Window Boxes - Your Starting Point!

One of the runaway successes on the London Vegetable Garden has undoubtedly been rocket leaves! The most challenging vegetables have been root vegetables, due to the space they need in-between each individual plant. Leaf vegetables however, have produced much more successful results, due to their ability to flourish in small spaces.

One of the main things I've learnt from three months of running the London Vegetable Garden project is that although planting crops in pots can be a successful method of growing vegetables, these pots need to be big. Failing this, the seeds need to be sown very thinly indeed, which I'll admit was my downfall when it came to the radishes.

Gardeners with actual gardens have the luxury of deep soil and plenty of space. Urban gardeners in London and other UK cities that have only a balcony on which to practice their green-fingered persuasions have a finite depth of soil, usually determined by the size of their pots!

With this in mind then, one of the easiest and low maintenance plants I've managed to grow since April has been salad leaves. I've used a simple window box to plant seeds (those of you that have been following me since the beginning will remember the success I had with rocket), which has proved successful time and time again.

After exhausting the window box of rocket a few weeks ago, I re-planted some rocket and also some lettuce (Lollo Rossa), that came courtesy of the BBC's 'Dig In' free seeds give-away. As you can see from the picture below, this 'mix and match' approach not only offers me a nice variety of salad leaves to eat, but is also much more satisfying from a visual perspective.

Many people argue that vegetable gardening is ugly, preferring to maximise their gardens with colour from various flower displays. However, if well thought-out and carefully planned, a vegetable garden can look every bit as beautiful as a flower garden, as well as providing you with plenty of splendid crops on which to feast – the beautiful colours from the lettuce paying homage to this point.

So if you're feeling inspired but are not sure where to start, I guarantee you that a simple window box, some compost and a few salad seeds will yield impressive results and get you well and truly into growing your own! And if you don't have a window box, why not use an old ice cream tub or an old washing up bowl? Why not give it a go this weekend? I'd love to hear how you all get on!

Weekend Update & French Signage!

Grey cloud is hanging ominously in the air, the tree branches are swaying lightly in the breeze and the birds are being remarkably quiet. Add to this the fact that I have to leave the flat and go shopping at an open-air market this morning, and it seems that rain is well and truly inevitable!

But nevertheless, the London Vegetable Garden sits in a sheltered spot and the continued mild weather has meant that things are still progressing nicely.

I've included some new pictures of the tomato plants. I now have a considerable amount of green tomatoes breaking out in trusses along the three tomato plants in the grow bag. What's interesting to note however, is that these tomatoes always form one at a time, rather than a whole truss together.

The tomato fruit nearest to the stem always seems to be the first fruit to bloom – I presume this is because it's the first recipient of all the water and liquid tomato plant food drawn up through the roots and the stem? Perhaps some of you more learned gardeners can tell me if my horticultural hypothesis is correct or not!

Either way, many of my trusses, although with tomato fruits at different sizes, are all now beginning to flourish. The first tomato fruits started appearing on the 1st July – a convenient date from which to start measuring! It's now Saturday 11th, so the fruits have been out for nearly two weeks; but no signs of turning red just yet!

Talking of signs, two lovely colleagues of mine from work visited the Hampton Court Flower Show this week. They evidently thought that the London Vegetable Garden needed a touch of European glamour to it, so very kindly purchased this sign for me:

I think you'll agree, it adds a much more homely touch to the London Vegetable Garden!

Adopt an Elderly Person's Garden!

The campaign to open up more of London’s gardening space is finally gaining momentum it seems. A few weeks ago, the London Vegetable Garden received news that building sites left dormant by the recession are to be turned into temporary allotments (see the article here). Needless to say, this is fantastic news for London gardeners fed up with having nowhere to grow their own vegetables and plants.

London gardeners have further cause to celebrate today however, with Wandsworth council and Age Concern teaming up to unveil a fantastic new London gardening scheme. The premise is simple – adopt an elderly person’s garden and help to maintain it. As well as helping elderly residents to enjoy their garden for longer, it also presents space-challenged London gardeners with a garden to work on.

Age Concern’s Sarah Jackson states that:

“Managing the garden can be a struggle for older people. At the same time, there are many people without access to outdoor space who really want to garden. This scheme will help to bring unused garden space back to life and improve the well-being of everyone involved. We've had a huge response already and are busy vetting volunteers and gardens — it's a bit like a matchmaking service really.”

