Easy Peasy Gardening

Easy Peasy Gardening is just a cute term for growing salad and stir fry vegetables in compost-filled containers, thus eliminating the time spent digging and weeding. It reduces work to a bare minimum, and is ideal for kids, working folks and anyone else who can’t face the drudgery of normal gardening tasks.

An easy peasy 'garden' with oriental leaves, lettuces, coriander and radishes – ideal for kids, working families and anyone else who wants to take the drudgery out of growing salads.

Not all Sea Spring Seeds’ varieties suit an Easy Peasy Garden, though the ones we recommend (see the initials 'EPG' besides the recommended varieties) are both productive and easy to grow:

• They can be grown in containers without tying, training or special handling.
• Many are adapted to growing both outdoors (when it is warmer) and inside a tunnel, greenhouse or cold frame (when it is colder).
• They can be direct seeded, bypassing the need for transplants.
• Most are fast growers, so there is relatively little waiting time for the first harvest.
• Most can be harvested two or three times from a single sowing. 

Keeping an Easy Peasy Garden is a doddle: after choosing a container and filling it with compost, just sow, water, fertilise and harvest. To make things even simpler, you can put the containers on a patio table on your patio – then you won’t even have to bend over to do your jobs.

How to start and maintain an Easy Peasy Garden

• Garden placement

Where you place your garden is essential to its success, and there are a few considerations to make when the time comes for choosing a site:

• A sunny spot, protected from the wind, is best. It is not, however, disastrous if the plants are shaded for part of the day – most of the Easy Peasy Gardening varieties are leafy crops and will do fine if they don’t get the sun all day.

• Close to a water source. Dry compost is the biggest threat to the success of the garden, so the closer the garden is to a water source, the easier it will be to keep the compost damp.

• Near the house. Though not a top priority, if the garden is close to the house, you can keep a closer eye on it and give it better care. As the saying goes, ‘Out of sight, out of mind’, and this applies to gardening as much as anything.

• Choosing a container

There are no hard and fast rules for what makes the ideal container for Easy Peasy Gardening, and, in fact, almost anything can be used as long as it holds compost. There are, however, a few general guidelines that should be followed:

• The container must be the right depth. If it is too shallow, the compost fills up with roots and dries out too quickly; if it is too deep, then compost is wasted. We feel a container around 13–15cm deep is about right.

• It must have holes in the bottom for drainage.

• If plastic, it should be UV stabilised, otherwise it quickly deteriorates in the sun – possibly after a year.

Our current favourites are narrow, rectangular-shaped, window box type troughs that measure about 14cm deep and 13cm wide. Their narrow width makes harvesting easy, and they are deep enough for the plants to grow without drying out too quickly. They also come in different lengths, making them suitable for most garden situations. Some brands, too, come with custom-made trays in which the troughs can be put – these can be filled with water on hot, dry days to keep the compost moist (see ‘Watering the garden’ below).

Rectangular-shaped window box type troughs (left) are our current favourite for Easy Peasy Gardening. Pots (right) use more compost than necessary.

• Choosing the compost

Once the containers are chosen, it is then a matter of filling them with an appropriate growing medium. Garden soil does work, but we do not recommend it since soil makes the pots heavy and contains weed seeds, creating unnecessary work. You could try using home made compost from your compost heap (provided you have one), but so far we haven’t enough experience to confidently recommend its use.

Given the shortcomings of soil and the uncertainty of home-made compost, commercially-made compost from the garden centre is probably your easiest and safest bet. Even then, there are decisions to make – because of issues concerning habitat destruction and carbon footprint we suggest avoiding peat-based composts. Instead, the best options are the ones made from composted green waste – these are lightweight, weed free and peatless. Try the so-called multipurpose mix, a jack-of-all-trades that works for Easy Peasy Gardening. Our preferred brand at the moment is New Horizon Organic Peat Free, but there are other makes that should do just as well.

• Sowing and establishment

Properly managed, an Easy Peasy Garden can provide salads year round. It can be established both outdoors during the warmer part of the year and inside a tunnel, greenhouse or cold frame for the colder months. Seasonal differences in temperature, day length and light levels affect plant growth, and for each crop, there is a range of dates when it is best to sow (see ‘Growing each crop’ below).

To start the garden, fill each container with compost. The compost should be moist, but not too wet. Pack it down, putting in enough to come within 25mm or so of the top. Smooth out the surface, and you’re ready for sowing.

The seeds can be sown in orderly rows, but this is an unnecessary inconvenience. Instead, evenly scatter the seed on the surface of the compost, taking care to include the edges and, for square or rectangular containers, in the corners.

