Following on from one of our Sustainability Blogs on how we’re trying our hand at growing our own vegetables this year…we thought we’d give let Jo give you a quick update on her progress as she attempts to Grow Her Own.

It always helps to have a greenhouse if we intend to grown our own. Our is now full of tomatoes, chillies, and cucumbers.
The greenhouse is full of almost ripe tomatoes, chilies, peppers...and the cucumbers are almost finished!

A reminder on why we’re keen to Grow Our Own

At Bombus we are 100% committed to being as kind to our planet as possible. And we try to achieve that by making choices based on their impact on the environment, other people, and the animals that share our planet. By choosing to try and grow our own vegetables we are reducing the air miles on our food, reducing our carbon footprint (no plastic packaging!), and improving our nutrition. (Eating foods that are in season is a great way to do this even if you’re not growing your own!)

So what are the stars of this year’s crop?

It takes years to create a truly successful vegetable garden that can feed a family heartily. We’re learning the land, the seasons, and what will and won’t take to our acidic soil. We’ve got a long way to go! But here are the things that have thrived in year one:

Cucumbers! These have been the hit of the summer. We can’t give enough away. I planted three seeds at the beginning of March in grow bags in the greenhouse. And we’ve been eating cucumbers for the past two months daily. Picked when they’re nice and green, before they turn yellow, they have been a real treat. But I’ve learnt my lesson. Next year we will either plant less, or set ourselves up better to pickle the surplus.

This is your lunch when we grow our own! Ripe tomatoes and homegrown cucumber.
My daily lunch consists of a whole cucumber and a handful of tomatoes.

Our pumpkins are also growing really well. From three seeds I’ve managed to cultivate eight very large pumpkins. They aren’t quite ripe yet but they are starting to turn orange, so we’ll be picking them soon.

A ripening pumpkin.
The dry weather means powdery mildew thrives. But as long as the fruits are ripening and have swelled sufficiently, it's not something to worry about this late in the season.

What hasn’t done so well?

The peas were a disappointment. We planted them a little too late, so they never had the chance to produce a glut. We still managed to pick a handful of pods a day for a week or two though. They were either eaten right there and then or sprinkled across a salad raw. These are a family favourite so we will certainly be trying them again.

Beef tomatoes. While the cherry tomatoes are about to boom in the greenhouse, the beef tomatoes have been a bit tricky. They have a tendency to form Frankenstein fruits, that go a bit wonky and unappealing. They are also prone to diseases such as mould. And because a beef tomato is so enormous, the plant doesn’t produce as many fruits because it puts so much energy into one tomato. Next year we will stick to regular sized tomatoes or cherries.

Be wary of Frankenstein tomato fruits!
This is one of the few beef tomatoes that has made it to a ripe fruit so far this year.

What’s looking good for autumn?

The sweetcorn is the most exciting result from the veg plot. It is thriving! And if calculations are correct we should see about 90 ears of corn from our small bed.

Our biggest grow our own success so far, sweetcorn!

The carrots, parsnips, and onions are doing well too. So here’s hoping they swell up and continue to thrive through until harvest.

We never got round to building a brassica cage this year…so the few sprouts that we planted are blighted by cabbage white butterflies. We’ll definitely improve on this next year!

What are the challenges you’ve faced this year?

The whole reason Bombus is committed to sustainability is because we know that climate change is real. And we believe in doing our part to mitigate the problems our world is suffering from, because of our environmental impact. Never is this more obvious than when we are affected directly by extreme weather. And this year has been quite the year. We chose one of the driest years on record to start growing our own vegetables. And it’s been a challenge.

The perfect gift for a gardener waiting for rain - our welly map print!

The water butts ran dry at the beginning of June. And since then we’ve been working really hard to preserve as much water as we can. We’ve collected overnight dew in buckets, resused grey water from the kitchen, and reduced our water usage elsewhere so that we can still keep our vegetables watered. What it has meant is that while our vegetables are surviving, they aren’t thriving. They would need buckets and buckets of water for a huge crop, and we just feel it’s too irresponsible to do that. So we’re making it work the best we can! And keeping our fingers crossed that it rains substantially for a lengthy period soon.

How does this relate to Bombus exactly?

In a world where so often companies choose profit over social responsibility, we want to be different. We want to be the business that considers what we do and how it affects the world around us. If it’s good for the planet, it’s good for our staff, and it’s good for business.

Bombus is what it is because of the people that are part of the business. You’ll have seen plenty of interviews with our team that say the number one best thing about working for Bombus is our colleagues. So if WE are the business, we need to practise what we preach. And we are being open and honest about our attempts, in order to show you that we’re not just saying it. We mean it.

So what's next? It's not good enough to just be sustainable anymore. The next step is to see how we can be REGENERATIVE. So watch this space!