Newbie veg grower needs help picking seeds !

ALIBOBSY

Another thought is some of the gardening mags give free seeds, so you get some advice,plus a free pack(or more) of seeds. There are usually some cheap intro offers on the mags around like first 3 mags for £1.

Definately find some space for strawberries, Aldi and Lidl do great packs of SB plants usually around £2 for 6, then you keep planting on some runners for free plants.

May have to get some more from them this year, I had loads and had filled 2 beds with different varities and ages of plants, but we got some chickens in autumn (OH was after some for ages) and hubby let them free range over the raised beds not realising how much they can dig lol. There isn't a single weed in the garden now and they have cleared the patch at the side which Oh was going to dig over which is good, but the strawberry bed looks very sad and muddy and they seem to have killed off my rhubarb. Will see what comes back next spring (and limit where the chicks can go), but they gobbled up my winter greens and leftover chard. Still the eggs are fab and they are such good fun, kids love them.

ali x

BTW see the above any many other peoples posts on here and be warned growing your own (and the lifestyle) is V.addictive. We started with one raised bed and a few pots about 4 years ago, now we have 6 raised bed loads more pots, a green house and chickens!!!

LJM

if you want to do strawberries why dont you ask friends if they have any established plants that you would actually get a crop off this season then when over you can pot up the runners for extra plants for next year i have done this

valentina

Wilkinson's have got an offer on at the mo, buy 3 packs of seeds and get the cheapest free.

As mentioned above, try growing perpetual spinach instead of "normal" spinach - it can be cropped all year round. Or chard.
Courgette varieties I've had success with are "Ambassador" and "All Green Bush", but if you buy a packet don't sow all of them, unless your garden is massive and you want to eat courgettes for every meal! You can keep some of the seed in the packet for the following year.