Growing your own Food
Imagine going into your garden, greenhouse or allotment and picking your own delicious, super-fresh food. Well, with a bit of time and effort you can! You can easily grow your own vegetables and salad greens but those fruits grow on trees will take a lot longer (years). We stock lots of great products to help.Imagine going into your garden, greenhouse or allotment and picking your own delicious, super-fresh food. Well, with a bit of time and effort you can! You can easily grow your own vegetables and salad greens but those fruits that grow on trees will take a lot longer (years). We stock lots of great products to help.
The theory is simple but you will need to do a bit of research into what is the best container and type of soil to use for the plants that you want to grow. Many plants will like raised beds with soil that drains reasonably well. The raised beds help to keep weeds down and create a little bit of a barrier to slugs. Alternatively, you might want to grow in pots or soil trays in a greenhouse. Your choice of vegetables, to a certain extent, will dictate how and where you will grow.
We stock a lot of great soils. One of the reasons that people choose to grow their own food is because they want to have fresh, organic produce. A great soil for growing organically is Canna Bio Terra Plus which is fully certified. However, it is a full strength soil, so always start your seeds off in a weaker soil such as Canna Seed Mix.
Nutrients
Combine organic soil this with the excellent Plant Magic Oldtimer or Biobizz nutrients (when necessary) and you can keep it all fully organic. If you use the soil that we suggested above then you won't need to add nutrients for a while. If and when the time comes to give your plants a feed then go easy with them at first.
Beneficial Microbes
On the subject of soil, it's a great idea, for many crops, to top up the beneficial microbes in it. One of our favourite products is the Ecothrive Starter Pack. It includes not only the excellent Ecothrive Biosys beneficial microbe inoculant but also Ecothrive Charge which (when mixed into soil) has enabled gardeners to grow startlingly huge vegetables.
The pack also includes Ecothrive Neutralise. It gets rid of the chlorine and chloramine from tap water which inhibits or kills beneficial microbes in the soil.
Supporting your Plants
Many types of plant benefit from some kind of physical support to keep them upright and to help keep them under control. We stock a great range of plant supports:
There's the standard Bamboo stakes in a range of sizes.
We also have Plant Trellises.
For taller, climbing plants we stock Pea and Bean Netting.
You will probably want to attach your plants to the supports in some way. Garden twine and standard twist ties can sometimes harm plant stems by cutting into them. A great alternative is padded twist ties which won't damage your plants.
Keeping Pests at Bay
Pests can be a big problem, particularly when growing outdoors. An insect infestation can make a big difference to the size and quality of your crop. One of the best ways to deal with it is Ed Rosenthal's Herbal Pesticide Concentrate. It is fully organic too! It only contains essential oils and it can be used up to 2 weeks before harvest. We also have lots of other helpful products in the Pest and Disease Control section of our website.
For certain types of crop, you may want to keep them under control by pruning them. Also, when it comes to harvest time, it can be very handy to have a pair of sharp trimming scissors or shears.
What If I Hit a Problem?
There is lots of information out there on the internet about growing vegetables, salad leaves and herbs. Alternatively One Stop Grow Shop is always here at the end of a phone line (01782 749955) or you can drop us an email. We will always do our best to help.
