Grow Your Own with PlantGrow

Here at PlantGrow, we’re really pleased to be hearing from many new and existing customers that they’re keen to start growing their own fruit and vegetables this year, either at home in an area of their garden, or in a newly acquired allotment.

We’re pleased because Growing Your Own produce, is something PlantGrow support and encourage, and over recent years have been working hard to develop, test and bring to market, a superior product range for home gardening and growing.

Besides the satisfaction of generating home-grown produce, there are many reasons why including home-grown fruits and vegetables in our diet can be so much better for us than the intensively grown produce that we buy from many shops and supermarkets.

And one key benefit of home-grown produce will be that it can be harvested and eaten at its peak of freshness, whilst its flavour and the heath-giving vitamins and minerals within, are still at optimal levels. Also, the sugars in produce start converting to starch when they are picked, and so they lose their natural sweetness over time. Which is why freshly harvested potatoes, peas, beans and carrots for example, can taste so mouth-wateringly better than produce that has been harvested and stored before being eaten.

Growing produce at home also enables us to be totally in control of the whole process from sowing through to harvest, although this will include solving or managing any problems that might occur. Such as those caused by inclement weather, where the plants may need protecting from late season frosts, heavy rainfall or direct sunlight. And, providing feed and water when required, especially during times of drought will be important too.

Also, protecting the plants as they grow from the creatures that will consider those plants as their food too.  The creatures that we regard as plant pests that, if overlooked could cause a significant yield loss or even plant death.

But unlike the situation that faces most commercial crops, controlling plant pests at home can be achieved without using toxic chemicals, and could simply involve regularly checking the plants, removing plant pests by hand or creating a barrier to them with netting or horticultural fleece.  

Also, by only using the tried and tested environmentally friendly products that are available nowadays for repelling or deterring plant pests.  Products that will cause no harm to the environment and the beneficial creatures that, for the sake of Britain’s rapidly declining biodiversity we should be protecting within our gardens.

And so, by using non-toxic plant protection methods, as well as non-chemical ways for weed and fungal control, our home-grown produce can justifiably be called ‘organically grown’ without detriment to the natural world.  Something that’s not always true for commercially produced organic crops, where plant pests can be controlled with products such as Pyrethrum, a broad-spectrum plant-derived chemical that’s highly toxic to bees, butterflies and ladybirds for example.

But there now remains one more highly important aspect of producing home-grown produce that must be addressed before anything else.  And that’s to ensure that the soil is in the right condition for the plants that will be growing in it.

Without the correct growing medium, whether for seedlings, cuttings or transplants, root development will often be poor and they’ll struggle to acquire the essential nutrients and water from the soil that the plant requires to grow.

Here at PlantGrow we understand the importance of creating the right growing conditions within soils, and we strive to continue producing and perfecting our ranges of soil-enhancing additives, mulches and formulations, all of which utilise the natural organic processes that optimise soil fertility. 

Incorporating PlantGrow’s organic fibres to garden soil, adds the necessary natural bacteria and fungi, the microbes that together, will form a healthy microbiome. And, alongside the vast community of soil-dwelling organisms that naturally compost organic matter, the microbes will be adding nourishment to the soil, sustaining the plants that grow within it and contributing to the health of a garden’s ecosystem.

As so, creating the environment for producing fruits and vegetables at home is not complicated, although it will require some preparatory work, some planning, some observation whilst the plants are growing and some knowledge on how to deal with potential problems as they occur, without using chemicals that could be detrimental to the garden’s natural ecosystem.

But the benefits of producing home-grown food, will undoubtedly outweigh the effort that might be needed to succeed.

And also, besides the satisfaction of growing, harvesting and eating food that has been produced at home without using chemical pesticides (something we can never be sure of with many commercially-produced fruits and vegetables), there’s the knowledge that it won’t have been harvested early and imported from other parts of the world.

So, we would wholeheartedly encourage anyone who is interested in ‘Grow Your Own’, but hasn’t yet tried it, to give it a go!

Perhaps starting with just one or two things that are not only easy to grow, but quite forgiving if mistakes are made. Varieties of dwarf tomato, radish or carrot for example, that will readily germinate from seed in plant pots on a windowsill from early spring. Maybe later try growing them in the garden or in a purpose-built raised bed, or even in tubs or troughs on a patio.  All of which are ideal for growing strawberries too.

And then, when these have produced results, move on to something bigger such as potatoes, beans, sweetcorn and courgettes for example.  The list is endless!

But remember that PlantGrow are here to help you by providing the perfect products to succeed, with numerous endorsements from our loyal customer base, many of whom use PlantGrow’s organic fibre-based products to nourish their gardens throughout the whole year. Enabling their plants to grow to their full potential and optimising their health and vigour.

By nature, for nature.