Why I decided to start growing my own food

I have always liked the idea of growing my own fruits and vegetables at home, using them to create tasty homemade meals and saving for use later in the year. After moving into my own home, I now have the perfect opportunity to get started with gardening, even though I haven’t really got a clue of where to start. So, with that, this blog is me documenting what happens, when a complete beginner gardener tries to grow his own food, starting off in a cold UK conservatory.

Now, as a beginner gardener I have been reading lots of blog posts, watching endless YouTube videos, asking ChatGPT plenty of questions of where I should start and how to go about doing things the right way (I make it sound like I now know exactly what I am doing, that is not the case). So, after getting a vague understanding of how things work, I headed over to my local garden centre on my day off work; to browse their vast array of different seeds I could purchase to start my gardening journey.

Choosing seeds as a complete beginner gardener

I spent a good 20 minutes looking at different seeds, reading the instructions on the back of the packs and trying to decide which would be best to grow in the gloomy British climate we are so lucky to have… It all became too confusing, with all the different temperatures and conditions each individual plant required to grow successfully. This led me to do what I do best, wing it. I ended up buying two different varieties of chillies, sweet pepper seeds, carrots, red onions and a few different types of tomatoes, for now.

Why heat loving plants are a problem in the UK

Upon further investigation, I then found out that the chillis, peppers and strawberries would be considered some of the hardest to grow in the UK climate due to them enjoying hot, sunny days. I then realised that this wouldn’t be as easy as planting some seeds in my garden, making sure I water them every day then, tah-dah! An endless supply of fruits and vegetables. This was going to take some figuring out.

My cold conservatory setup

For the peppers, chillis and strawberries, I figured out that they need heat to be able to germinate, heat and light. Now, the light situation was kind of sorted, as I was planning on sowing my seeds indoors, in a propagator, situated in the conservatory of my house. It is light, but at this time of year in the middle of January, there is not much sunlight. However, I am going to see how they go before doing any research into growing lights etc.

The other necessity I was lacking was the heat. On the back of the seed packaging, it states that the seeds need an average of 20 degrees Celsius to be able to germinate correctly. This was going to be the problem, due to all the glass in the conservatory, it didn’t store the heat very well compared to the rest of the house, our heating isn’t on 24/7.

My setup at the minute:

• Location: Conservatory windowsill
• Night temperature: approx. 8 – 12 degrees Celsius
• Seeds planted: Chillies, Peppers, Strawberries
• Propagator: Garland Super 7

Why I bought a heated propagator

To overcome this problem, I bought myself a Garland Super 7 Electric Windowsill Propagator. I was slightly sceptical when purchasing this piece of kit as it didn’t say anything about the temperature it reaches on the packaging nor was there any control over the temperature. But for the price of £40, I thought why not give it a go to see if it is any good… it can’t be that bad right? As of the time of writing this post, I had planted my seeds yesterday evening and I am now on the following evening, a full twenty-four hours. I was delighted to come home from work this afternoon and see the propagator lids full of condensation.

I am only assuming this is from where the soil is a suitable, higher temperature than the rest of the conservatory hence the condensation. So, I have my fingers crossed that by the next week I should start seeing some positive results, if not the next variable to look at will be the lighting situation.

Temperature after the first 24 hours

On the way home that evening, I popped into my local B&Q to pick up a digital thermometer, just so I could confirm that my propagator is working and doing its job (It’s nothing fancy, very similar to this one here if anyone is interested). I tested the temperature of the soil of all propagator containers, which gave me an average reading of around 22 degrees Celsius which is perfect, it makes me feel like this attempt of growing my own fruits and vegetables may be semi-successful!

I personally think that without an electric propagator, I wouldn’t stand a chance of properly germinating and growing my seeds. It kind of becomes an essential piece of kit for a beginner gardener like me, especially given the conditions we sometimes experience in the UK. I am going to be posting regular updates on seed germination, any problems I encounter along the way and most importantly, if any of this works in a cold UK conservatory! So, if you are trying something similar or are thinking of doing so in the future, make sure you follow along with the journey.