Lettuce seed (left); sowing lettuce seed on compost (right).

The amount of seed you sow depends on the variety (see ‘Individual crops’ below for details). But remember, always sow a little more than necessary, as not all the seed will germinate.

After sowing, cover the seed with more compost and gently pack it down. The depth the seed should be buried depends on the size of the seed and varies according to the crop (see ‘Individual crops’, below).

When the seeds are covered over, gently water the surface of the compost. See ‘Watering’ below for techniques. After germination, thin the seedlings to their correct spacing if they are too close together.

Radish seedlings should not be too close.

Avoid the temptation of mixing seeds of different varieties. Every variety has its own unique germination and bolting time, and it is better to grow each one in a separate container.

Watering

Vegetables that are grown in containers need to be watered more often than those growing in the ground. The objective of watering – best done with a hosepipe or watering can – is to keep the compost damp without drowning the seeds and plants. Generally it will need to be done once a day, though this might have to be more often on sunny days in the summer.

• Germination and seedling establishment

The crops are most vulnerable to drying out during the germinating and seedling stage. Compost dries from the top down, and extra care must be taken to ensure the surface of the compost remains moist. If the weather is cool or cloudy, or if someone is home during the day to water, there should be no problem. If no one is around and the weather is hot, you could water in the morning before leaving and in the evening when returning home. However, if the compost still dries out, you may need to shade the containers to reduce moisture loss. This is effectively done using a couple of simple techniques:

• Keep the containers in a shady spot – under a table, tree or patio umbrella will do. When the seedlings begin to emerge, move them into the sun.

• Cover individual containers with newspaper. This is just another way of shading the compost and keeping the surface moist. The newspaper can be held in place with clothes pegs so that it doesn’t blow away in the wind. After two or three days, start checking for germination, and when the first seedlings appear, take the paper off.

Newspaper can be used to keep the compost damp during the germination phrase.

As the seeds germinate, the roots of the seedlings grow downward into the compost, searching for water.

• Growing plants

As the seeds germinate, the roots of the seedlings grow downward into the compost, searching for water. At this stage it is less critical if the surface of the compost dries out, although the compost must still be moist around the roots.

To keep moisture levels up, put the containers in shallow trays filled with water. The compost acts as a wick, taking in the water through the drainage holes in the bottom of the container. You can often buy custom-made trays that fit specific containers, though you can also try mixing and matching odd bits to get the right combination. To give the system a little more buffer, a piece of capillary matting can be put in the bottom of the tray.

Seedlings of Salad Bowl lettuce in a window box trough and using a tray for maintaining the water level of the compost.

Putting the containers on trays only works if a couple of rules are followed:

• During rainy spells, take the containers out of the trays so that they don’t get waterlogged.
• Use only shallow trays so that the plants don’t sit in deep water and die.

Fertilising

Commercial composts come ready-mixed with fertiliser, and there is enough to last two, maybe three weeks, before it is depleted. After that, extra nutrients must be added to keep the ‘garden’ going. The easiest way to supply the nutrients is as a liquid feed poured into the compost. You can choose between organic and conventional formulations, though whichever you use, try to go for one that is high in nitrogen. They are sold at all garden centres in both powder and liquid forms, and because they are concentrated, they will need to be diluted in water before they can be used. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for dilution rates and frequency of application.

Pests and diseases

Diseases will seldom be a problem with any of the recommended varieties. Pests, however, are a different matter. Many of the Easy Peasy varieties are brassicas (see below), and these are particularly prone to attacks from caterpillars and flea beetles.

Cabbage white caterpillars chomping away at a leaf of Joi Choi; a leaf of Joi Choi showing flea beetle damage

If there is a problem these pests are easily controlled by covering the crops with ‘fleece’ – available at garden centres – to provide a barrier.

Fleece can be laid over the Easy Peasy Garden to keep pests away.

Harvesting the crops

Harvesting the crop is payback for the investment you have put into the garden. There are two styles of harvesting, depending on the crop:

•  Individual plants of radish and salad onions are harvested one time only. Once all the plants are pulled, that’s it until a new sowing comes on.

•  The plants of a leafy crop can be harvested two or more times. Harvesting is simply a matter of cutting above the growing tip, giving it a chance to regenerate more leaves. As a rule of thumb, cut about 1–2cm above the level of the compost. For more information on the growing tip and cut-and-come-again harvesting click here.

Red Salad Bowl lettuce leaves being harvested above the growing point so the plant will produce more leaves; Red Knight mizuna regrowing after a harvest.

