This Spring/Summer I am going to embark on a new project.

I say new project, well it’s a project within a project really. As part of our Online Journalism module at uni, we are working on a website called Birmingham Recycled, where I’m part of the “Lifestyle” section.

It was whilst I was working on a piece on allotments that I had one of those lightbulb moments that you see in cartoons: Why don’t I try and grow some fruits/vegetables/herbs at home to see how easy it really is to grow your own food? It seems like the perfect project, one that fits in with the Birmingham Recycled website, a challenge for me and something that can be blogged easily.

After all, having successfully not killed my Dad’s chilli plants last summer it sounded like a good project to do, one that would be low maintenance and if it pays off then the rewards taste nice too!

So I bought some seeds:

I read the instructions and went running to my Grandad’s, as he’s a very green fingered person (see, it runs in the family, I hope) and we’ve been having his cucumbers and tomatoes for years. So I guess we could say that he’s an expert.

The first thing he told me was that I don’t have to grow all of them at once. That’s what use by dates are there for.

Then he told me not to worry about the instruction “sow one seed on edge per pot”, it’s just the shape of the seed and doesn’t need to be planted at the edge of the pot.

He also suggested to plant them at the end of March, keep them in the airing cupboard until they start growing shoots and then take them out to maintain like with all plants: plenty of water and talking to them.

So it sounds easy enough, but is it going to be a case of easier said than done? I guess we’ll have to find out over the coming months…