Put away your purse & become debt-averse

foxgloves

Heavy clay isn't the best soil for growing, @Baileys_Babe. It can be broken up a bit by adding organic matter, the best & cheapest option being home made compost.
I think you may be overthinking your perceived lack of gardening skills but if you struggle with a fatigue condition, then it's probably a good idea not to attempt too much intensive veg growing, esp not all at once. I think.a less daunting approach would be to choose a not-too-difficult vegetable which you like to eat plus maybe some salad leaves. Just as an example, courgettes are usually sown mid-April & you'd need to clear a space for them if you don't want to buy growbags. Sweetcorn is another crop which is sown later (I do mine at the end of April) & is grown in blocks so would need a square or rectangular space. The good thing about sweetcorn is that any surplus cobs can simply be wrapped in foil & frozen. 
But I do think a lot of new veggie gardeners fail because they go hell for leather & try too much all at once or they like the idea of growing their own food, but their hearts are not really in it in terms of the maintenance. I'm wanting to grow plenty of salad leaves/lettuces this year as it always annoys me to buy them when I have both a big garden & plenty of seed.
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DawnW

Salad leaves also grow well in pots or troughs. My bed space is limited, so pots and troughs are the way to go for me. Salads are really easy, and a good way to start. And you can grow varieties that you will never find in the shops. Why not start a 'container garden' as an educational project with the children? Check out Mark Ridsdill Smith's 'vertical veg' on You Tube. You can start with just one decent sized pot from Poundstretcher or similar, a bag of compost and some seeds.  If you want to scale up, just buy or acquire another pot (freecycle or FB marketplace often have them free to collect). You can grow almost anything in pots. New potatoes, green beans and tomatoes all work well. And if you are interested in raised beds, look at Charles Dowding, also on You Tube, showing his 'no dig' methods. Again, you can start as small as you like. I only have a little garden, but grow loads in a couple of decent sized raised beds and multiple containers. I like things jumbled up, so grow veg, fruit and flowers all together, and I love things that seed themselves. Along the back of my larger raised bed I have minaret fruit trees, with daffodils, hyacinths and other bulbs, alpine strawberries and self seeded land cress growing underneath. There are acquilegia seedlings there too, and there will be poppies and pot marigolds coming up soon. I have to dig or pull lots of these things out, as they grow / spread everywhere given the chance (I give away lots of plants every year). But they look so pretty.

foxgloves

I love getting all those self-sown plants, @DawnW. It's like finding green treasure & controls garden centre spendiness too, as I can fill gaps in borders for free.
Agree that loads of veg can be grown in containers. Years ago, we bought 6 long plastic troughs & I've used them for growing strawberries, lettuces, various salad leaf mixtures, spring onions, radishes, rocket, pak choi, baby beets, basil & coriander. All but one of them already in use. The final one is waiting for a sowing of spring onion 'Lilia', a red variety which if you leave some for pulling later, will continue growing to shallot size. Later I'll also be sowing watercress.....just a couple of ordinary large flowerpots standing in an old washing-up bowl filled 2/3 with water. 
I think fresh food will increase in price because of all the fuel required to heat those massive Dutch greenhouses.
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Baileys_Babe

Thank you @foxgloves and @DawnW both for your support and encouragement.

We do have half a dozen espaliered apple trees, 1 rhubarb crown - which either needs replacing, rejuvenating or planting elsewhere to increase its yield and some raspberry canes.

I will go and watch some youtube videos you have recommended.

I like the idea of doing some tomatoes, salad leaves and maybe peas - all great raw and freshest is best.

QueenJess

I vote for courgettes only tried them once and one plant is pretty easy in a pot and gives loads of courgettes.  I will definitely be doing those in pots again this year.

The most fun I've had was actually growing lots of different salad leaves (including rocket) with coriander, basil, chives and parsley.  It was so easy on the patio and I combined it with whatever I had in my veg box for a whole summer long of really tasty fresh salads.  We had a lot of picnics that year!

I have grander plans this year although all on the patio as it is a suntrap.  DS wants to grow potatoes, carrots, peas and mint (we bought the mint as germinating them is impossible).  I have salad seeds, garlic chives, chard, courgettes, a blackcurrant, strawberries, a blueberry, many different herbs, tons of flowers of which a number are edible in salads (marigolds, nasturtiums) and others like my dwarf sunflowers give edible seeds, cherry tomatoes, lavender.  I also have spring onions, beetroot and radishes which I may have a go at and may buy myself another gooseberry plant.

In the garden I have a redcurrant bush, a blackcurrant bush, tiny apple tree, tiny plum tree, tiny pear tree, chives, a bay tree, rosemary, 3 alpine strawberries (lots of the garden is in shade), a gooseberry and a rhubarb (now moved to a sunnier spot not fighting it out with the redcurrant).  I also have possibly welsh onion or wild garlic growing in a pot in the shade (to be identified), although I have more seeds for the latter somewhere too.

I'll report back on how it's gone later!  Lots of seeds left to plant yet this year.

foxgloves

@QueenJess - lovely to hear about your food growing plans. Re the Welsh onion/wild garlic conundrum....Welsh onion looks like a clump of onion stalks or paler hollow giant chives. Wild garlic is leafy. It has more sort of arrow-shaped leaves with an unmistakeable aroma of garlic if you squish one in your fingers. Our wild garlic plants are in bud, look a bit like chive buds & will open into white classic allium type flowers some time next month. Hope this is a bit helpful at least.
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foxgloves

@Baileys_Babe - We rejuvenated our rhubarb crown a couple of years ago simply by chopping it in half, removing & composting anything which looked soggy & replanting both halves as separate plants. I like having two because I can alternate which one to force from Jan for those lovely neon pink Spring stems.
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QueenJess

foxgloves said:

@QueenJess - lovely to hear about your food growing plans. Re the Welsh onion/wild garlic conundrum....Welsh onion looks like a clump of onion stalks or paler hollow giant chives. Wild garlic is leafy. It has more sort of arrow-shaped leaves with an unmistakeable aroma of garlic if you squish one in your fingers. Our wild garlic plants are in bud, look a bit like chive buds & will open into white classic allium type flowers some time next month. Hope this is a bit helpful at least.
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Aha!  I am pretty sure it is wild garlic then!  I'm tempted to get more pots and plant more as we have stones there and a huge shady patch which is of no use to anyone and tons of seeds!

Thanks

Baileys_Babe

Sounds like the wild garlic will do well there @QueenJess our local woodland is full of the stuff and it looks and smells wonderful.

Thanks, @foxgloves for the information about the rhubarb, I like the idea of having 2 plants that way I can alternate which one to harvest from. Yet another question, what is the best time of year to split the crown?

foxgloves

@Baileys_Babe - I don't know what the official rhubarb crown splitting advice is, but it's a task I'd personally aim to do in Autumn.
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