Newbie veg gardener! MERGED

financially_gaga

Hi all,

We have just moved into our first home. You can imagine, both my partner and i have no idea how to run a household in a mse friendly manner so have relied heavily on this site for help and its been a life saver!

I'd love to start growing my own stuff but have no idea where to start. We have a new build house with enough space for a good sized veg patch but no money (or knowledge) to set up a green house or anything really.

So basically i want to grow credit crunch munch - veg that i can use and give to my parents to help hem out. I'd like to start with the basics but don't even know what to grow when lol. Any hints and tips to help greatly appreciated!

nodwah

Loads of threads about this so look around..

First step tho' - decide what you like to eat and don't grow stuff you don't like

For me the best value for money is growing things like blueberries, strawbs, gooseberries and rasps etc because they're so expensive to buy

Farway

First a greenhouse is not essential, so no need to worry about not having one

As new build house I guess the garden is just builders rubble, or possibly top soil dumped on top of compacted builders rubble?

Your first job therefore is to dig over the area you wish to use for veg, find out just what is in there, maybe it is fine lovely soil, but more likely not

Seeds can be expensive, or very cheap, depends a lot on where you shop & what you buy

If you stick to "old favourite" varieties of veg then these are cheap, given the amount of produce you will get

Do not get too ambitious, forget growing melons, aubergines and similar exoctics for the moment, nothing turns newcomers off more than failure, so stick with simple, rarely fail veg, such as onions, leeks, early spuds [if room], cabbage / greens, runner and French beans, marrow / courgette and maybe carrots [but these fail with me]

Salad stuff of course, lettuce, radish, cucs & toms maybe but do need a bit more coddling. Peppers are very weather intolerant, so perhaps not this year as you are a newbie

If space, try some fruit like strwaberries, or plant some fruit trees or bushes, both Lidl & Aldi have them at present, around £2.50 for fruit bushes and £4 for fruit trees, have a look on here for recent threads on these items, they will give you years of fruit

No doubt others will have more ideas and advice

want2bmortgage3

i am also thinking of starting to grow my own food, my property isnt ideal as i only have a little space under the front windows and a small back garden. the sun is at the front in the morning and back in the evening.

where can i look for beginners advice on the subject? can anyone recommend a book to get me started?

arkonite_babe

We have a thread similar to this already, I'll add your query to it so all the replies are together. Posts are listed in date order so you'll need to read from the beginning to catch up

JillD_2

I'm hoping to spend some time this week browsing the board for ideas, but thought I would post a request for help as well in case any nice poster has any advice

I've never grown much before, a few toms in grobags but thats about it.
I have an area down the sde of the house which was the dumping gound.
Its about 5ft wide and about 8 ft long.
It gets some sunlight but not masses as its between the house and the fence. The side of the house is west facing so its gets some sun in the middle of the day.
We have cleared it of rubble and general junk and now its just lumpy and weedy. I'd like to use it for growing veggies, it seems such a waste of space at the moment. My husband would think it would be pointless so I would like to just do it and for him to not even realise

So my questions are: (sorry they are numbered, looks a bit snotty but I wanted to keep track!)
1. I have no idea what type of soil it is - do I need to know ?
2. How much sort of digging over do I need to do ? Obvioulsy I need to weed it first.
3. What is the best thing to start with and when ?
4. How much could I realistically expect to get from a plot this size ?
5. Do I grow from seed or from plants ? I tried growing tomato plants from seed a few years ago, the plants started off fine but then all died (by way of slugs I think) when I out them outside.
6. Will I need to do a lot of pest control (not the children :rotfl:)

I dont want to go too mad with tubs, I am never very good at remembering to water them. I dont have tons of time to spend each day as I have 3 small children and there is always at least one awake and needing me or wanting to "help".

We eat a lot of: potatoes, carrots, onions, cucumber, peppers, tomatoes
We eat some: broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, spring onions, leeks, courgettes

Any advice would be greatly received, thanks very much in advance!

Doom_and_Gloom

If you only have around 5ft by 8ft of garden I would advise on using square ft gardening. You could do it by having 2 2ft by 8ft beds in a way with a 1ft gap down the middle to walk down but do look at it to work out the most growing space to maximize what you can grow.

Per one 1ft by 1ft square you can grow 16 carrots/4 sweet corn plants/1 courgette plant (however these produce a lot of fruit!)/1 tomato plant/1 pepper plant/1 broccoli plant/ 1 cauliflower/16 leeks/16 spring onions (probably more)/4 lettuce.

The usual advise is to grow what costs you the most. Things like carrots might not be a good choice as you do not have a lot of space for instance and they can be really cheap in the shops and the same with potatoes really. I would advise you to in the ground grow leeks, cucumbers, lettuce (you can pick the leaves of this continuously as it grows so it‘s really good) and courgettes(2 or 3 plants should be enough) due to the price of them in the shops. However in grow bags or rather large pots grow peppers/tomatoes so you can bring them in if it gets to cold as that will kill them off or bring down the amount you will get off of them.

