Which veg plants to grow for summer fete?

[Corriewatcher]

Hi all. I've sort of kind of volunteered to grow some veg plants for DD's school summer fete at the beginning of July. I do like gardening and have grown veg plants from seed before, but not very often. I usually just buy plants from the garden centre!

Can anyone recommend vegetables that are easy to grow (I do have a greenhouse) and that will look good by early July if I start soonish. Thanks a lot

[MerlinsBeard]

i am whatever the opposite of green fingeree is and we (DCs and i) have managed to grow peas successfully for the last couple of years (had no garden either until now!), currently growing runner beans and peas that are doing well in pots on window ledge

[mankymummy]

tomatoes will be perfect. cherry tomato variety called ildi very easy to grow and gives lots of lovely sweet tomatoes.

courgettes make very impressive plants pretty quickly.

runner beans?

lettuce?

coriander?

[VinoEsmeralda]

herb plants usually sell well (parsley, basil, oregano and chives). Tomato and bean plants and maybe make little ready to use packets for cress (DIY packet if you like)

[Takver]

The main problem I would have thought with tomatoes, courgettes etc is that they would really want to be planted out before early July - I would sow toms now for planting into a growbag or whatever by end May or early June, even if they're being grown on outdoors. Courgettes again I would have said to sow end April / early May to go out in June, same with outdoor cukes.
I would probably stick with pots of herbs for that timing, and not sow too early - if you sow now they'll have been in a pot for 3 months by your fete . . . Maybe sow say 6 weeks before the date? What do others think?

[mankymummy]

depends on the pot size... if you transfer to a larger pot the plants will be fine, and you can charge more.

agree with the six week thing... six weeks is the generally recognised minimum period before planting out, but its possible to raise larger plants in pots before potting out, espec. if you are in an area that is at risk of a late frost.

you will need to feed the plants though espec courgettes and tomatoes.

[Takver]

My feeling with that though is that you're going to be spending quite a lot on larger pots and on the compost - I reckon its easy to lose money on plants if you grow them on to that stage, even if you do charge a bit more . . . but maybe for a school fete that doesn't matter so much.

[mistlethrush]

Yes, I would hope that my courgettes will be 2 wks away from cropping by then... they get planted out in May, being fairly large by then.

I think herbs would be the best bet - or some flower plants that would be happier with a smaller pot.

[Corriewatcher]

Thanks so much for the replies. I'll definitely veer towards herbs then. What do you think about Butternut squash or pumpkins though? Would they be too big by early July?

[mistlethrush]

If you don't plant them too early - no, not too big - the only problem will be that they won't have had so long growing in the ground and therefore less time to grow any pumpkins/squash....

[Takver]

I wouldn't have thought that if you plant squashes or pumpkins out in July you will get a sensible amount of fruit before the first frost.

[mistlethrush]

That's the problem I was suggesting Takver - that's why herbs would be fine as you can start using those immediately - or if you can get things like thyme and rosemary going, you can plant and enjoy in future years.

How about alpine strawberries - go down very well and look really pretty. They'd be fine in pots still by then too.