implementing a ‘crop rotation’ for my salad produce is an effective means of ensuring a regular supply of peppery salad leaves!

Wartime Spirit - Social Implications of Credit Cruch Gardening...

Whilst the whole London Vegetable Garden project is simply an interesting hobby to see if I can actually grow a few vegetables on my London balcony, there are many more people doing exactly the same, meaning important social conclusions can be drawn from this trend.

Sales of vegetable seeds / plants in Britain now outnumber those of flowers, whilst waiting lists for London allotments have reached truly unprecedented levels, indicating a very marked shift in the UK’s horticultural habits. Whilst I’ve nodded towards what I refer to as the ‘River Cottage Effect’ in a recent blog post, this cannot be the sole reason behind the increased interest in gardening and ‘growing your own’ produce.

Some commentators speculate that the ‘credit crunch’ has had a significant effect upon people who are looking to save a bit of money by growing their own cheap vegetables. With supermarket vegetable prices fluctuating almost daily, it’s not hard to believe that many people are turning to their own back gardens for fresh produce rather than paying over the odds for imported, poor quality veg.

It’s a well-known fact that in Britain, we throw away a shocking amount of food each week; not only a sad indication of our excessive consumerist natures, but also a dreadful waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere. One of the greatest monetary advantages of growing your own is that the back garden is, in effect, one big fridge. Whilst supermarket produce goes off within a week, green-fingered horticulturalists can harvest the freshest produce by simply pulling it out of the earth, saving money by using only what they need, only when they need it.

‘Celebrity’ chefs / gardeners (delete as applicable) are all urging us to go organic and grow our own produce. Current affairs programmes and TV presenters are all saying that we should ‘make do and mend’. It seems that we’ve recently gone back to bygone days of wartime Blitz spirit and ‘digging for victory’ to quote the famous poster. One thing’s for sure – the ‘credit crunch’ has resulted in a lot more British people crunching into home-grown vegetables once more, and that can only be a good thing.