For those who are blessed with a large garden, home grown vegetables are easy to achieve but for those of us living on a tiny plot or even in an apartment, vegetable growing can still be achieved so let’s set down the steps and what you will need.

Step 1: Shopping List:

One seed box for sowing seeds with seed raising soil mix

A selection of terracotta pots and plastic pots of different sizes from 10 cm diameter to 40 cm diameter – probably about 12 pots in all

Five bags of potting soil mix

2 kg of bonemeal

One watering can with a fine rose

Seeds – you can try lettuce, radish, spinach, spring onion, tomatoes, and herbs like parsley, basil, thyme, rosemary and chives (or you can buy young plants of these herbs to speed up the process)

Step 2: Getting Started with Seeds:

Place your seed box in a place where you can water it and where it will receive some sun during the day.

Put a drainage layer of small stones in the bottom of the box and then fill with the seed raising mix. Water the mix if not already moist

Sow your seeds in rows in the box about 4 cm apart and water well. The quickest seed to germinate is usually the lettuce which will take 4 to 5 days depending on the temperature and time of year.

Step 3: Getting Started with Pots:

Terracotta pots will need more watering then plastic ones so will need slightly different management.

Put a drainage layer of small stones in the bottom of the pots.

Mix a handful of bonemeal in with the potting mix for each of the larger pots and less for the smaller ones.

The smaller pots can be used for the seedlings when pricking out from the seed box and then later when their root mass has filled the smaller pot those that will grow bigger can be transferred to the larger pots.

Keep the soil moist in the pots at all times but be careful not to over water so that they become waterlogged.

Just about any vegetable can be grown in a pot including potatoes, which is where the deep buckets are essential, runner beans, courgettes, chillies, sweet peppers, aubergines and so on. Grown outside your kitchen door in a sunny position they can also look attractive with their different sizes, colours, shapes and foliage and mixed in with the fruits and flowers of tomatoes, chillies, beans and courgettes can make quite a display.

In Kenya we are blessed with living on the equator where the seasons only vary between the wet and dry and up country the sub-tropical hot and cool periods. We do not have to worry about winter with its frosts and dormancy periods and this means we can sow our seeds at any time of year, even in August the coolest time of year and they will germinate.

We hope you enjoy growing your own vegetables and if you need any of the items mentioned in this article most of these can be found at the Plants Galore Garden Centre

Plants Galore Garden Centre

Directions: Use the Limuru Road from Muthaiga and continue past the Village Market and the turning into Runda.  200 m beyond the Runda turning take the murram track on the right hand side, where there is a Plants Galore sign board. After the bridge over the river fork right; the Centre is 100 m on the right. You can’t miss it! Telephone: 0773 612589. Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.