It’s barely been a week but a lot has happened in the adventures of the New Acre vegetable patch! We’ve had growth spurts, some late bloomers an unfortunate loss, and perhaps most importantly some structural additions. 

​Over the course of the week, the patch itself has gone from strength to strength (the weather has definitely helped) and though it needed a fair bit of weeding, all of the vegetables are really beginning to look healthy. 

​The peas are looking fabulous and we couldn’t be happier with the spring onions which will probably be ready for harvest in a few weeks time (they usually take around 8 weeks total from sow to harvest).  

We’re also very pleased with how the beetroots are coming along too, as we were initially concerned with their slow growth compared to the rest of the patch. We needn’t have feared however, as look at them now! 

The herbs, tomatoes and chilli peppers are still doing great in their pots and we’re now at a point where we need to decide whether it’s worth moving them into the patch or letting them be to reach their full potential in their current homes. Though moving them over to the patch should be fine, they still currently have ample space and soil to grow so we’re undecided! If you have any additional info or advice on that, do let us know in the comments below.

​Are you growing your own vegetables? Do you have any tips, questions or queries to share? Either way we’d love to hear from you! Just leave us a comment below and one of the team will get back to you ASAP.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first signs of life! 

After much waiting, debating and a fair bit of worrying over whether things would sprout, it was the mini heatwave last week that really kicked things into gear. 

The indoor plants (herbs, chilli peppers and tomatoes) sprouted at around the 1-week mark after being watered, covered with cling film and left to their own devices on the window sill. Once they were tall enough, we removed the cling film and re-potted the stronger seedlings into bigger pots. This allows them to root a lot deeper than they were able to in the shallow trays and thus spread further and grow stronger. 

We began moving these outside in their new pots during the day and taking them back in during the evening. This gets them used to direct sunlight and prepares them for the eventual move into the patch. Whilst outdoors, we placed the pots in a pool of water around 1cm deep to allow them to feed whilst in direct sunlight. We didn’t want to directly soak the plants when watering as the last thing you want is the leaves to burn in the heat of the sun whilst wet! 

Once they’ve reached a certain height and strength in their new, bigger homes we’ll move these outside permanently with the others and let them flourish. 

​The seeds we sowed directly into the patch outdoors offered a different set of problems. After 2-weeks we still hadn’t seen any signs of growth and though the weather was on our side, there was a concern that either birds had had their way with the patch, early morning frost had affected the seeds or that the ground itself just wasn’t right for the array of veggies we’d sown. 

But then, thankfully, after a sweltering few days and damp nights, we came out to a whole range of tiny sprouts peeking out of the soil. 

​We’ve still got a long way to go but seeing those first few plants sprout strong and healthy was a fantastic feeling and gave us all a sense of accomplishment you seldom find anywhere else. Not only is it therapeutic to tend to your own patch, but it’s the idea of self-sustainability and growing your own that motivates you to go that extra mile. Essentially, we couldn’t recommend it enough! 

Are you growing your own vegetables? Do you have any tips, questions or queries to share? Either way we’d love to hear from you! Just leave us a comment below and one of the team will get back to you ASAP.

Greetings, and welcome to the very first New Acre blog post! 

​With Spring now fully settled in, what better way to prepare for the coming months than to start our very own vegetable patch? As some of you may know, we pride ourselves on our ethics of sustainability and green-living, so it seemed like a no brainer to add self-sufficiency to the list too.

So settle in, grab yourself a cup of tea and follow our foray into both indoor and outdoor growing! Lessons will be learnt, soil will be toiled and some tasty dinners will most definitely be had. We'll be updating this blog regularly with our journey from sow to harvest so if you like what you read, feel free to check back and see how we're doing. There'll be tips, tricks and a plethora of pics along the way, and hey, if you have any advice; please do leave us a comment and let us know how you think we're getting on. After all, we are not claiming to be professional growers, in fact, this will be our very first collaborative vegetable patch adventure.

And so, without further ado, let the growing commence!

​We’re very lucky to have already had a pre-existing area at the New Acre HQ that we think will be perfect for a beginners veggie patch (and we secretly love how rustic the stump in the middle makes it look). The area was perfect in size and shape, however the ground was definitely not. 

Though it had some shingle laid atop the dirt (which helps with irrigation), there was not much else in there to accommodate the range of veggies we plan to grow. After a quick rake to settle and level the existing ground, we pushed ahead with laying a thin layer of compost before anything else. This layer is essentially an extra dose of nutrients for the plants to ensure a healthy grow.

List of vegetables:
Tomatoes
Chilli Peppers
Parsnip
Peas
Carrot
Beetroot
Spinach
Spring Onion
​
Something we knew we needed to be cautious about was where we planted each of the vegetables we have to grow. It’s important to give the root vegetables ample room beneath the soil to grow comfortably, and ensure that the climbing vegetables such as tomatoes and chilli peppers have room to flourish upwards. 

Aside from vegetables, we’re also planning to grow an array of herbs. 

List of herbs: 
Parsley
Basil
Sorrel
Chives
Mint

Though some of the above herbs can grow beautifully with the direct sow method (i.e planted outside immediately), we didn’t want to take the risk of something going wrong, or a sudden frost to destroy all of our hard work. Herbs tend to be a little more delicate than vegetables during the sprouting phase. With this in mind, we decided to begin the germination process indoors (along with the tomatoes and chilli peppers which also prefer to start indoors and then transition to outdoors after a week or two).

This means they’ll be a little stronger when they sprout, and it also means it’ll be easier to thin the plants. Doing this allows us to pick the healthiest plants from the saplings, and then re-pot them outside when ready.

​Once all of the veggies and herbs were sown it was just a matter of watering generously and leaving them be! 

​Though it was just the first step, we immediately fell in love with our New Acre patch and can’t wait to see what’s in store for us over the coming weeks and months. 

Thanks for reading and be sure to check back regularly to see how the plants are coming along. 

Are you growing your own vegetables? Do you have any tips, questions or queries to share? Either way we’d love to hear from you! Just leave us a comment below and one of the team will get back to you ASAP.