Looking to start growing my own veg; not sure where to begin 13 May 2020 at 9:05PM in Greenfingered MoneySaving 11 replies 311 views

joese

Hello everyone, I would like to start growing my own vegetables because I think that vegetables are healthier and tastier when home grown. I just don't know where to begin. If you have any tips/ resources please share them with me. The book I'm reading at the moment recommends I buy about 16 different tools and equipment. Looking at prices on Amazon it all comes to a pretty hefty amount of money. Do I really need to spend a lot of money to start with?

-taff

No. You need plug plants or seeds and somewhere to grow them.

What did you want to grow?

elsien

How much space have you got?
If space is limited, choose crops that are a bit different and aren't ridiculously cheap to buy in the shops. And think about herbs as well - cheap  cheerful and much tastier in a pot at home.
This time of year you might find people having a surplus of home grown seedlings to give away - I've been accosting random strangers to force tomato plants on them. Ask family frIends and neighbours. 

elsien

Put your list up of what they're recommending and we can tell you which are the essentials. Most of which you can get cheaply in Wilko etc.

Farway

Have a butcher's on You tube. There are loads of UK based growers on there. Try searching UK YT with "gardening for beginners"

joese

Thanks for the responses everyone,

-taff said:

No. You need plug plants or seeds and somewhere to grow them.

What did you want to grow?

I was hoping to grow sweet potatoes, regular potatoes, tomatoes and spinach. 

elsien said:

How much space have you got?
If space is limited, choose crops that are a bit different and aren't ridiculously cheap to buy in the shops. And think about herbs as well - cheap  cheerful and much tastier in a pot at home.
This time of year you might find people having a surplus of home grown seedlings to give away - I've been accosting random strangers to force tomato plants on them. Ask family frIends and neighbours. 

I have a decent amount of space I suppose. The only problem is that the area I want to grow my crops in has the sunlight blocked by a fence - would this be an issue? 
Asking others for seed(ling)s seems like a great way to save money - thanks for the advice

elsien said:

Put your list up of what they're recommending and we can tell you which are the essentials. Most of which you can get cheaply in Wilko etc.

Fork, Spade, Secateurs, Draw-hoe, Rake, Dutch hoe, Trowel and hand fork, Loppers/ pruning saw, Ridger, Gloves, Netting, Dibber, Watering can, Tunnel cloches, Cloches, Composter, raised beds, Sprayers and Cultivators.

Farway said:

Have a butcher's on You tube. There are loads of UK based growers on there. Try searching UK YT with "gardening for beginners"

Thanks for the recommendation, I'll take a look
 

elsien

A lot of crops need sun but some don't mind shade. Is it in shade all of the time, or just for part of the day? Deep shade or light shade?
With regards to your list:
I have a small garden and the following tools from your list:
Fork, Spade, Secateurs, multi-purpose  hoe, trowel and hand fork, watering can. Lidl and Aldi can have some good value cheap equipment in their gardening weeks. You can also put an ask out on freegle for the basics. 
I do have loppers/pruning saw but that's to attack my overgrown shrubs and nothing to do with my veggies. I have gloves which I never wear because they annoy me too much although some people wear them a lot of the time. Might be handy for nettles/brambles if you get those, which I don't.
Compost bin is handy. You can build your own, or if you want the plastic sort with a lid, check with your local council who often sell them off cheaply to encourage people to compost. 
Dibbber - you can use an old bit of wood.
No idea what a ridger is.
Netting is to protect certain crops from insects and birds. If you need it, depending on what you grow, they sell it in Poundland.
Never used a cloche in my life because I start off crops indoors and plant out once the risk of frost has passed.
Never used a sprayer or cultivator, I suspect they are for much larger plots. 
Raised beds - again depends on what you're growing and where. If you want one you can make your own. 

You don't need to get everything in one go, and if the world ever returns to normal, car boots can be a good source of cheap garden stuff, both plants and second hand tools. You can upgrade as and when you decide you  need the extras. 
I would suggest your starting point to be to decide what you want to grow, look up the conditions they need and start off with a few things to see how they go. 

joese

Thanks for the response 

elsien said:

A lot of crops need sun but some don't mind shade. Is it in shade all of the time, or just for part of the day? Deep shade or light shade?
With regards to your list:
I have a small garden and the following tools from your list:
Fork, Spade, Secateurs, multi-purpose  hoe, trowel and hand fork, watering can. Lidl and Aldi can have some good value cheap equipment in their gardening weeks. You can also put an ask out on freegle for the basics. 
I do have loppers/pruning saw but that's to attack my overgrown shrubs and nothing to do with my veggies. I have gloves which I never wear because they annoy me too much although some people wear them a lot of the time. Might be handy for nettles/brambles if you get those, which I don't.
Compost bin is handy. You can build your own, or if you want the plastic sort with a lid, check with your local council who often sell them off cheaply to encourage people to compost. 
Dibbber - you can use an old bit of wood.
No idea what a ridger is.
Netting is to protect certain crops from insects and birds. If you need it, depending on what you grow, they sell it in Poundland.
Never used a cloche in my life because I start off crops indoors and plant out once the risk of frost has passed.
Never used a sprayer or cultivator, I suspect they are for much larger plots. 
Raised beds - again depends on what you're growing and where. If you want one you can make your own. 

