veggie plot - help with geting started

[mazzystar]

i want to start growing some veggies, but apart from some freak spectacular tomato growing success and a few pots of herbs have no idea where to start.

anyone got any suggestions on how to get started. we've got a fairly big bit of available space, reasonably sheltered and reasonably sunny. quite sandy soil

I was going to suggest getting hold of a book called The Self-Sufficient Gardener: A Complete Guide to Growing and Preserving All Your Own Food by John Seymour, but I just googled it and the cheapest it came up on Amazon second hand is £35!!!!! (I bought mine for £1 in a charity shop)

Try making a list of the kind of things you would eat fruit and vegetable wise that can be grown here - you would then be able to research planting times and plan the available space form there?

Buy or make a compost bin. A lot of councils seem to supply cheapo bins.

You'll need to add bulky matter to your sandy soil as, I imagine, it'll be pretty free draining.
Good for carrots and asparagus, though!

Good point Avalon - you might also need room for a manure pile to improve sandy soil.

Don't ever put onion waste on a compost heap where onions or any relative of onions are grown though - it attracts onion flies, which you don't want.

carrots and asparagus, that's good, we like them. (have you grown asparagus...they take a while to establish don't they)

we already compost - haven't done anything with it yet...and didn't know that about onion waste so cheers for that

my hearts desire is to grow broad beans and rhubarb.....

Oh man - I lurrrve rhubarb!

If you can, hang around near an allotment site in early spring (before everything has sprouted) and ask people in wellingtons if they have a spadeful of a rhubarb root going. Or if you live near Nottingham, you can have some of mine (seriously). Those paltry things you get from Garden centres will take a while to take off. You need manure to grow rhubarb in sandy soil for sure btw.

Never grown broad beans - I can have a look in my bible and tell you the score on those..... bear with me!

Broad beans like strong soils, even heavy clay, but compost rich soil suits them no matter what the original soil was - clay or sand. Their behaviour is very similar to peas.

I have loads of detailed sowing info in my book, but this confirms you could certainly grow them with loads of compost

If you grow asparagus form the seed of the female ferns, it will take 3 years before you get anything to eat. You can buy crowns of 2 or 3 years old from a nursery. One year old crowns are cheaper than older plants and transplant more easily (apparently )

Yes, I've got some asparagus on my allotment.
I bought young crowns like QueSerahSerah suggests and they are doing pretty well even on my heavy soil.

thankyou ladies, i am just off to put on my wellies and start digging over my patch.

and starting a new list for the garden centre at the weekend. starting with manure.

Oooh... it will cost a fortune to buy manure from a garden centre.... ask at a local allotments association where they get their manure delivered from - you should get it by the tractor load!

You only really need to dig the manure in where you are planning on planting btw. Saves on time, labour and money!

Lots of good advice here, I didn't know about the onion skins either.
For a quick crop spring onions are good if you use them, I hardly ever use a whole bunch, so its a waste to buy.
Peas are good as well. I never get too many but to wander down the garden, pick a few and eat them there and then is heaven.
sprouts are high yielding.Just have to watch for caterpillars.