Veg and fruit growing for a newbie

[Mostlyjustaluker]

I would to grow some veg and fruit. I have a small garden which is mostly patio in the north east. I have just bought a magazine with some free leek, parsnip, carrot and beet root seeds. I am looking for suggestion of easy to maintain stuff. I was thinking of maybe putting lettuce in hanging baskets?

Ooh, come and join us on the veg patch /allotment thread!

I grew loads in pots last year. And will do again this year, even though I now have an allotment too

I guess it depends on how much sun you have and what your pests are. I'd struggle with lettuce I think, as I have so many slugs - the lettuce wpuld just be chomped or id have to stand guard all the time. I've seen pics of lettuce grown in lengths of guttering though, which looked pretty cool. Strawberry too.

I'd say my most low maintenance container thing was chard. It's still going. Needs next to no attention. Beetroot and radish everyone else says are v. easy, but I didn't manage them. In fact your seed list I'd say was harder stuff, or stuff that I've not managed! Beans I found easy and quite low maintenance.

How easy is easy to maintain

Runner beans...we were overrun (no pun intended!) with them last year and next to no work - except slug pellets until plants established. Courgettes simple too. Again watching out for slugs. Somehow we managed decent lettuces without them all being eaten too - cut and come again varieties are easiest on pots.

We are in the north east so not the warmest of places. I am going to plant some sweet pea flowers inside to plant out (I know you eat them in case you were worried ;)) later and I am going to chit a few potato. Imam especially excited by the chitting as until a few hours ago I had no idea what the gardening magazine I have bought was talking about!

It's my first time chitting too. I even like the word!

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/2282529-The-2015-Allotment-Veg-Patch-Thread-its-here?msgid=52592275#52592275 come join us...

Erm, you don't eat sweet peas as in the flowers, you can only eat peas as in the veg.

Grow some things you like to eat, don't grow anything else. Tomatoes are very satisfying. Of your free seeds you could put carrots in a deep container full of compost (unless they are the little round carrots in which case they can of course have a smaller container) but slugs LOVE carrot seedlings so watch out. Parsnips are a pain to germinate and prone to all sorts of trouble, radish should be quite simple especially in a pot, leeks are boring in a container garden - take up lots of space and are in the ground for a long time. Lettuce in a hanging basket is viable especially with a little bit of shade but will need lots of watering.

I second the recommendation for runner and green beans. And courgettes. They are probably the easiest thing to grow in the veg garden - but you're a couple of months ahead of the sowing season for them. Both give a really satisfying yield. For green beans, keep your kitchen waste for a few weeks beforehand and then hold your nose and dump it all in a a big hole. Two weeks later, put the plants or seeds in. They like getting their roots down through quite raw stuff.

I would be wary of putting something like lettuce in hanging baskets unless you want to give yourself a massive job of keeping it wet enough. (You will need to water at least twice a day). Because they are exposed to the air on all sides, hanging baskets dry out really, really quickly. Maybe try a trough instead?