Leafy crops, unfortunately, do not go on forever, and at some stage the plant starts producing a flowering stem. This is called bolting, and it puts a quick stop to the productive life of the crop. Bolting is a fact of life in leafy crops, and if you want a continuous supply of leaves, new sowings must be made periodically throughout the growing season.

Managing individual crops

Lettuces

Lettuces are often the backbone of mixed salads, and with their range of textures and colours, they can determine a salad’s character. They are easy to grow, and with continuous sowings, outdoor crops can be harvested for six months or more. In an Easy Peasy Garden, they are cut as ‘baby’ leaves – up to 15cm tall.

Sowing dates: April to September for outdoor crops. The varieties currently sold by Sea Spring Seeds are not recommended for overwintering.

Sowing depth: 5–6mm deep.

Distance between plants: 2–4cm apart.

Harvesting: Harvest leaves any time after they have reached a height of 5cm. If allowed to get much taller than 15 cm the leaves will get a bit tougher. Cut plants about 1–2cm above the height of the compost. This is above the plants' growing tip and will allow them to regrow.

Growing advice: Butterhead and crisphead lettuces, i.e., Clarion and Saladin, are not recommended for Easy Peasy Gardening. Instead, they should be grown as single plants at wider spacings and then allowed to reach full size before harvesting.

Red Salad Bowl lettuce ready for cutting in an Easy Peasy Garden.

Oriental leaves

As members of the brassica family, these leafy greens are quick to germinate and produce a crop. They can be grown outdoors for most of the year (spring to autumn), and undercover in a cold frame, tunnel or greenhouse in the winter.

As a general rule, the leafy brassicas grown in an Easy Peasy Garden should be harvested when the leaves are no taller than 15cm, when they are mild-flavoured and tender, making them ideal additions to mixed salads. Picked larger, and they become tougher and stronger flavoured. Even at this stage, however, they are still delicious in salads and are particularly good when stir fried.

Sowing dates: Outdoor sowing dates differ for each crop:

• Rocket: March to September
• Mustards: July and August
• All other Oriental leaves: May to August

For overwintering undercover, they can all be sown in September/October and again in January/February.

Sowing depth: 6–8mm deep.

Distance between plants: 2–4cm apart.

Harvesting: Harvest leaves any time after they have reached a height of 5cm. If allowed to get much taller than 15cm the leaves will get a bit tougher. Cut plants above their growing tips to allow them to regrow. This could be about 1–2cm above the height of the compost.

Growing advice: Cover the plants with fleece to protect them from pests.

Young leaves of Broadleaved Mizuna in an Easy Peasy Garden.

Coriander and dill

Though these annual herbs are normally associated with ethnic cooking, their strong flavours also add a distinctive note to salads of any kind. They are, alas, quite quick to bolt, so sow a little and often throughout the growing season.

Sowing dates: March to September.

Sowing depth: 12mm deep.

Distance between plants: 2–3cm apart.

Harvesting: Harvest when plants are between 8–15cm tall. Cut above the growing tips to allow regrowth – this should be about 1–2cm above the height of the compost.

Growing advice: Even after the plants bolt, individual leaves can be picked from the flowering stem to extend the harvest.

Coriander var. Santos in an Easy Peasy Garden ready for its first cut.

Radishes

Of all the root vegetables, summer radishes are the easiest to grow and quickest to mature. Because all the plants are ready to harvest more or less at once, sow only small amounts at any one time – otherwise, you could be inundated with radishes.

Sowing dates: April to September for outdoor crops. Sow undercover in September for cropping in October and November; and in February and March for a spring harvest.

Sowing depth: 6–8mm deep.

Distance between plants: 2–3cm apart.

Harvesting: Plants can take as little as three to four weeks between sowing and harvesting. Pull the roots as soon as they reach full size or they will become pithy.

Growing advice: Radishes are brassicas, and therefore subject to attacks from flea beetle and caterpillars.

Harvested summer radishes var. Crystal Ball.                                                                                                                                                                 

Salad onions

Can a salad be complete without onions? Probably not, and though salad onions take months rather than weeks to first harvest, we feel the wait is worthwhile. All Sea Spring Seeds’ onions are dual purpose and can be used for salad onions – just grow them closely and pick them young.

Sowing dates: Sow March to June outdoors.

Sowing depth: 12mm deep.

Distance between plants: 2–3cm apart.

Harvesting: Start harvesting when leaves are 25cm tall. Because of the strong roots, you may have to dig out the plants with a knife.

Growing advice: Make continuous sowings every three weeks or so for a steady supply.

Sowing salad onions var. Ailsa Craig in an Easy Peasy Garden

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