Vegetable planters are a useful addition to any garden as they provide you with the perfect designated space to put your vegetables. When buying your vegetable planter, you may be questioning how to grow various vegetables in particular planters. This blog is here to help with instructions on how to plant carrots, peas, kale and butternut squash. If you feel you may need more advice, feel free to email or call us on 01245 422 353.
Carrots
Carrots are perfect vegetables to grow for beginners. Growing carrots is so useful as they are used in many meals, which saves you money from buying them at the supermarket! Due to their size, they do not overtake your garden and can be grown in a variety of vegetable planters. When growing in vegetables planters, shorter or round rooted carrots are best, but if it is a particularly deep planter or a deep patch of soil, long rooted varieties are suitable. When using vegetable planters as raised beds, it gives deeper root space for vegetables to flourish. As well as this, corten steel is a great material for growing vegetables such as carrots, due to being strong, durable and long lasting. Corten steel Vegetable Planters also have gorgeous amber hues, which would be great identifiers for your carrots as they are a similar colour!
Carrot seeds can be bought in most places, in supermarkets, garden centres and others. Carrots love sun and light; therefore, this is key to particularly good growth. The soil should be deep and well drained and benefits from incorporated compost.
When planting your carrot seeds, ensure that you dig and rake your area to avoid any stones or weeds in your soil. Make sure you consult your seed packet to determine when to sow your seeds, but they are typically sowed from April to July. It is only necessary to make a very shallow space for planting your carrot seeds and if you cover them well with soil and water, you will hopefully grow successful carrots! Try to sow thinly and be aware that they may take a while to grow. When planting in containers try to pick one that is about 45cm deep. Our corten steel vegetable planters are perfect for these.
Carrots are typically drought resistant, so only require small amounts of consistent watering! We recommend using a fine-rose watering system so the seeds are not disturbed. This makes them fairly low maintenance but don’t forget to weed them, so they don’t get overcrowded!
After sowing, carrots are typically ready after about 12-16 weeks. If your soil is heavy, make sure you lift the roots carefully with a fork.
Peas
Peas are also perfect for meals, such as using them in curries and salads as well as having them alongside fish or pies! When growing peas, please keep in mind that mangetout and sugar snap peas are typically most successful when grown in gardens.
Peas should typically be sown from March to June but make sure that the soil is not damp and cold. The trench needed to be dug this time is larger than carrots, about 2 inches deep and six inches wide. When sowing the seeds spread them evenly about 3inches apart and cover with a thin layer of soil.
When the peas start to grow, water them when they start to flower and again two weeks after. As peas grow upwards, it is important to tie them to bamboo canes and trellises. This is because they need enough height to grow freely. We recommend using lower vegetable planters such as the 100x100x40cm planter as they will be free to reach as much height as they need. Peas still need enough water as they grow, so please be aware of this.
When you harvest the peas, check the first pea pods and ensure that there are peas inside around a typical size. This will usually be from June to October, just in time for lovely pea soups and to accompany warm winter pies!
Kale
Kale is delicious in omelettes and smoothies, due to its impressive amount of vitamins A and K. Superfood smoothies are becoming increasingly popular, which means growing kale is too! It is also the perfect beginner’s vegetable to grow in a garden or in a container.
The only problem is that kale has is that it does tend to take up a lot of space and takes a while to grow. Therefore, if you would like to grow kale in smaller gardens it may have to be the sole vegetable grown or a separate plot should be made. It may be easier to grow kale in smaller containers to begin with and then transplant your kale into the ground when they grow. We have a range of sizes for our vegetable planters and the larger ones would be perfect for kale due to the space they take up. Our Aluminium Vegetable Planters would suit growing kale, as they are made of thick 3mm aluminium and long lasting, but they can also be colour customised to suit the colours of kale!
With this in mind, sow your kale seeds from March to June in a space where it may get some sun. Afterwards, make sure you rake your soil and weed it, making a space similar to carrots of about 1cm deep. However instead of making a trough like space, make thin lines to spread the seeds. Keep thinning out the seeds as they may surprise you with the space taken up! Apply mulch around the plants to enhance the moisture within the soil and make sure you are watering.
You may have to wait till September onwards to begin harvesting your kale, which may mean removing the younger leaves from the top of the plant. Young leaves are perfect for salads, but ones left throughout the winter can be used for soups and smoothies.
Butternut squash
We love a butternut squash, as they are delicious, a funny shape and a lovely beige colour. We would recommend making a butternut squash risotto, which are typically packed with flavour! Larger vegetables may seem intimidating at the start; but they can be easily grown in the right conditions.
We recommend sowing butternut squash seed in deep 7cm pots of multi-purpose compost in April, transplanting them into larger pots and then either containers or soil in the ground in late May. They then typically grow from late May to early June. Try to keep the plants weed free and make sure you include fertiliser within your soil.
When harvesting your butternut squash try to keep them on the vine so they stay as fresh as possible. However, they should all be picked by the first frost.
There you have it, advice on four tasty vegetables to be grown in your own back garden! Once you have planted them in the appropriate containers the relaxing part is watching them grow. Undeniably vegetables taste a whole lot better when they are homegrown and especially with living expenses going up it may be the best option.
