Grow Your Own Magazine

Friends of mine are about to make the move to the Isle of Skye and are hoping to grow their own veg. We've had some interesting chats with various folk and had a lot of negative feedback (mostly from Southern types) who think it will be impossible to grow anything apart from possibly cabbage and sprouts. Anybody out there growing interesting veg off the wild West Coast of Scotland? All in polytunnels? All advice and suggestions most welcome!

Nelly, I do manage to grow peas, french beans, broad beans, carrots, parsnips, turnips, onions and potatoes outside, as well as all my cabbage and kale. It really depends on how sheltered your plot is. Mine is pretty open to alot of wind, but I have a friend in Unst (very north island of Shetland) who successfully grows lettuce and herbs outside as well, but is a bit more sheltered than me.

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Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway.
~ Mary Kay Ash

Thanks Jennie, it's good to hear some encouragement! That's a broad enough selection of veg to keep me quite happy and I shall let my friends know too. Most books and seed packets seem to make the assumption that we all plant our seeds down south and I was just wondering how to make the adjustment to climes more northerly than even my current location in Cumbria (which in comparison with Shetland practically IS the south!). Above all I'm pleased to hear that peas can take a bit of wind. That's probably the crop I'm most looking forward to this year (my first year of veg growing; patio only). If there are any particular varieties of veg/seed that do well further north I'd be interested to know what they are (though I appreciate there will always be local differences).