If you haven’t tried it yet then you won’t have felt the satisfaction you get growing your own vegetables in your very own VegTrug. They are easy to grow, especially from seed and different varieties can be harvested all year round. My mum always said, “Eat your vegetables” and mum knows best. Vegetables are an essential source of vitamins & minerals that help keep body and mind healthy. If you grow your own it’s free too!

• Beetroot is a great source of betain (one of the B vitamins) and helps to keep you healthy. They can be eaten raw in salads, cooked or pickled. They’re good whichever way you prepare them.

Sow beetroot in early summer, April and May. You only need a couple of seeds 2 to 3cm deep every 15cm in the row. As they grow thin them out as some will be multiples. Why not use the ones you thin in a sald?

Leave them in the VegTrug until the autumn, say September or October. Make sure that you twist the tops off but not too close to the roots. Store them in sand in a cool place and use over the winter.

• Who said that carrots help you see in the dark? I’m not sure about that, but I am sure that I love carrot cake. Carrots have more vitamin A than any other vegetable we are likely to eat. They keep well through the winter and can be eaten raw or cooked with just about anything.

Sow your carrots in the late spring , March through May. Sow them quite shallow and tamp them down after sowing. Water the rows well to encourage germination and pull out any weeds straight away.

Harvest your carrots in late summer, as late as October, and before the first frost of winter. Store your carrots in a cool place in sand but make sure that you don’t wash them or you will need to eat them immediately.

• Cauliflowers are a little bit more tricky to grow but by using the VegTrug and taking your time, you are off to a good start.

Sow your cauliflowers in the centre (deepest) part of the VegTrug in late spring, around April and May. Sow them approximately 60cm apart in rows. It’s very important to keep your cauliflowers moist and use fertiliser and nitrogen if needed. Harvest your cauliflowers in July and August, early in the morning is best.

• Lettuce is the making of any salad. Sow your lettuce about 2cm deep in rows in the spring and then thin the plants out to about 30cm between the plants. You can use any lettuce you thin out to make new rows or replant in another VegTrug.

It’s a good idea to sow your lettuce over a few weeks, adding a few a week and keep the weeds out.

• Peas can be grown easily in the VegTrug and can produce a great crop. Plant your peas in a small trench the length of the VegTrug in spring from February through May. Soak your peas for 2 to 3 days to encourage germination. Dig a small trench about 8cm deep and plant each pea 5 to 8cm apart. Cover the peas with soil. Pick them young to eat raw in salads. When the pods become tightly packed, use them for cooking.

• Potatoes are one of the best sources of energy you can grow and our main source of vitamin C throughout the winter. Potatoes thrive in peat and are one of the few crops that love acid soil. put them straight in the VegTrug in the late spring. Plant your potatoes in the middle of the VegTrug in rows about 13cm deep and 45cm apart. As soon as the leaves show, lightly cover the potatoes in earth. Cover in earth again 3 weeks later and again 2 weeks after that.

Don’t lift the bulk of your crop until the tops have completely withered away. Fork them out carefully and let them lie on the ground for a day and a half to set the skins. Make sure that you don’t leave them longer than this as they may go green and become poisonous. Your potatoes can then be stored in the dark.

• Radishes are very easy to grow in the VegTrug. Sow the large seeds in March and April in drills and simply pick them when they are ripe, usually within 6 weeks. It’s that easy!

• Runner Beans are full of flavour. They need tall sticks to climb and they like rich, deep soil. Plant runner beans in a long row towards the centre of the VegTrug where it is deepest. They should be planted about 5cm below the surface and about 20-25cm apart. Plant your runner beans in May or June. Put tall sticks in early to give the runner beans a good start.

Keep your runner beans well watered, mulch with compost and spray the flowers with water occasionally. They should be ready in July, August and September.

• Onions are very easy to grow. Plant you onion crop in late February through to early April. Sow the onion seeds in late February through to early April, very thinly into 2cm deep drills (holes). Plant the seeds in rows around 20 to 25cm apart. Carefully cover the onion seeds with soil and gently water. They will germinate in around 21 days.

Thin out your onion seedlings when they have pushed through the soil so they stand about 5cm apart and again later until they are about 10cm apart. Make sure that the soil is moist when you pull the onions and that you clear the thinning’s properly.

Make sure that you feed occasionally with a liquid fertiliser and water them only if the weather gets dry. Cut off any flower stems that appear and stop watering once the onions have swollen and begin to ripen.

Enjoy!