Week by week book recommendations for growing grub please?

mollymillions

Hi all

I am on the verge of moving to my new house and would dearly love to start growing some grub for my family. I have no gardening skills whatsoever and don't have a clue as to what to do first, when, why or how!

I've been trying to find a week by week, basic level guide to work with, preferably with space to write some notes in but having a tough time finding one! Can anyone recommend one please?

As I said, I have never grown a thing in my life so it has to be very simple to follow.......seriously!

Thank you heaps in advance!

x

amcluesent

WHat about Alys Fowlers book about the edible garden to go with the TV series. YOu can still get the programmes on iPlayer AFAIK

mollymillions

amcluesent wrote: »

WHat about Alys Fowlers book about the edible garden to go with the TV series. YOu can still get the programmes on iPlayer AFAIK

thanks for the tip! i shall get on it straight away

elantan

Save your money ( in my opinion) it ain't that good ... Also remember there is three weeks of a difference across the uk ... Why not try googling it see what that brings up ... You should get plenty of advice

Lotus-eater

mollymillions wrote: »

I've been trying to find a week by week, basic level guide to work with, preferably with space to write some notes in but having a tough time finding one! Can anyone recommend one please?

The best thing to do, is to borrow several books from the library and see which you like.
If you are just starting, it's best to read several, to get a better all round idea about what you are going to do and get inspiration.
Get yourself a little notebook and use that to take notes about sowing times, harvesting (if you want) and times you put things outside.

The trouble with back of packet and week by week guides, is that they don't relate to where you live, where you garden, or the way I like to do it. Mostly.... often they do and they do give a good idea of when to sow and plant things.

Start with making a list of what you like to eat, look them up (or ask on here) and see how difficult they are to grow and how much space they take up. Also how long they take to grow, it's no good planting a gooseberry and expecting any fruit for at least 2 years.

Have you got soil ready to go at your new house, or do you have to do alot of sorting and digging? If you're not ready, as soon as you can sow loads of stuff into modules, so you are ready to plant stuff when you have space, or buy some tiny plug plants from garden centres when you need them.

lostinrates

Week by week varies on the year, as well as the area. I'd say our garden is at least two weeks behind, probably three, to ''normal'' this year.

I think one of the things about starting gardening is to remember you will get i worng sometimes. Plants can be depressingly unforgiving - we lost a fair bit over winter, or remarkably generous...the two toms I forgot to bring in for the heavy unseasonal frost last week....lots of frost damage but they are coming back with vigour and determination.

Have a go, don't be demoralised when things go wrong, even i you went ''by the book'' just try and work out why. Some things its almost impossible to kill and they give some food....strawberries are tough, raspberries, and both let you do things that to me feel like ''proper gardening'' very easily....propagating strawberries from the runners for example, and cutting back raspberries....all principals to take to other food and garden plants, but somehow remarkably easy with these.

pookiewn

The RHS site and the BBC Dig in are great for finding easy step by step on what to do with each veg once you've decided what to grow. As the other's said, only try and grow what you like to eat and please dont get too disheartened when things go a little or a lot wrong. The first year of my veggie growing I managed to get two tiny cherry tomatos that wouldn't go red! It's a rather fun learning curve, lol! Good Luck!

http://www.rhs.org.uk/Gardening/Grow-Your-Own
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/

mrbadexample

"Grow Your Own Vegetables" by Joy Larkcom is quite comprehensive.

mollymillions

Huge thanks to everyone. We are moving in 4 weeks so I have some time to get some research under my belt. My mum and sister are giving me lessons too! So excited! And any excuse to buy a lovely fresh new notebook is fine by me :rotfl:

LJM

i think alys fowlers book is interesting and so are the programmes,i have googled/gone to the library picked peoples brains and have done my own tried and tested methods all the time making note of what i have done/what has worked and what hasnt/dates i have potted up and planted out it is easy to make your own month by month guide it will soon build up and think of all the fun you'll have

Lotus-eater

I had the pleasure of seeing Geoff Hamilton's program, Ornamental Kitchen Garden on tv the other day.
I hadn't seen it before, what was immediately obvious, was that Alys's program was a exact take off of the idea. What was also obvious, was that there was about 100 times more useful info in Geoff's program. Also no arty farty shimmering soft focus wasted 1/2 of the program.

So if you likes Alys's program, may I suggest you look up Geoff's book that went with the series, I suspect it may be many times better than the newer one.