The Girl's Guide to Growing Your Own

I wasn't always the sort to wax lyrical over a lettuce leaf. A typical British child of the 1970s Ð the dawn of convenience food Ð I grew up eating boil-in-the-bag cod and baked beans. The nearest my mother got to growing her own peas was the frozen food aisles of our local supermarket. Now I eulogise cherry tomatoes, ponder over various types of kale and am never happier than when wandering round my tiny garden picking sun-warmed strawberries. What on earth happened? Was it a reaction to living in a flat in North London in my mid-twenties, where the only wildlife was manky pigeons and the only greenery the plane trees in the street below? I started with window boxes of garish orange marigolds and red geraniums. Soon I graduated to rocket (arugula) and baby salad leaves. By the time I'd eaten my first home-grown tomato, I was hopelessly hooked.

Ten or so years later and my passion for growing lovely things I can eat shows no sign of slowing down. But I'm no longer alone. Now I can hold my head high. We appear to be in the grip of a growing-your-own food revolution. And this time it's not only gentlemen of a certain age who are waxing lyrical over potatoes and aubergines, but a whole cross section of society, many of them women.

We've now had a few years of enjoying exotic fruit in winter, strawberries all year round and little French (green) beans lined up in perfect rows trimmed for our convenience and flown in from Kenya. Yet something doesn't feel right. What about food miles, pesticides, packaging, organic food standards, the state of the farming industry? What's in those bagged salads? Most of all, what about taste? We've all eaten things that looked like strawberries, but tasted like, well, nothing at all. And when did peaches start resembling cotton wool?

Yet what's a modern, urban-living, eco-conscious girl to do? You might want to eat local, fresher, organically grown fruit and vegetables, but you don't want to move into the middle of nowhere, embrace a collection of headscarves and become self-sufficient. You can get an allotment, but even if you managed to get to the top of the waiting list before you're too old to lift a trowel, you might not want the hassle of travelling to a large plot some distance from your home that will need your attention come rain or shine the whole year round. You don't want to break your back digging and lugging heavy sacks or rigging up complicated wooden supports or nets. You might want to carry on as you are thanks, just with fewer trips to the supermarket and the pleasure of picking and eating your own fresh, organic produce with the minimum of effort.

Crops in Pots

Some crops are easier to grow than others. Sometimes I think you could throw rocket seed into the wind and come back three weeks later to find a salad. Aubergines, on the other hand, can refuse to crop unless they're showered with love and proverbial fan mail. To make it easier to choose what you might want to grow, I've only included crops that are easy to grow in small gardens and pots. I have, however, included a few demanding divas. And when the result could be a warm, sun-ripened peach, a bowl of purple figs, or a sweet roasted red pepper, the rewards are worth it.

Most fruit and vegetable crops can be grown in pots Ð in fact, some, like figs and blueberries, prefer it. A group of plants in containers can look as jungly as a garden border and you can fit in masses on a small terrace, from herbs to fruit trees. In fact, pretty much any crop can be grown in a pot, if it's big enough.

Hanging Baskets

If you don't want a traditional-style basket, feel free to get creative with brightly coloured tins and bits of string. Choose the tin wisely, though. There's a big difference between hanging up a charming Greek olive oil can planted with oregano and bunging some lettuce in a tin of super-saver baked beans.

Growing Bags

They may be unfashionable, but I love growing bags. Long, plastic wrapped, sausages of compost, they're usually emblazoned with garish pictures of tomatoes and don't look very chic.

In an unusually industrious/creative moment, I had some shallow wooden boxes made, just the right size to fit the bags in. I then covered the bags with shingle so you'd never know they were there. You can now buy similar boxes ready-made from garden equipment suppliers.

Window Boxes

Most people, even those who live in flats, have a garden. It's just that it might be three floors up and on your windowsill. Outdoor window ledges are great growing spaces. All you need is a window box.

I tend to avoid plastic window boxes because however glorious the plants in them, all I can see is the ugly box. Terracotta and light metal ones always look good, wooden ones are great for a rustic look, and there are rattan ones for the folksy-devoted. But my current favourite are those made from fibreclay, styled to look like lead. Large enough to hold plants like aubergines and pepper. Whatever you choose, get the biggest and deepest you can for your windowsill (weight restrictions permitting!).

