which veggie seeds for newbie

olias

Hi all, I only have a small courtyard, but have decided to have a bash at growing veggies for the first time. I have quite a lot of large pots and am investing in a water timer set up.
I want to grow mainly what would either be expensive or unavailable in local supermarket. Ideas are:

Salad crops, lettuces etc (common and unusual varieties)
Tomatoes (specifically heritage varieties - I'm sick of the boring tasteless supermarket ones)
Herbs
Peppers
Chillis

The pots I have are about 25-30cm accross - I also have lots of smaller pots for initial planting, and one huge monster about 50cm accross! I also have one of those little plastic covered mini greenhouse things for initial sowing.

My question is, what do I look for in seeds? Are there better brands than others? Is it better to grow from seed or buy plugs? I will probably buying by mail order (probably by ebay) as I live in the sticks and tend to get most stuff from ebay so already have accounts etc and money in paypal.

Also can anyone suggest any other vegetables that are good in pots? Preferably something a bit more interesting than the boring selection you get at the supermarket.

I don't really want to go down the route of peas or beans as they will get too big. Neither do I want to do potatoes as any soil/compost I will have to buy in and bring through the house, so I don't reall want anything that I will have to get larger containers and huge amounts of it for.

Any help/suggestions greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Olias

Horace

You can buy patio veg which are smaller varieties especially for growing in pots. In the past I have grown tomatoes - which taste much nicer because I knew what I fed them with and tomatoes on the vine are always tastier. I have grown leeks, beetroot, globe carrots, petit pois, mixed salad leaves. This year I will be growing dwarf beans, mixed salad leaves and rainbow chard which I will pick when it is small. I also have a strawberry pot which I put strawberries in last year but they didn't work out so this year I will be planting herbs in it.

With seeds it is trial and error - I have bought expensive ones in the past that haven't grown as expected and cheap ones which have flourished.

I think it is Suttons who specifically sell the patio seeds but I am sure others do too. This is a link to the Suttons site http://www.suttons.co.uk/Gardening/Vegetable+Seeds/All+Vegetable+Seeds/Patio+Vegetable+Seed+Collection_180040.htm

This one has heritage tomatoes - black Russian. http://search.thompson-morgan.com/seeds/Container%20Vegetable%20Seeds Actually looking at Thompson & Morgan, I think I might try some borlotti beans as they look interesting, they certainly have a lot of container veg to choose from.

HTH.

RAS

Hi

Simpsons originally developed as specialist tomato and chilli seed suppliers but have extended their range http://www.simpsonsseeds.co.uk/shop/Vegetable_Seeds.html

mansars

Just a quick one that may help in the short term.

i was just in wh smiths and saw that this months edition of Grow Your Own Magazine has 6 packest of seeds and a pull out on what to grow quickly and in small spaces.

hth