I have become very excited recently about the prospect of re-designing our garden. There are so many beautiful flowers, climbing plants and shrubs at our local gardening centre and the options are endless! I love the idea of Spring coming and our beautiful garden blooming with colourful plants.
As my Pinterest board gets more and more full of gardening inspiration, it got me thinking about becoming more self-sufficient by growing our own fruit and veg in the garden. I imagine there is great satisfaction in nurturing your own plants, seeing them thrive and creating delicious family meals with them!
I thought it would be a great way to spend family time, involving Busby and H-Bear in the gardening process to get them engaged with the outdoors. It is so common nowadays for our children to want to spend all their time inside on tablets and games, so asking for their help in the garden is a great way to get them out in the fresh air. I also want to teach them the importance of looking after things, and what better way than them nurturing plants and vegetables?
During my pursuit of the best tips and tricks for garden growth – I learnt that the best way is through a technique called companion planting. You create a little community of mutually beneficial plants, which improves pollination and reduces pests. You grow a wider variety of fruit and vegetables which in turn makes them all thrive much more than if they were growing solo. Win, win!
Be careful though, planting the wrong plants next to each other can actually be detrimental to growth, so choose wisely!
We have decided that we would love to grow strawberries – one of Busby’s favourite fruits – so I know she will try her best to look after them! The best companion plants for strawberries are onion and garlic as the strong scents help to repel pests. Thyme also helps to deter worms, one of the biggest strawberry pests, whilst beans boost soil nutrition which help your beautiful strawberries flourish. Try to avoid anything in the cabbage family as they will stop your strawberries from growing!
We may also give tomatoes a go, as they are an easy to grow plant. Perfect for children! They will help to feed the family lots of vitamins and nutrients as they are super rich in vitamin C, potassium, folate and vitamin K. We will plant them along side carrots, basil and garlic to help the tomatoes grow and deter pests.
I can’t wait to get planting!
*Collaborative post.*
