Post: The Veggie Garden

The Veggie Garden

Summer is well and truly here and it is now that I really appreciate the move to the country. We have a garden again after 4 years for the kids to run around in, and to grow some vegetables. It’s not too hard if you pick the right veg and prepare the ground well, although there was a lot of trial and error. I started off with a 2m x 1m area, and dug the soil to remove most of the large stones. I then put some timber in to create a raised bed and topped with compost and some organic fertiliser. Some of the veg I grew from seed, starting them off indoors in the bathroom and some I bought as seedlings. Kale (Cavolo Nero variety), peas, beetroot, chard and sprouting broccoli all worked well in the bed. The lettuce got savaged by slugs, although putting down beer traps worked, and the mizuno ran to seed pretty quickly as we could not eat it quickly enough.

In some grow bags, I planted some carrots from seed and they are just beginning to flourish now, while in some pots, I planted some courgettes indoors. You need to pull them when they are the right size as they can turn into marrows overnight.

There is nothing like heading into the garden in the morning to grab some kale for a frittata, of picking some fresh peas from their pods with the kids. If you have no garden, try growing some herbs in some pots or tins, and you can always expand from there.

Here is a quick recipe for a frittata for 2 using some kale or chard from the garden, along with some feta and mint. It’s perfect for breakfast, lunch or a light dinner.

 

 

Kale, Mint and Feta Frittata

Beat 5 eggs in a bowl. Add some salt and pepper and a splash of milk. Chop some chard or kale, along with some mint or basil, and add to the egg mixture. Finally break some feta cheese into the bowl and mix it all together. Heat a pan to medium heat and add some butter, and then the mix. It will take about 3 minutes to cook.

 

 

 

 

About Terry

Terry Lyons
Terry Lyons

Terry was a competitor on Masterchef
Ireland 2012, where he reached the final.
In what was an amazing experience, he
documented his journey on his blog, as
well as regular recipes.