Veg Trug help!

[FunInTheSun2019]

Hello everyone!

I have bought my DH the medium sized Veg Trug as a present, as he would love to grow his own vegetables and fruit for our little family.

He is a beginner to this and never grown any veg or fruit before!

I'm so confused on the download file from Veg Trug website it says it holds 420 litres of soil, but then on page to buy it, it says it holds 60 litres?! That's a huge difference!

We try to only eat organic in our house, could someone help what is the best compost and other things he needs to give his fruit and veg the best chance..
And any other tips and advice would be much appreciated!

Look forward to your advice 😊

Thank you

I've had a quick look at the veg trug website, and I think what it's trying to say (badly) is that it holds 7 bags of soil, each bag 60L. Which is 420L. Does that make sense to you?

Oh thank you..can't believe you took time out of your day to look at the site for a complete stranger!! Confusing isn't it?!

Thank you so much 😊

You won't be able to grow a lot of anything, so grow things that make their presence felt in a meal. Preferably things that are expensive or unobtainable in the supermarket.

Salads and herbs are good. Chilli for colour. Bush or "patio" tomatoes that don't need staking. Swiss chard - wilts as soon as you look at it, so best fresh - if you go for "rainbow chard" you get a mixture of white, yellow orange and red stems. You can see all these in the Robert Dyas VegTrug picture. Strawberries are also good - either conventional, or the tiny alpine ones - they're no good for strawberries and cream but are great scattered on yogurt ice cream or cereal. Dwarf French bean (as opposed to climbing) is another possibility.

I'd leave sweetcorn and sweet peppers till later - they're a bit more tricky. And aubergine needs a good summer. Radishes bolt as soon as they get a sniff of drying out, so aren't best in a mixed container. Carrots pulled young for salads are often recommended, but I haven't done well with them.

He'll be tempted to try as many things as possible (we all are!) but try to avoid the temptation. I'd limit to about 4, but if you grow only one or two, it's a bigger disappointment if you have a crop failure - and we all have those now and again.

Keep a good eye on things - it's easy to remove greenfly with finger and thumb if you spot them early, but you have to keep looking.

Having planted too many trees in the garden, my sunshine is limited to the terrace, so I grow all my vegetables in containers - tubs about 18inches square and just a bit taller. I can grow everything I've recommended above, and also cucumbers (in the greenhouse) courgettes (though not as productive as in the ground), sugar peas, climbing french and runner beans. And salad potatoes, though I don't bother now, and I'm trying chinese artichokes (oca). Then cabbages, kale and purple sprouting move in over winter. I can move the tubs in and out of the greenhouse and in and out of shade as required.

Wow such helpful advice thank you!

Yes from the photographs online, it makes it look easy to grow lots of things all at once.. DH does only want to grow a few things, not like the website says that you can grow 30 different varieties of veg and fruit all at once! I find that very hard!

My grandfather grew all his own fruit and veg (I now wish in my childhood years I listened more to his tips on growing vegetables and fruit! Instead of sitting on his little stool day dreaming, while picking and eating all his peas and tomatoes!)

We thought a Veg Trug would be a good little start though, into learning what will and won't work..And for our 3 year old who absolutely loves being in the garden, doing little jobs.

Thank you so much!

Oh thank you..can't believe you took time out of your day to look at the site for a complete stranger!!

No problem, I like solving problems