Millbrook helps you take control of what you eat.
There are few things as satisfying as eating delicious fresh fruit and vegetables especially when you have grown them yourself. There is also nothing more important to our well being than watching what we eat, after all “You are what you eat” and when you grow your own you know exactly where it's been and what you've done to it!
Talk to anyone who grows their own fruit and veg and one of the first things they will say is the taste is so much better than anything you will buy in the supermarket.
This is because it takes so little time for home grown produce to travel from the ground to your plate. In some cases shop bought fruit and veg has been grown on the other side of the world, it’s been picked, kept in cold store, washed in chlorine to get rid of bacteria and then treated with preservatives to prolong shelf life. No wonder it doesn’t taste fresh by the time it reaches your table!
Growing your own allows you to control the environment in which the plants grow and gives you an ideal opportunity to do away with chemicals and pesticides. It also gives you the chance to experiment with new and unusual varieties and minimise waste as you are able to pick just what you need for the meal ahead. Growing your own fruit and veg will also be a great help in making sure you are eating your Five-A-Day quota and is an ideal way to encourage children to eat fresh food.
At Millbrook we can help whether you are blessed with green fingers or having a go for the very first time.
Ready, steady, grow!
Here we look at: Growing from seed.
Depending on the variety, vegetable seeds can be sown indoors in pots or outdoors in the soil. At Millbrook we stock a huge range of seeds from the leading seed manufacturers. Here are some tips for getting started with your seeds...
Starting off indoors.
Growing “indoors” means sowing the seeds in a protected environment such as a greenhouse, cold frame or even on a windowsill. The key to successful indoor sowing is to keep a watchful eye on the amount of light, heat and moisture the seeds receive. Half hardy vegetables such as tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers should be started indoors.
Other vegetables such as celery and lettuces will benefit from sowing indoors to encourage early crops or large specimens. When sowing in containers use a specially formulated seed compost and choose a container large enough to allow the seedlings space to develop – see in store for our wide range of seed trays. Greenhouses are a fantastic asset but not everyone has the space for one. At Millbrook we stock a range of mini greenhouses, cold frames and propagators if you are tight on space. You can, however, successfully raise a small number of plants on a windowsill but please remember they will grow and need much more space so think about this before you get started.
Sowing straight in to the soil.
If you are sowing outside straight in to the soil make sure the soil conditions are just right – not too wet or not too dry. Ideally you are looking for a surface where the soil is fine enough for seeds to germinate. The underlying soil needs to be firm but not so firm that roots will not be able to take hold. In the Spring some earth can simply be raked over to create nice crumbly soil but where the soil is more compact it may need to be forked over first and then raked. Tread the soil lightly so that it is reasonably firm and continue raking backwards and forwards until a good tilth is formed. Seeds are normally sown in a shallow furrow. Having prepared the soil, mark out where the furrow will be and use the corner of a trowel or hoe to make the furrow.
The depth will depend on the seed – please check the directions on the seed packet for the depth and spacing between the seeds.Sow your seeds as thinly as possible – overcrowding can lead to poor quality seedlings. Large seeds such as beans, peas, sweetcorn, cucumbers and marrows can be sown making individual holes with a pointed trowel.Don’t forget to label the rows to remind you of what you have planted where! Take a look at Gardman Terracotta labels – in store for £1.49 each.
Here we look at: Getting ahead with young plants.
Growing from young plants.
Gives you a quick and easy way in which to raise your own vegetables and from Spring onwards Millbrook stocks a wide range of plants ready for you to plant out whether you have a small area of raised beds or a dedicated vegetable plot or allotment.
Good vegetables can only be produced under good conditions – they need to be grown in an open position with plenty of light, shelter and sunshine. As well as location the other vital contributing factor is the condition of the soil. Vegetables must have fertile soil and a key to successful vegetable growing lies in building up soil fertility. You can do this by digging in farmyard manure or 6x organic concentrated farmyard manure from Wessex Horticulture (£7.99 for 15kg bag).
Ready to go! Millbrook’s fantastic new Growing Your Own range of fruit and veg
Ready to go if you...
- have a limited amount of space in your garden or a patio or balcony
- are new to gardening
- just want your fruit and veg ready to pick straight away then Millbrook’s fantastic new range of potted fruit and veg is just the answer!
Nurtured without the use of pesticides at our very own nursery in Crowborough the new range comes in pots with prices starting from £2.99. And when you buy from Millbrook you won’t have to add anything else to the pots as the soil they are planted in has all the nutrients and goodness the plants will need.
Some of our Growing Your Own range comes in pots which the plants can continue to grow in or they are ideal for transferring to containers. At Millbrook we stock a wide range of containers of all shapes, sizes and colours which will do just the job!
Containers can be placed anywhere in the garden as long as they are not in the shade (tomatoes for example love to be grown against a warm wall).
Choose a fairly large container, place it in a sunny position and make sure there are drainage holes in the bottom. Place a layer of small stones over these to help with the drainage and fill the container with multi-purpose compost.
Beans, tomatoes and peppers are particularly suited to growing in bags - take a look at the new Humax range in store. Fruit and veg in containers need to be watered at least once a day and in dry, hot weather they may require more. Give a liquid feed such as Tomorite once a week as soon as the vegetables start to swell.
