Grow Your Own Grub
Welcome to the sixth Dig In newsletter.
Every fortnight we'll update you with advice about getting the
best out of your veg, plus the latest Dig In news and weather.
Grub's nearly up! In anticipation of this we've got a brand new
set of animations showing how to harvest your tomatoes, carrots, beetroot, lettuce and squash. |
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What to do with your veg this
fortnight |
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Grow and carry on sowing! Keep your carrots well
watered and weeded - those juicy orange roots are getting bigger
every day and you don't want anything to slow that down. Even the
earliest-sown carrots are still a few weeks from harvest, so don't
get too impatient and dig them up yet. If you're extra keen, follow
our animated
sowing guide and keep on sowing. |
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Grow and keep on sowing! Your beetroot should
have plenty of leaves by now, and may need thinning out if it looks
crowded. Aim for one plant every two-four centimetres, and pull up
any inbetween to give the others room to grow. It's a little too
soon to harvest
properly, but you may pull up some marble-sized baby beets -
delicious raw in a salad. Keep plants well
watered in the heat, and remember, there's still time to sow
more. |
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Harvest, grow and keep on sowing. Many of you will have fine
heads of lollo
rosso ready to harvest. Either pull leaves from the outside as
needed, or twist off whole plants for the salad bowl. If your
lettuce is crowded, pull up a few plants to give the rest room -
this will help them redden up too. Don't forget to keep plants well
watered, and to sow more for lettuce all summer
long. |
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Grow, grow, grow. If your tomato plants
aren't in their final growing positions yet, now's the time to do
it. Dig a hole in the earth, a growbag or a big pot, and carefully
bury your seedling up to the first set of leaves. Bung in a stake
next to it. If you've planted out your tomatoes already, make sure
to keep tying them up to the stake as they grow. Snip off any
sideshoots which grow out diagonally from between the leaves and the
main stem, otherwise your plant will be all bush and no tomatoes! If
your can see flowers, then your plant will appreciate a feed -
there's more info
on feeding in the blog. |
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Grow, grow, grow. If your squash is still
indoors, it should go out now. "Harden" your plants off by putting
them outdoors in the day and taking them in at night for a week,
then plant out in the ground or a very big pot. Learn more on this
from our animated
growing guide. Dig a football-sized hole, tip your plant out of
its pot and bury the roots and compost. A bit of manure or more
compost will be a treat for your plant! Keep squashes well watered,
and they should start growing like mad - you may even start to see
flowers soon. |
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The current heat wave will gradually ease and the weather becomes
a little less oppressive this weekend. Good news for those in
western parts of the UK, where a mixture of showers and sunshine
should help your veg along. Those in the east will need to keep on
top of that watering schedule as showers will be few and far
between. Overall, temperatures should settle back to the low-mid
twenties, making it a pleasant time of year to be tending to those
plants. |
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That's all from the Dig In team for this fortnight - enjoy
watching your veg grow! |
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