It's even better when you cook with ingredients you’ve grown yourself. Here, Skye selects some of her favourite easy-to-grow vegetables – including some that can be hard to track down – and Lucy offers tips on how to grow them.
BORLOTTI BEANS
These beautiful, delicious and
versatile beans are a fantastic candidate for grow-your-own as they’re
almost impossible to buy fresh in the shops. They are fabulous fresh in
salads or simply drizzled with olive oil and can be used in soups and
stews. At Petersham, they are grown in large pots to climb up teepees
and are prized for their speckledy beauty.
Growing: Start borlotti beans
off in pots on a windowsill or greenhouse from March until the end of
June. Sow seeds 4cm deep in 7.5cm pots filled with seed compost, and
water. They should be ready to go outside seven weeks later, when 7cm
tall.
Climbing varieties, such as Lamon, are best in a raised bed – either up
a cane wigwam or in rows, 15cm apart, with 50cm between rows that are
supported by canes. Dwarf varieties like Saluggia can be planted 10cm
apart in large pots with sticks for support.
Harvesting: Pick from late summer, when the beans swell and pods crack.
CHARD
With its strong colours (Skye particularly likes Bright Lights which has a red, white, orange, yellow, pink and purple stems), chard looks as good in the garden as it does on the plate. Stalks can be braised in stews, while young leaves can be eaten raw and older ones blanched, tossed into stir-fries or used as a substitute for spinach or spring greens.Growing: Chard is easy – just put in the seeds and off they go. It does need space, though, so sow in a raised bed from the end of March to early May. Make a trench, 2.5cm deep with a cane and drop in a seed every 8cm, cover carefully and water.
When seedlings are 2cm tall, thin to leave 30cm between plants. Water regularly.
Harvesting: Cut the stems after 12 weeks.
COURGETTES
Skye loves courgettes, and the effect the different colours – greens and yellows – have on our plates. For variety choose the yellow varieties Orelia or One Ball (which produces round-shaped veg) or the prolific Defender.Growing: A single courgette plant will keep you in fruit all summer. If growing from seed, fill a 7.5cm pot with compost and plant on its side, 2.5cm deep. Cover, water and put in a propagator or on a sunny windowsill to germinate.
Keep moist and when the roots show through the drainage holes, move into a 12.5cm pot. In early summer, plant into a 30-40cm diameter pot filled with multi-purpose compost. Or buy a ready-grown young plant and plant out in early summer. Water regularly.
Harvesting: Harvest fruit with a sharp knife when about 10cm long. To keep fertile, pick up to three times a week.