Grow your own food - week 2

Dominic Murphy

09 March 2011

Do you save money by growing your own food? I'm not always convinced. A cabbage, say, takes time, slog and space to grow - and is only worth around 80p at the end of it all.

But with salad leaves, growing your own definitely saves you cash (besides, I much prefer eating it to cabbage).

Think about it: organically grown lettuce or a bag of loose leaf from the supermarket - these are the sort of things that are never cheap. I can well believe my colleague Deborah who recently posted about her £400 a year salad habit.

Despite its cost in the shops, salad is really easy to grow. And though it's only early March, and the weather is up and down, you can start doing it now and carry on through the summer.

The trick at this time of year is getting the right variety and sowing indoors: I'm not thinking a greenhouse or fancy propagator, just a windowledge, seed tray or pot, and some compost.

Decent garden centres will have lots of choice of variety. The appropriately named All Year Round is a good bet - as are several of the excellent Italian range of Franchi seeds. I swear by their rocket and last year we practically lived on their exotically named Barba di Frate.

Sprinkle seeds on to compost then add a little more compost. You're aiming for plants about 3-4cm apart, so when seedlings appear, thin them out if you have to. Give the container a half-turn daily so all seedlings get some light.

When seedlings show two strong leaves, you can plant them out in the garden or outdoor container - about 25cm apart if you're going to let them grow to full size.

To do this, gently hold a leaf and dig out the plant roots along with a nice dollop of compost. An old spoon is a useful tool.

Or you can leave the plants to carry on growing - as in this picture of mixed leaves (right).  

When they reach about 6-8cm, harvest by cutting about 1-2cm from the ground. Water what's left and more leaves should grow to replace them in a method known as cut-and-come-again.

That's excellent value for a fraction of a pack of seeds. 

Dominic Murphy's book The Playground Potting Shed includes an easy guide to growing food throughout the year. To order a signed copy at the special price of £6.99, please visit our Shop