How To Grow

Spring: Rocket

Hard to believe, I know, but we did once eat salads without this peppery little leaf. These days every supermarket salad bag contains it, a restaurant garnish isn't complete without it and even pizzas come crowned with the stuff. Lucky it's so easy to grow then.

Sow it outside from mid-spring, straight into the pot or bit of ground you want to grow it in. It's super-fast and needs no special attention. Rocket (arugula) basically comes in two types: salad rocket, with its more rounded leaves and less peppery taste, and the hotter wild rocket with narrower, serrated leaves; I grow both. Sow little and often, though. If your rocket starts tasting like someone's poured hot mustard powder into your mouth and your eyes start streaming, it's time to pull up the plants and start again.

You will need: A medium-sized container with drainage holes, multipurpose compost, rocket seeds, 20 mins.

How: Add a layer of crocks to the bottom of the container and then fill it almost to the top with compost. Sprinkle the seeds thinly over the surface, then cover with a thin layer of compost. Water. Place in a sunny or partially shaded spot.

Summer: Blueberries

Blueberries have indeed been declared a super-food, packed with age-defying antioxidants, vitamin C, flavanoids and even something that prevents the formation of wrinkles.

They need no pruning apart from the removal of dead twigs, can be left outside all winter and are largely untroubled by pests. 'Bluecrop', 'Spartan' and 'Earliblue' are all reliable, but the semi-evergreen ones, such as 'Sunshine Blue' and 'Toro' are the prettiest because their leaves turn a beautiful auburn in the autumn and brighten up the garden all winter.

You will need: A pot at least 30cm (12 inch.) in diameter, ericaceous compost, a sunny spot.

How: Plant your blueberry bush in the container. Being acid-loving plants, blueberries should, strictly speaking, be watered with rainwater, not tap. But don't worry too much about this. I've always watered mine from the garden hose, and they've been laden with berries. From early summer, when the flowers start to set fruit, give the bush a fortnightly feed with a tomato feed or liquid seaweed.

Autumn: Broad (fava) beans

Hannibal Lecter has a lot to answer for! As if the 'fa-fa-fa-fava bean' didn't have enough of an image problem before he weighed in with his unusual cooking advice. The broad beans of my childhood were as appetising as a plate of leathery, grey saddle-bags, but grow them yourself and a whole new world of broad bean opens up. Eat them small and sweet and they're absolutely delicious, full of the flavour of spring and with a gorgeous bright green vibrancy.

Hardy, hefty creatures, broad beans laugh in the face of frost and snow. Everything about them is reassuringly tough, from the enormous seeds that can be sown direct into garden soil, to the pointy, grey-green leaves and clusters of pods that start to swell in mid-spring.

Sow: Mid- to late summer.

You will need: A container at least 25cm (10 inch.) in diameter with drainage holes, multipurpose compost, dwarf broad bean seeds, 30 mins.

How: Add a layer of crocks to the bottom of the container and fill almost to the top with compost. Push in the seeds 5cm (2 inch.) deep and about 10cm (4 inch.) apart (or about 5 seeds to a 25cm (10 inch) pot). Water and place in a sunny, sheltered spot.

Winter: Fruit Trees

For the energetic, winter is the time to plant fruit trees. Even a tiny balcony has room for a couple of apples, a cherry or a plum. Or why not go a bit more exotic with an apricot or a peach?

They may not be exotic, but guess what, that means you're more likely to get a decent harvest. Good pear varieties include 'Concorde', 'Buerre Hardy' or 'Doyenne du Comice'. As for apples, there are so many varieties to choose from it's almost dizzying, but 'Discovery', 'Braeburn', 'Cox' and 'James Grieve' are all gorgeous. You might have to buy more than one tree for the best pollination Ð check with the suppliers.

The Girl's Guide to Growing Your Own by Alex Mitchell is published by New Holland and is available in paperback, priced at £12.99, from all good bookshops.

Alex will be talking about growing vegetables and signing copies of her book at the Book Barn at Wealden Times Midwinter Fair at Sissinghurst Castle on Friday December 4th at 2pm.