Its working! I feel like Titchmarsh!!! What next?

[ACurlyWurly]

I have always liked to dabble in the garden but I am a real amateur I plant stuff and pray it wont die (it frequently does, but I am learning). I have recently found myself addicted to Gardeners World...apparently this makes me old?! I think not!
A couple of weeks ago Monty told me that I could plant spinach in a planter so I bought the seeds and followed Monty's advise and low and behold I have spinach seedlings! This is the first time I have grown anything from seed and I am unreasonably excited about it.
This is where the obsession will begin!
I now need advice (apparently Monty is busy this week) i have a couple of wooden planters and have decided I want to grow things to eat (not just buying supermarket strawberry plants that die before they fruit)
What can I grow easily in a planter, there is no place for a full on veg patch and when should I be planting? I think I want to put a planting plan in place.
I do not have greenhouse or anything along those lines so fear it may be sprinkle and sew. Monty has told me about thinning the seedlings but re-potting and growing under cloches may be a step to far at the moment. Baby steps! All help and encouragement is appreciated

to add.....next planter is 1 meter long and 30 cm wide and deep.

What do you like to eat? There's loads of advice on container growing on the internet.

I started with containers (now have allotment) and found herbs were one of the most successful and useful things to grow. Rosemary and thyme (buy plants now) as well as parsely, mint and basil (the last 3 are better sown in the spring). The first two like good drainage - don't like being damp in the winter.

Lettuce is really good - you can buy winter mixes and summer mixes. Much nicer and cheaper than supermarket bags of lettuce.

thank you, we like lots of veg and eat all of them. I have a herb planter which is doing well after some MN guidance and have just been out and bought a pack of kale seeds which I saw in Wilkinsons in the sale.
I am hoping to grow things like carrots in containers which I will research later (hoping this is possible)

Maybe I need and allotment!?

I'd always recommend an allotment...it's brilliant!

Carrots in containers are brilliant as they don't get got by carrot fly.

Potatoes grown in sacks don't produce terribly well but it's nice when you get a few. Courgettes are great in pots - especially the smaller varieties. I've don't tomatoes outside but they got blight so I only grow them in a greenhouse now - but I know others have success.

Runner Beans do well in very big containers - and look lovely too.

Chard was surprisingly good - Chard Bright lights looks fab and tastes good. Raspberries are good in a pot too.

What do you like to eat? I would be tempted to grow french beans as we like those, mine have done really well and they look pretty too. And they are pretty impressive when they get going.

You could also maybe squeeze something less high at the front of the pot. Something like basil or some baby lettuce leaf mix.

I grew tomatoes in grow bags for a few years. Always grown herbs at home.

I would grow something that I was going to eat. And something that either freezes well (beans do) for the glut you will hopefully get. And things that arent really cheap in the supermarket if you have limited space.

We have an allotment (1st year) so have all sorts on the go but when I had limited space at home I grew tomatoes in grow bags, chillis, herbs, and salad leaves.

getting excited now, need to remember i cant run before i can walk.

Definitely going to plant carrots! Chard will be on my list too, will need to investigate runner beans the fence behind the containers is perfect support. Love courgettes so will need to try them too.

We started gardening this year too, after having zero interest for 40 years. And I am absolutely addicted. I am having lots of fun.

I planted summer and autumn raspberry, blueberry and thornless blackberry canes in about March time. I already have rhubarb (which is enormous as it spreads). I didn't think any of them would fruit in their first year, but they have! We've had a decent sized crop, especially with the blueberries. I have been amazed at how different blueberries taste when picked compared to the supermarket ones.

You can buy patio planters for raspberries and blueberries I know.

I have pots on my patio of mint, rosemary and thyme, they're all doing well. The mint doesn't like much sun though.

I have tried unsuccessfully to grow rhubarb for years but it always fails me, everyone else has the stuff in abundance so i get mine from them now.

I love being in my garden and have had some real success with it in the past but with now knowledge of how it happened! this garden is OURS we own it and its not rented so we have done some hard landscaping (put our own patio in) have built a pergola and have planted loads of Mediterranean looking palms and grasses which look fab. I do have an olive tree which has taken off and am hoping my clematis and jasmine which are doing well, survive the summer. I have planted some things this year which are doing really well but i expect to die over winter. my fave being a bougainvillea which i then realised was a conservatory plant and should be inside in this country. it has trebled in size this summer i shall be sad to lose it.

all my plants are planted on a wing and a prayer and the best ones are the ones that my mum buys for me as she knows what she is doing and remembers to read the labels.

My major success this year (apart from my seedlings!) was a fig tree that was given to me last November at 12 inches tall. it spent the winter in my garage and was planted out this year, its now 5 ft tall and had 2 ripe figs.

Come join in the allotment thread curlywurly and read back at some of the posts for some inspiration. A lot of us grow in raised beds/containers.

I would say carrots are probably one thing I wouldn't grow as an amateur. They are quite disease prone!

Some stuff you could try in your bed over winter - pak choi, spring onions (white lisbon hardy variety, if you plant now and cover with fleece they should be ready to eat feb/march), kale which you already bought and winter lettuces.

It is much easier to sow and grow veg from early spring onwards so don't be disheartened if anything you do over winter isn't particularly successful.