We have recently collaborated with buzz (Manchester's amazing NHS health & wellbeing service - go to their website to find out more) to create and deliver Mini Kitchen Garden Kits. They will be dropped off in the Manchester area to people to help alleviate some of the struggles of being inside and socially isolated from your friends and families whilst the country tries to get to grips with COVID-19.
I'm sure most of us would agree that getting out to see & experience nature, seeing the flora & fauna in our parks & green spaces is something we've been missing recently and whilst some of us may not be able to do that, we can try and bring a little bit of that greenery inside to us instead.
We think these mini kitchen garden kits are a great idea and hope you do too! So although it is getting late in the year, it shouldn't be too much of a problem to get the seeds provided in the garden kits started and hopefully (with a little attention & care) you could be chomping away on your home grown produce very soon.
Below is our instructional seed sowing video & aftercare instructions to get you started along with the written instructions that are provided in the kits.
First things first.
What next…
Give your seeds a 3-7 days to germinate. This is where they begin to poke out of the soil with their ‘first leaves’.
For the first couple of weeks they will grow bigger and then grow their next set of leaves, the ‘true leaves’. The ‘first leaves’ eventually go yellow and die off. This is completely normal.
It’s really easy to look after your plants. Just keep them moist, but don't let them sit in water.
Put your pots on a tray or saucer to stop water leaking out the bottom and onto your surface.
You can keep the basil, radish, lettuce and spring onion in the pots on a sunny windowsill or table until they are ready to eat.
The peas and cucumbers can go outside in bigger pots or straight into the ground in a sunny spot after about 4 weeks.
Your peas and cucumber will need some support outside so put them next to a fence, railing or wall or stick a couple of long pieces of bamboo next to the seedlings for them to grow up.
Watch them grow! You will be amazed at how much they change every few days!
Harvest time!
Your lettuce will be ready to pick in 8-12 weeks, cut leaves off so more grow in its places so you have continuous salad.
The peas will be ready once you see the pods bulging. Don’t let them go too hard. If you do, leave them on and let them completely dry out, you’ve saved seeds for next year!
Spring onion is ready to pick when it looks the right size for you to eat (15cm or so), leave them in and they will get bigger and still be delicious.
Basil grows bigger spaced out with only a few plants per pot. Leave them to get big enough and only pick a few leaves at first to let them re grow. You should be able to keep basil all year if you don't over pick. Then you will have a healthy bushy plant for many years. You can pot it up into a bigger pot next spring.
Radish is ready to pick in 4 weeks. You can eat the leaves too, just like spinach. Leave a couple in and watch the flowers grow. They are really tasty!
Cucumbers can survive outside and can grow quite big in a sunny spot. If you haven't got anything for them to climb up don't worry, you could put them on a table and let them drop down over the side or just on the ground but watch out for slugs.. Cucumber plants can grow about 8 cucumbers per plant over the summer. Pick them when their skin isn't too tough as they are much nicer to eat.
That's all folks!
If you have any questions about the kits or need any advice, give us an email at hello@wearemud.org and we'll try to get back to your as soon as we can.
Hope you enjoy!