The best time of year to sow seeds is between the beginning of March and the end of April so, if you re just starting out, you might have missed this window.
It s still worth giving it a try though! Plants are powerful things and may still thrive over the upcoming summer months.
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Using the right soil
The best kind of soil includes composted organic materials, so consider investing in a compost bin if you don t already own one. Wood ash, coffee grounds, bananas, tea leaves and egg shells are examples of organic matter suitable for growing herbs and veg.
The Portview banana project is already ripe for development newsletter.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newsletter.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Hopes of growing bananas in Belfast might sound… well… bananas.
But scoff all you like, because an ambitious group of local history buffs say it has been done before and hopefully will be will a fixture of the city again soon.
Portview Trade Centre in East Belfast and National Museums NI have developed plans to create ‘Banana Block’ – a banana plantation and living museum in East Belfast. They will work alongside pioneering agri-food business Mash Direct to cultivate the crop.
Belfast bananas
Portview, formerly the home of Strand Spinning Mill, once the largest flax tow spinning mill in the world, will be transformed into a special greenhouse for the crop. It might seem like a strange choice of venue but the site has historical ties to Belfast bananas.
Denis Lynn TRIBUTES have been paid to Northern Ireland agri businessman Denis Lynn, who died following a quad bike accident on Sunday night. Mr Lynn, 63, was the founder of Finnebrogue in Downpatrick, which championed his locally produced food including venison and a range of bacon and sausages. Mr Lynn started his career selling pies from a van and quickly expanded into selling pre-cooked chips and then into farming. Based at the Finnebrogue Estate in County Down, he developed the popular Naked Bacon range, which was free from nitrites, and then a range of sausages. More lately he was leading an expansion into plant based foods and already had completed a new factory to produce that new range. The company employs around 1000 people across four sites in County Down and supplies several major UK supermarkets.