1. It is a good idea to know what kind of soil you have so you know what you can grow or know how to adjust it so you can grow what you want to. I wouldn’t say it is essential though but is a great help!
2. You really should dig down at least one normal spades length but I (well my partner did lol) double dug to make sure that the soil was manageable (and to get rid of all of the rocks and glass I could that was in it :rolleyes: ).
3. You can start with tomato seeds now in little tubs but be prepared to have them inside/in a greenhouse for a while due to risk of frost. Once that is certainly out of the way you can take them outside or even plant them in the ground IF you wish to as they take a lot of space.
4. It depends what you grow to how much you will get back. I only had a 6ft by 9ft bed last year (was very hard to keep going as it was so big with nowhere to step to pick a lot of my produce or weed. Very big mistake) and I wasn’t using square ft gardening so I didn’t produce a massive amount (I only managed crab apples as I have a tree, lettuce, a few carrots, some beetroots, cucumber plants, courgettes, marrows, sweet corn, some onions, some cabbages and then peppers and tomatoes in pots and strawberries in a tier basket). This year I will have 108 1ft by 1ft spaces in my 15ft by 9.5ft space so will be able to produce more.
5. Some things can be better to buy from plant if you don’t have a good time with them but usually a relatively mature plant (ie not a seedling) are easy to maintain if healthy if you grow them from seed.
6. Pest control can be done. If you see something getting eaten etc then yes you will need to figure out what you want to do. Netting is a good way of keeping most things safe but it can be different for different people.

I never spend that much time in my garden taking care of the veg, salad veg and fruit. A bit of weeding, watering if needed, feedings when needing it and harvesting when needed. Took me about 20 minuets every other day or so. I find sowing seeds/planting out takes the longest but once it’s done that’s it!

With all that in mind it is still your choice what you decide to grow. Sorry for the long post but I do hope it helps you.

D&G

JillD_2

D&G Wow what a frantasric reply thank you so much!
I havent even read it all yet but I wanted to say thanks becasue I will [STRIKE]probably[/STRIKE] definitely get interupted by one of the cherubs and forget.
I am going to start reading now, I never thought of growing the more expensive things, I shop at Asda and buy SP carrots which are dirt cheap so though we use a lot I see your point. I will definitely look at it this way. (See a cherub has interrupted me already LOL). Will read more in a bit thanks

nodwah

In terms of vaue for money - grow some fruit eg blueberries
or strawberries - expensive to buy and easy to grow

JillD_2

well I skim read the lot (I am a quick skim reader from necessity!!!)
Dont be sorry for the length of reply, I was really hoping someone would just go "Jill, do this ...." and basically you did.

You could do it by having 2 2ft by 8ft beds in a way with a 1ft gap down the middle to walk down

Ok yes never thought about figuring in an access path

Per one 1ft by 1ft square you can grow 16 carrots/4 sweet corn plants/1 courgette plant (however these produce a lot of fruit!)/1 tomato plant/1 pepper plant/1 broccoli plant/ 1 cauliflower/16 leeks/16 spring onions (probably more)/4 lettuce.

Wow I had no idea I could fit in so much, how exciting!

It is a good idea to know what kind of soil you have

How do I go about figuring out the soil type ?
I have two compost bins full of compost that I have been making for the last few years and nowhere (as yet) to put it. should I dig all that in ? Is it possible to make the soil too composty ?

I (well my partner did lol) double dug to make sure that the soil was manageable (and to get rid of all of the rocks and glass I could that was in it :rolleyes: )

It will definitiely need the double digging (arrgh that sounds hard work something I like to avoid LOL hubby has a bad back so he cant do it:rolleyes:) as its going to be builders rubble as its a fairly new build house.

You can start with tomato seeds now in little tubs but be prepared to have them inside/in a greenhouse for a while due to risk of frost

So do you mean I should sew them now ? I need to go to Tesco today so may look for some there.
I have a dining room that we dont use , so its indoors but we tend to not have the radiator on in there. Should I keep them in there for a while ? Would I need to put the radiator on in there ? It has a patio door in so lots of light but a bit chilly.

Took me about 20 minuets every other day or so.

Thats very encouraging. I dont want to embark ona big project I cant maintain, and that sounds almost easy. I just need to get my head around the digging, that sounds really tedious, I just know the soil is going to be a right mess of stones and dear knows what. Just need to convince myself it will be worth it.

I had an allotment a few years ago and a really bad experience with a person whose house backed on to it - I spent weeks and clearing it then he stormed on when I was starting to dig and asked what I was doing , he seemed to think he had some claim to it. He had obviously let me tidy it up so it looked better, it was a total state, and then intervened when I started to actually use it - there had been some mix up at the council and he was paying for it. He was obviously only using it to dump his garden waste on, how bad is that. I was a lot younger and if it happened now I would have made a complaint to the council as people like him shouldnt be allowed an allotment when there are waiting list all over the place.
Anyway I then got another one but it was full size (the first one was a half plot and perfect size) and it took so long to clear that we ended up moving house and it was too far to get to. So I decided it wasnt going to happen for me at that stage of my life!!

Thanks again for your reply, I am all excited now!