Grow my own veg

[middleager]

Can anybody help a novice grow some veg (quickly and in planters)?
I'm missing stocks of fresh veg and don't want to rely on shops.

What would be the easiest? The fastest? I love potatoes. Tell me they are easy.
What do I need?
Will anybody even deliver compost/planters now?

My garden is small. The soil is crap. I only have one place in the ground (shaded) hence the planters idea which I could put on slabbed terrace area.

Things which are fairly fool-proof and take no looking after (apart from trying to keep slugs off possibly): potatoes, runner beans, courgettes, all of which would need quite a bit of space, and not be ready for a few months. Totally worth it though. Depends if you have/can get big planters etc. For smaller stuff only needing little pots; spring onions, radishes, leafy stuff like rocket are all easy and grow fairly quickly. Cucumbers and tomatoes also like pots but would take till the summer to fruit. No idea about compost etc though I'm afraid...

Thank you.

Hoping my husband could build me one if push comes to shove.

Unlike my neighbours though I won't be going up the garden centre!

Hoping for something that would crop by the summer.

Herbs and salad greens will be ready to crop quickly and will grow back several times:

www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=618

The fastest thing to grow are mustard and cress, which will be ready to crop in 7 days and can be grown inside. Pea shoots will be ready in 3 weeks and can be grown indoors too. Also, think outside the box, nasturtiums are peppery like rocket. A few chives will be a good substitute for onions in recipes.

If you buy supermarket herbs in a pot, you can divide them up into larger pots so they have the space to grow. Look up how to crop them to encourage growth. It's bit too cold to put them outside yet. You can make cloches from plastic bottles though. You will also need to protect everything from slugs...

Thanks for the tips - will explore further.

The Kew Garden seed range of vegetables you can grow in pots:

www.thompson-morgan.com/brands-kew-urban-gardens

Potatoes can be grown in sacke. Get your seed potatoes, leave them in the light until they sprout and then plant them on Good Friday. They take about 12 weeks l think. You can use sprouting potatoes from the bottom of the cupboard too!

Lettuce is probably the quickest. Tomatoes are easy to grow in containers but depending on weather, you won't be eating your crops until July-August time. Courgettes are also very easy to grow from seed in large containers but again will take a while to crop.

You can buy potted veg plants from online garden centres too - makes it a bit more reliable than growing your own from seed as a first timer.

Kale sprouts super quick too and can be used in salads or as a hot veg

Perpetual Spinach (it’s actually a type of chard) can be picked repeatedly and can be grown in containers.

I was supposed to be getting compost and gro bags delivered today. Not coming now

How much of a crop would a sprouted potato give? How many would you pop into a sack? I have some leftover compost.

Following this. One thing my mum did last year which worked really well was to slice up a tomato (from a tasty batch she bought) and planted the slices. Lots of tomato plants grew although if you are not in the south best to keep on a windowsill or under glass

Salad greens are quick and easy. Everything else will take 3 months or more.

I’ve been planting this week.
So far, radish, lettuce, beetroot, cabbage, broad beans, spring onion outside. Tomatoes, chilli, courgettes and cucumber in the greenhouse but in a pot with polythene over the top works just as well.
I find it peaceful, it gets me outside and if I lose my job at least we’ll have free veg in the summer.

Shove a sprouted potato cut into chunks with a stalk sticking out of each in the crappy, shaded bit and forget about them.

Can't get much easier than that.

You could use gro bags if your soil is v bad.

I mean grow bags!