Turn Covid into Growvid

I thought it was a good time to put together a few tips that you can follow for growing inside the home. Whatever your gardening skill level, there’s bound to be something that you can take part in!

It’s excellent for mindfulness, and that little bit of escapism. You may even feel that you’re starting to get green fingers!

Listen to my gardening tips with Lesley Dolphin from this week’s Radio Suffolk here. I’ve also been interviewed by Chiswickbuzz TV, where I dispel the myth that people can become self-sufficient, watch it here.

Houseplant Care

With you spending more time at home, your houseplants will think all of their Christmases have come at once! But go easy, make sure you don’t overwater them! 

However, now it’s spring, you can start to give them a little bit of weak liquid feed, and tidy up any yellowing growth. Now would also be a good time to take a few cuttings. You can root those in water, which is really fun and you can see the rooting as it happens.

Flat Lay Flower Art

 

This is delightfully simple, and a real tonic for the soul. If you have your own garden where you won’t come into contact with others, you can select various seasonal blooms and leaves to use in your flatlay (if not, don’t worry! Perhaps you’ve already got some items lying around, like a shell you collected from the beach, a feather that you thought looked pretty, or even some dried flowers that you have in a vase). Lay these out very neatly, and take some pictures. Some people even create miniature garden scenes with them.

Windowsill Allotments

Windowsill allotment – by @pams_garden

We need to acknowledge that it’s not that simple to sustain yourself by growing your own fruit and vegetables. We need to keep our faith in the food system in the UK for that. 

However, you can have a lot of fun growing some edibles, and the flavours will be far superior to shop-bought produce. Picking straight from the plant means that the nutrient content doesn’t break down, and you can pick fruits at optimum ripeness too! No more under ripe strawberries!

Indoor Crafting with Mud and Bloom

I’ve been trying out a few little craft activities recently, and Mud & Bloom offer a pretty swish subscription box. Great for adults and kids alike, although I potentially have hands that are too big for crafting!

It really helps you to connect with nature, while being creative at the same time: the perfect escapism.

Garden on a Plate

Garden on a plate – by @mellouise3

When I was a kid, I used to go to all the local flower shows with my grandparents. Whilst I wasn’t old enough to enter the cut flower and vegetable classes, there were children’s classes. 

Every year, I was making a garden-on-a-plate. It’s great for the imagination, simply take a dinner plate and level it off with fresh soil or compost. Then, you can build it up with small gravel pathways, reflective foil as lakes and ponds, and create hedging and flower borders with small sprigs of shrubs and flowers.

Microgreens

Microgreens are so much more rich in nutrients and minerals than fully grown vegetables, as it’s everything in concentrated form. The good news is they’re super easy to grow!

It’s almost like grown-up cress, as you can grow broccoli shoots, radish shoots, and so much more. Imagine growing a cress head with all of these different colours – you can even grow a red head! 

You can buy seeds from a lot of retailers, or you can order from “Silly Greens”, as they drop through your letterbox, ready to grow.

Fermentation

If you’re looking to make some vegetables to store, then fermentation could be the way. I’ve been using these amazing kits from Mad Millie, and so far I’ve experimented with kefir (sour milk) and a little bit of sauerkraut!

The In-between Garden

Let’s give it a little bit of love to windowboxes right now. They are often seen as the in-between garden, because you can get on board with them even if you haven’t got an outdoor space.

You can grow herbs, vegetables (miniature tomatoes work particularly well), strawberries, and a range of flowers. Imagine using fragrant blooms, and allowing that scent to waft indoors. That’s better than any scented candle, you’ve got to admit! 

Have you seen my small space gardening video? Click here! 

Let me know what you’ve been up to while you’re social distancing, in the comment section below.