Lewis | March 17, 2015 | 0 Comments
Want to grow your own foodstuffs, but are limited to space? This is a common dilemma for a number of people, especially for those in urban areas where private gardens are limited in size. But there are ways around this; usually modern problems are solved by some sort of innovative technology, but to participate in the ‘grow-your-own’ trend, all you need is a hanging basket! Not only do they take up no space on the ground, leaving it free for another use, you can also easily install quite a number of them to really take advantage of this truly simple premise. Hanging baskets aren’t suitable to growing everything you need to become self-sufficient, if you will, but growing chillies is one of the many possibilities open to you.
Not only does growing at eye-level make quite a statement, it’s also much easier on your back; bang goes the need of the back-breaking picking so many of us subject ourselves to every day! Chillies make the perfect companion to have in any kitchen. They supply immense flavour and body to certain meals, and can really bring to life any creation originating from the Indian subcontinent, for example. Not only this, growing them yourself gives you a sense of enormous well-being. Trust me, I know! After seeing this article online a few days ago, I have started doing it myself, and I cannot wait for my chillies to come through! There’s nothing quite like cooking with ingredients that you nurtured yourself, I’m sure you’ll agree.
To start this process, you only need a few simple items, the aforementioned hanging basket perhaps being one of the most important, of course! Along with this, you will need compost, a coir or sisal liner, a plastic circle cut from an old compost bag, a compact chilli such as a ‘Thai Mound’, spring onion ‘White Lisbon’ seeds and coriander seeds. This combination of varying chillies gives you all the ingredients of a salsa right at your fingertips! Got your items? Good, then here we go:
1. Place the linter inside the basket, making sure it is flush with the edges.
2. Line the bottom with the plastic and fill it two-thirds full with the compost.
3. Plant the chilli in the centre and fill in with compost. Make sure you firm as you go.
4. Water the compost.
5. Around the the basket edge, make alternate sowings of coriander and spring onions, thinly covering them with compost.
6. Once they are big enough to handle, thin out the seedlings to give them room to grow.
7. Keep watering the basket.
8. Give your plant a feed of liquid tomato fertiliser every two weeks, when flowers start to appear on the chilli.
9. Again, regularly water the basket as so to keep the compost nice and moist.
10. Start picking as soon as the crops are ready.
It’s so simple it makes the proverbial head spin! Chillies may not be everyone’s cup of tea, as it were, but like I said, they are a great ingredient to always have in the kitchen. They have a wide range of uses; they can be preserved through pickling or drying – the latter can provide the possibility of creating a homemade chilli powder through grinding. Their presence in many cuisines outline the importance of them, making them perfect for, say, a themed dinner party!
This information was obtained from an online article from The Telegraph, which you can read here. However, we know not everyone wants to grow chillies, but please remember they aren’t the only foodstuffs one can grow in a hanging basket. Other alternatives include lettuce and spinach, which thrive more in lower light settings. Or if you fancy having tomatoes, eggplant or peppers at your beckoning call, these thrive more in high heat-high sunlight environments. You can even grow strawberries in this way! I think that’s a tune we can all dance to!
We hope you enjoyed this article. If you’d like to see the original article that was the inspiration for this one, please click on the link in the above paragraph to take you to the The Telegraph website. In the meantime, please find us on the following social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Social networking, huh?!
