Cassie Liversidge - Pasta sauce!: grow your own ingredients

Try to follow the instructions on the seed packet/ label and be aware of your local weather, as it is important that the seeds and plants have the conditions they like so they can grow well. Garlic and onions can be grown in pots if you need to. Just follow the instructions in the book and plant according to the size of your container. Not too many plants in a pot to allow them room to grow. FERTILIZER and PLANT FOOD Tomatoes and peppers love to be fed extra nutrients. You can either buy an organic tomato food from a garden center or use your own diluted worm tea if you have a wormery.

Spraying the leaves with worm tea can also help keep bugs away! Adding your own home-grown compost (which is made from dead plant material from the bottom of a compost bin) will help to put more nutrients in to your soil, so your plants will grow bigger and stronger. The WEATHER As a general tip, vegetables love the sun as this helps to warm the soil to germinate the seeds and ripen the fruits. So put them in as sunny a position as you can. Tomatoes, peppers, and basil need nice, warm, sunny weather to grow and ripen and will not survive if there is a frost, so check your local weather forecast before they go outside. Onions and garlic dont mind the cold and are happy planted outside. Leggy Seedlings! If your seedlings are getting leggy (a bit thin and tall) on your windowsill, you need to get them outside into either a greenhouse or somewhere covered.

Or, if there is no danger of frost (check your local weather forecast) they can go directly outside. Watering Seedlings like to be kept moist but not soggy! They will not survive if they dry out! They are only little! Make sure your containers/pots have holes in the bottom to allow water to drain. Sometimes things go wrong but do not worry! Keep trying and learning, and you will get there! Have fun getting your hands dirty and nurturing your ingredients. Most of all, get ready to taste the best food in the world, because you will have grown it yourself!