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Creating a Self Sufficient Garden

Many of us in the U.K. enjoy gardening and spending time outside, here at approved trader we can help you create a garden that can help you become more self sufficient, while still giving you an attractive outside space to enjoy.

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Many of us in the U.K. enjoy gardening and spending time outside, here at approved trader we can help you create a garden that can help you become more self sufficient, while still giving you an attractive outside space to enjoy. Having home grown produce from your garden can help you save money on your weekly shop and give you access to fresh produce unmatched by the local supermarket.

The first task when creating a self sufficient garden is picking what you want to grow, there are a number of thing to consider when selecting what is going to be planted, these include look, smell, harvest time and off course what you like to eat.

Popular Vegetable For Your Garden

Lettuce - A popular choice for the salad lover, you can save around £24 with a single bag of lettuce seeds. Planting between February and August it takes around 2 to 3 months for the lettuce to be suitable to harvest.

Beans - can be costly to purchase in the supermarket, but a strong healthy bean plant can provide you fresh beans for weeks. Taking around 8 weeks to mature they keep producing beans for around a month, it is best to harvest a small amount of beans every couple of days. Fresh beans can not only be tasty ingredient to many home cooked meal but are also an attractive addition to your garden.

Potatoes -A necessity for any kitchen potatoes are a god accompaniment for almost any meal, potatoes may not be the most attractive of crops but easy to grow and sturdy can also be planted in containers on the patio or around more attractive plants. Planting in early April with 3-4 months you will have your first crop of small potatoes.

Leeks - Ideal for planting later in the year Leeks can be transplanted around June, easily planted the initially need a large amount of water, Leeks are ideal for the British garden allowing you to leave them in the ground until needed even in to the autumn and winter. This allows you to pick the Leeks as you need them. Leeks can be used for many recipes, everyone loves a traditional leek soup but they can also be great when adding cheese to them, making an ideal winter warmer meal.

Peppers - Peppers are used widely in cooking and give meals a warm vibrant colour, these traits can also be used to bring vibrancy to your garden. If you are planning on growing peppers in your garden you will need to plant them in a location that gets lots of heat and sun. You will need to grow the peppers initially in grow bags or containers before transplanting to the garden area.

Growing Fruit In Your Garden

The garden can also be a fantastic place for you to grow your own fruit, giving you flavoursome fruit for you to enjoy. Popular British fruits include Apples, pears, Gooseberries, Damsons, Plums, Raspberries, Strawberries, Blueberries, Black Currents and many others.

Apples - A fixture in many a traditional British orchid Apple Trees can be a great addition to your garden, a tree can be incorporated into your gardens design giving you a shelter, shade and privacy. Once matured an apple train is easy to maintain and provide you with tasty apples year after year. Apples a tasty when eaten straight of the tree but can be used in many recipes as well, although if you do a lot of cooking with apples then you would be best advised to grow cooking apples.

Damsons - Tasty berry like fruit damsons are picked at the end of the summer again tasty eaten as fresh Damson jam is a favourite of many British households, and for those of us over 18 Damson gin is a real treat.

Strawberries - We all remember the fun of pick your own strawberries in the summer heat, now you can both pick your own and grow your own. Strawberries are a great addition to your self sufficient garden an expensive item to purchase they can help you reduce your weekly shopping bill. Again tasty as simple fruit, strawberries are also a key component in many recipes including cheesecake, homemade milkshakes, as well as homemade strawberry jam and wine for those of us who like a tipple.

Pears - Another staple for the traditional British orchid, pear trees are again pretty easy to maintain once grown giving you pears year after year with no additional labour.

Herbs and spices for your garden

As well fruit and vegetable your garden can also be a source of herbs and spices for your kitchen, popular ones include basil, coriander and mint. Mint has the benefit of not only being a tasty addition to many recipes but also help add another dimension to your garden with the smell of fresh mint.

Other Ways To Make Your garden Self Sufficient

Fresh Eggs - Having chickens can be a great way to help make your home more self sufficient, able to feed them some kitchen scraps along with corn and the insects in the garden, keeping chickens can be a low cost way of getting fresh eggs. It is also thought that happy, healthy free range chickens will produce delicious eggs ideal for your Sunday morning fry up. Honey - Bee numbers are dropping in the UK, the addition of a bee hive can help encourage growth in the UK bee population as well as giving you delicious honey, a moderate sized bee hive can produce around 50 jars of honey a year. It is important to thou roughly check out what is needed for a bee hive as the protective equipment can be costly and you should seek help leaning to manage a bee hive for both the best results and safety.