How to Plant Leeks Out
It’s still not too late to plant leeks, and I’ve been getting mine in this weekend.
Back in March, I sowed the leek seeds undercover, in 15cm pots of multipurpose compost. They’ve been hardening off over the last few weeks, and now they’re pencil thick, the time has come to plant them out.
Growing Peas Up a Wigwam
In the spirit of experimenting with space saving growing methods, I decided to try growing peas up a wigwam this year. I’ve just made my first harvest of mangetout, and this is how I did it.
1. Making a Structure
I used 8 6ft bamboo canes to make my structure. They occupy an area of 3ft squared, and I joined them at the top with a cable tie to make my wigwam shape. I put a pot over the top because I’m clumsy, and there is every chance I would poke my eye out on unguarded sharp things.
The £5 a Month Veg Plot – A Tribute to the Frugality of Gardening
I haven’t updated the £5 a Month Veg Plot for a good few weeks now. There is one main reason for this: I haven’t spent very much money at all, and it’d be boring to talk about nothing happening. Even more boring than your standard Real Men Sow tales, in fact.
The other day I bought some radiccio seeds for 75p, and I’ve paid about three quid for canes when I visited the allotment shop. Unless my memory is failing me, that’s the sum total of my vegetable growing expenditure since the last update.
In 2007, I took on a redundant allotment plot with my gardening-mad mum Jan. As all good mums do, she went along with it, but I don’t think she held out much hope.
During 2011, I kept a diary of how much money I save from growing my own fruit and vegetables.
After totalling all my outgoings, I saved approximately £500 over the year.
I made a spreadsheet to calculate these savings - it’s nothing too complicated, as I’m no Excel guru, but hopefully someone else will find it as useful (and strangely fun) as me.
For more info, 
