Grow Your Own

Last weekend I went to the second LAGOM workshop focusing on growing your own herbs & veg.

I used to be really in to growing my own veg, and was successful in growing peppers, chilli, cucumber and even corn-on-the-cob in our greenhouse. Sadly work commitments and an uncontrollable snail problem meant this had dropped off the radar a little in the last few years, so I was excited to get my growing mojo back!

We were asked to bring some empty containers with us to use for planting, which to be honest was a bit of a struggle. We are so effective at recycling that I had no suitable tins in the house (the bin went earlier in the week) and I no longer buy ready made sauces, so we had very few jars too! Managed to scrape together a coffee jar and an old plant pot and away I went.

We started by making seed propagators using recycled ice-cube trays and VAXER hydroponics inserts. We soaked the VAXER plugs in water, popped them into the trays and put our chosen seeds inside. Then we created a mini 'greenhouse' to protect the seeds using recycled plastic bottles. I chose some varieties of basil and coriander to text mine out.

Then we moved on to 'self-watering' pots to help us keep our seedlings alive. We did this using recycled plastic bottles - simply cut the bottle in half, cut a hole in the lid, thread some string through the hole into the bottom of the bottle and then put the 2 halves together. We can fill the bottom with water and the plants will such the water up as they need it. Perfect for going away or making sure they get enough water!

We also got another great goody bag to take away with us, including a plant pot, growing book and a really useful storage box to keep all of our growing bits in. We were also able to bring some of the unused seeds home, ready to plant in the VAXER set we got with the voucher back in December. I'd been putting off using it until we'd moved as I didnt want to be moving hundreds of plants with me, but after seeing how easy it is to use at the workshop, I'm going to give it a try!

This will be a great way for us to get some green into the house and have some fresh herbs to use for cooking. I'll try and update our progress as the project continues.