Creating your own vegetable garden has many advantages. It is a fulfilling hobby that helps you to keep yourself and your family healthy with delicious home-grown foods, and you can also save hundreds per year just by growing your own vegetables.

Gardening courses can help you to get started on planting your own garden. There are a couple of gardening basics to keep in mind before you start planning it. For example, the garden should be in a sunny area (eight hours of sun per day is ideal), and you should place it where you will have plenty of space for each plant.

Each different vegetable has its own specific requirements for how deep the seed should be planted and how much space each seed will need to grow to its full potential. Another consideration is what time of year to start planting each type of vegetable. These specifications will be provided on seed packets.

There are many ways to maximize the number of plants in your garden if you are working with limited space. For example, tomatoes can be grown in a hanging basket, and climbing vegetables such as cucumbers can be trained up a trellis.

The benefits of growing vegetables at your own home are plentiful:

Taste: Anyone who grows their own vegetables can say that the foods that come from their garden are tastier than those found at grocery stores or farmer’s markets. When you have access to the vegetables immediately, you have them at their ripest.

• Health: Vegetable gardening is healthy not only in the fact that you are growing vegetables organically and you know exactly what herbicides and pesticides are being used (if any), but the other health advantage is that gardening requires plenty of physical activity.

• Green: When foods travel from one place to another, it requires resources such as fuel, packaging, and other carbon-emitting activities. This means that growing your own garden of vegetables is a better choice for the environment overall.

• Cost Savings: Of course, the less waste involved, the less money that is involved as well. Even though the up-front costs of starting your garden might seem daunting, the financial rewards will pay off over the months once your crops ripen.

When you enrol on a gardening or one of the many horticulture courses available, you will quickly learn that starting a vegetable garden does require quite a bit of research and an initial investment. However, it can be one of the most rewarding hobbies you will undertake.

North East Organic Growers is a workers co-op based at Earth Balance, Bomarsund (twelve miles north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne). Existing since 1995, we grow organic vegetables on our 12 acre site, and run a “box scheme”, which is a cost-effective way of buying certified organic seasonal vegetables and fruit on a regular basis. The produce is guaranteed to be free of added pesticides, herbicides and GMOs, and is grown using ecologically sound and sustainable methods so members will be supporting a healthier

environment as well as their own health. Here is a summary of what we offer:Product List:
Typical Contents: *Variety Vegbag Potatoes, carrots, onions and 3-5 other varieties. £7, available weekly

Basic Vegbag Larger quantities of potatoes, carrots, onions and one other variety. £7 available weekly

Standard Fruitbag Usually 4/5 varieties, for example, apples, oranges, bananas, kiwi. £5.50 available fortnightly

Double Fruitbag More of the above plus 1 or 2 extra varieties. £10.50 available fortnightly

*All produce organic and subject to season and availability. That not grown by us will be sourced from other certified Organic Growers or Wholesalers, as locally as possible.
As a member of the scheme you would collect your bag, generally on a Wednesday or Thursday, either direct from Earth Balance or from one of our growing network of link people local to where you live or work:

Centrally: Jesmond, Heaton, Central Newcastle, Fenham, Gosforth, Forest Hall
South: South Shields, Sunderland, Gateshead, Rowlands Gill and Blackhall Mill
East: Cullercoats, Whitley Bay and Monkseaton
North: Cramlington, Morpeth, Amble, Warkworth, Shilbottle and Alnwick
West: Hexham, Ryton, Crawcrook, Mickley and Ponteland
Perhaps you’d like to set up a Link yourself at your home or workplace? You may qualify for a free weekly bag in due course.