What Will You Grow?

Deciding what to grow on your smallholding is a hard task. First you need to look at what type of soil you have to find out what will grow well. There's no point in planting lots of things that need sandy soil if you live in an area where the soil is predominately clay.

While the quality of your soil can be improved over time it does take hard work. Many people prefer to grow in raised beds but for me I like to plant direct in the ground. Speaking to your neighbours about what they grow can be a huge help. They're a font of knowledge, especially if, like in rural Bulgaria, they've been growing produce for a long time.

Being realistic about how much land to plant is key, remember you'll have to water and weed the plots for quite a long time and whilst in theory growing heaps of vegetables is very appealing, spending all day, every day watering and weeding can be very tiresome.

If like me you've had all winter to plan what you'll be growing you're almost ready to start planting now. We have our vegetable plot plowed at the end of the growing season (usually late October) and are waiting now for the last of the frosts to go and then we can get on and rotovate before starting to plant things out. I already have some seedlings waiting to go into the ground and a few things in a small winter vegetable patch that are hopefully getting a head start.