The Veggie Table

David Simpkins, who for five years ran the self-sufficiency garden on Holy Isle but now lives on Arran, begins a regular feature for the Voice for Arran Online on how to grow tasty things in your garden.

Making a start in March

It is a joy to grow your own food and bring it straight from the garden to your plate.

With the evenings drawing out, the life is returning to dormant plants and spring is in the air. Taking a shortcut this weekend through the Cuddy Dook that leads down to Lamlash, I saw the first few ramson leaves – great for salads and soups, and free!

Back at home, it’s time get into the garden and tidy up, and think on what you would like or have room to plant – and where to plant. Remember flower borders can also grow vegetables. The blossoms of peas and beans, for instance, can look lovely as well as providing fresh food for the pot.

This month we should perhaps be concentrating on sowing broad beans directly into the bed, and parsnips too. As the soil warms up later this month, it’ll be time to put in potatoes and onion sets or seed, along with spinach and turnips. Brussels sprouts can be container-grown along with celeriac and celery. Leeks should be sown into a seedbed for moving to final position later.

Under glass, tomatoes, peppers and various kinds of chilli can be started off in seed trays for potting up later, and children can be encouraged to grow things if you get them to plant quick-growing radishes. French Breakfast and White Icicle are two tasty varieties, both of them very easy to grow.

And it’s still not too late to prune those fruit trees, but remember the words of Marx: ‘Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.’. So, if you are going to get busy with the secateurs, do it now, before the trees start coming into bud.

It is a joy to grow your own food and bring it straight from the garden to your plate.