Grow Your Own

Chef Skye Gyngell's favourite homegrown herbs, plus tips for growing, harvesting and cooking.

Chef Skye Gyngell and gardener Lucy Boyd from Petersham Nurseries share tips on growing the best salad vegetables at home.

Buying your crops

Garden centres will supply seeds and seedlings, but for more unusual varieties look online. Here are a few recommended websites.

Watering and feeding your crops

Top tips on nurturing your growing kitchen.

Your soft fruit garden

Berries and soft fruit are delicious, nutritious and really easy to grow at home, explains chef Skye Gyngell.

Your vegetable garden

"The produce of summer is glorious – and courgettes, peas and broad beans are among the finest,” says chef Skye Gyngell. We're right behind you, Skye.

Sowing from seed and planting outdoor containers

SOWING FROM SEED
Some seeds need to germinate indoors. Start these off in small pots in a sunny spot. Tightly fill a pot with seed compost. Level the top, leaving a 1cm gap between the top of the compost and the lip of the pot.

1. Sow seeds lightly over the soil ensuring they don’t touch.

2. Cover thinly with vermiculite (a natural mineral that promotes better aeration and drainage in compost – ask for it at your garden centre) or compost.

3. Water and put in a windowsill propagator (a plastic protector, from garden centres), or place a clear plastic freezer bag over the pot and secure with an elastic band (as below). Alternatively, sow hardier seeds straight into a larger pot outside.

4. Remove indoor plants from the propagator or plastic bag when they have germinated. Keep in a sunny spot until the seedlings are around 2cm tall, then select the healthiest looking plants to transplant into individual 7.5cm pots.

5. When they have filled out their pots, plants that you have grown from seed can be replanted into larger containers.

PLANTING OUTDOOR CONTAINERS
Follow these steps to either plant the seedlings you have grown yourself, or, if you’re starting out with ready-grown seedlings or young plants.

1. Choose containers that are between 20-45cm in diameter and have drainage holes in the base. There are lots to choose from at your local garden centre. Plastic containers are cheap, while frost-proof terracotta looks great, but the soil in these pots tends to dry out quicker – but this can be remedied by lining the container with plastic (pierced at the base). You can also recycle wooden crates or metal buckets to use as pots.

2. For growing, either use soil-based John Innes 2 compost or a multi-purpose compost, and arrange in a sunny spot.

3. Some containers have a single drainage hole – cover with a piece of broken terracotta pot to prevent the compost falling out.

4. Fill with compost and pack in gently with your fingertips. Level the top, leaving a 2cm gap at the top.

5. Scoop out the compost to leave a hole slightly bigger than the rootball of your plant and place in the hole. Re-fill with compost and press down firmly.