You don't need to get everything in one go, and if the world ever returns to normal, car boots can be a good source of cheap garden stuff, both plants and second hand tools. You can upgrade as and when you decide you  need the extras. 
I would suggest your starting point to be to decide what you want to grow, look up the conditions they need and start off with a few things to see how they go. 

I found a different area of my garden that is better suited than the area I was originally planning to use. This spot seems to get a decent amount of light throughout the day. 

There is lots of rubble/ bricks under the dirt. I will probably have to buy raised beds and plenty of dirt too. I have also read something about testing the pH of the soil - is this something you think is worth doing?

I've updated my shopping list to only include: Fork, Spade, Secateurs, multi-purpose hoe, trowel and hand fork, watering can and a compost bin. Your advice about checking with the local council for a compost bin is excellent; I have manged to find the compost bin that I was looking at buying on amazon (£50) for just £20.50. 

"I would suggest your starting point to be to decide what you want to grow, look up the conditions they need and start off with a few things to see how they go."
Will do

-taff

I would get a spade, a fork [ either big or ladies depending on how good you are at digging] , a rake, a hand trowel, watering can. That's enough to start with. If you have any allotments near you might be worth having a tootle along there and asking if anyone has any spare tools. One old boy I was friendly with recently had about ten spades in his shed...Ebay is also good for older tools that will probebly last longer than newer ones. My spade is about 60 years old, my fork is about 90. I've had to replace the handles on them but they're a lot better than newer ones I've had.

Potatoes are good for breaking up the ground, spinach likes the shade otherwise it's prone to bolt, chard is similar to spinach and more heat resistant, tomatoes you probably need plants now, it's getting very late to sow seeds. I've never grown sweet potatoes but they're grown from slips, so you'll have to google that...

Kathy535

I think there are two things here (i) growing your own and (ii) digging a vegetable bed.  On the first it’s not too late to grow spinach from seed but buying tomato plants would be better than planting seed IMO simply because of where we are on the growing season.  I don’t grow potatoes (I did one year but not since) but I understand that the time for planting has pretty much passed - hopefully others can correct me. There’s also something about not growing tomatoes and potatoes in the same areas due to blight and not growing potatoes in the same bed every year for the same reason - again, I don’t know the details. 

On digging a bed, it’s time consuming and hard work to dig, remove stones etc, dig again, work in enrichment, rake over etc etc and, as you’ve identified, needs tools which are costly.  Raised beds remove some of the digging work but you have the cost and labour in creating the beds.

Given the point in the growing season I’d suggest you grow in pots or bags this year and get your bed ready for next year.  This will give you a chance to see if you enjoy growing your own without investing early and gives the time to do a proper job with your veggie patch.  Both tomatoes and potatoes can be grown in pots or bags. You can buy pots (the bigger the better) but I use the big fat grow bags, cut open them down the middle and stand them up (like pots) for tomatoes and a double thickness of bin bag for potatoes - you roll the plastic down at the start and roll it up as the potatoes grow and you ‘earth’ them up.

I wouldn’t buy books on gardening, I’d use the internet or library (once reopen). I mainly do fruit and vegetables in pots and general maintenance and I have a spade, fork, hoe and rake plus hand fork and trowel and watering can.  I’ve also got pots, canes and secateurs (although the latter is more for trees and shrubs). It’s worth buying good quality tools, the cheap ones I bought lasted about 5 mins.

Tip with tomatoes - let the Side shoots grow to about 2” before pinching out and push them into a small pot of compost.  After a week or so of looking sad they’ll start growing and you’ll get another plant for free  

elsien

Other suggestions for pots that it's not too late for is salad stuff.
Cut and come again leaves, spring onions, radishes.  You may still get these as seeds in the shops although there was a bit of a run on them this year.
Bush courgettes and cucumber plants can also do well in pots in a sunny spot, but again I think you might be better trying to get hold of young plants given the time of year.
And don't forget strawberries but not the little alpine ones - they are too much faffing around for what you get.
And you don't need to spend a fortune on posh pots. An old bucket with holes in will do equally as well; some people on here used to ask Morrisons for their surplus flower buckets. Or again.  Pound land /poundstretcher etc will have cheap ones that will do for a one off. Or put a request on freegle both for pots and surplus plants - its up and running again now in my area.

The downside of pots is more feeding and watering. But it's not like we're going away at the moment anyway.