Obviously, this scheme has been extremely well received by London gardeners desperate for a plot to cultivate, but especially so amongst elderly Londoners, many of whom want to enjoy a nice garden, but aren’t able to maintain it on their own.

As positive as this news is, it also serves to highlight depressing statistics for London gardeners on allotment waiting lists. Wandsworth actioned this scheme in an attempt to ease the 1,500 people that are waiting for its 607 allotment plots. And with Camden and Islington residents facing waiting times of 40 years and 25 years respectively, this story serves to show just how desperate a situation London gardeners find themselves in.

Wandsworth council deserve to be praised – although we’re a long way from giving Londoners the gardening space they deserve, this new scheme shows that local governments are starting to recognise the severity of this problem and are taking small steps to remedy this – long may it continue.

(The article that this blog entry was based upon can be viewed on the Evening Standard website by clicking here.)

Blooming Asiatic Lilies...

Whilst growing vegetables on the balcony is the primary focus of the London Vegetable Garden, regular readers of this blog will also know that I have various flowers on one side of the balcony. In an attempt to appease my girlfriend, who has noted that our little balcony is being overrun with tomatoes, runner beans and pots of soil, I have made a concerted effort to ensure that my gardening includes botany, as well as horticulture!

A little while ago, I added some Asiatic Lilies to a pot of bedding flowers and their surge in growth has been huge. They were planted as bulbs that had already grown to plants about six inches high. Since then, they have grown to well over a foot in length and have had to be supported by some small canes. Their expanding heads have been threatening to bloom for about a week now and it was this morning that I was met by this beautiful sight:


There's still about twelve more heads waiting to bloom, so I'm hoping for a continuous array of lilies over the next two weeks or so.

Tomato Photo Diary - Flower to Fruit

I thought it'd be quite useful to show you the various stages the tomato plants on the London Vegetable Garden have been going through when flowering. With the plants now well established and several trusses on the go, here is a visual record of how my flowers have grown into fruit.

1) The first stage – trusses form on the plant and flower.


2) The flower starts to shrivel slightly and a tiny tomato fruit can be seen forming behind the flower.


3) The tomato fruit is swelling and establishing itself quite quickly. The flower is very shrivelled up.


4) The flower has now dropped off completely and the tomato fruit is left to swell and grow.

Now, these four photos were all taken on the London Vegetable Garden this morning, with new and old trusses showing different stages of growth accordingly. It has taken a few weeks to go from flowers to tomatoes, so if you currently have an abundance of flowers on your tomato plants but no fruit, don't be disheartened – before too long, you'll have an abundance of tomato crops growing away nicely and ready for a few salads in no time!

From Blog to Press - LVG in the London Lite

Eagle-eyed fans of the London Vegetable Garden that regularly commute, may have noticed a familiar sounding article in this Tuesday's 'London Lite' evening newspaper. I was approached by a journalist at the paper and asked to write a 'how-to' guide for growing indoor vegetables in London.

Happy to help, I turned my vegetable writing efforts from blog to press for a few minutes. Although the article has been considerably cut down, it's still a great piece of publicity for the London Vegetable Garden and hopefully, it will encourage more Londoners to start growing their own vegetables, which of course, is what the London Vegetable Garden is all about!

Tomato Supports & Tomato Fruits!

Those of you that also follow the London Vegetable Garden on Twitter (click here) will remember that I've been seeking advice regarding my leaning tomato plants. After a wealth of suggestions, it turned out that one of my colleagues at work had some devices that served that very purpose, although none of us have any idea what they're called!

As you can see from the pictures above, these peculiar looking devices are designed to sit underneath a grow bag. Once you have placed them under the grow bag, the two prongs can be pushed together and the cane placed through the middle, like so:

Now in place, these supports have added so much strength to the canes, and thus, my tomato plants. This hot weather has seen them shoot up considerably, which has led them to start pulling the canes down with their weight. Luckily now they look a lot sturdier – as well as taking over the whole of London Vegetable Garden balcony!

The recent hot weather has also been responsible for an exciting discovery I made last night – the very first tomatoes are coming through!

Although small, the fruits are beginning to pop up all over the tomato plant trusses – as of five minutes ago, I can report that I have six tomatoes well on the way. I'm hoping that they grow quickly from green, berry-looking things to big juicy red tomatoes whilst this heat-wave lasts! Hopefully more news to come this week...