Help and advice on starting to grow things

[Phycadelicsilhouette]

I have a pretty ok sized garden that I’ve just got the use of again after some time and I’d like to start growing things! I’d love to grow fruit and vegetables. Also plants and flowers but definitely more so the fruit and veg side.
I will need to invest in the correct equipment but have no idea where to start.
Plenty of space for beds and pots and a nice area for climbing plants. I’ve also seen some lovely structures in allotments where things grow up and then almost create a little canopy? I’d love to make one of those!

Also I don’t know what is good to grow in which months and what care things need, when they’re ready to harvest ect?
Any advice and help at all will greatly appreciated!

Start by thinking about what you'd actually like to eat. No use growing lots of cabbage if you never eat the stuff.

If you want climbing stuff, then runner beans and climbing French beans are fairly straightforward and will grow to about 8 ft. Runner beans have white or red flowers, French beans tend to have purple or cream flowers, and can have green, purple or blotched pods (they all turn green on cooking.

Main sowing season is from March (indoors) through to end May, with succession sowing through to July. There are some things that you sow outside this period.

Fruit is rewarding - it's more forgiving than veg, and costs a lot more in the shops. Herbs are also good, it makes you feel very smug to pick your own fresh herbs to use in your cooking.

I’d start with a plan of your garden, noting where the sun is at different times of the day. Some flowers and veg require different amounts of sun and shade.
Then you can decide where you want your new beds and what shapes they will be. Next look at your soil type, are you making raised beds for the veg. If so do a bit of online research for the best compost mix to fill them
On your plan you can place the shrubs and flowering plants with notes for their growing requirements.
It’s always an exciting project planning a new garden. To brighten things for the spring, at the moment, I’m planting up pots of spring bulbs.

Thank you both very much for all the tips, very informative and helpful!
I wouldn’t mind a few cabbages but I don’t want an abundance of them as it’s only me who likes it!
I think I’d like to do some root veg... carrots and parsnips ect maybe swedes if they grow well and would like to do a pumpkin or 2 for next Halloween.
I’d also like to do beans and peas, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes.
Fruit wise I’d like to do strawberries and rhubarb (they’re the only things I’m confident with! ) but would love to try raspberries and blueberries and grapes. Possibly even try and plant an apple tree?
Then of course a herb garden with the addition of chillis and garlics.
Not sure if I’m being too ambitious but I know I have the space for all this.
I will only be working 3 days a week and my DC are very interested in gardening and growing too so it will be a great and rewarding thing to do with our garden.
I’m hoping to have some raised beds and some pots and I have a large wall that is perfect for climbing fruits and veggies.
I’m glad it doesn’t really start until around March as it gives me plenty of time to prepare and have it all ready!
I am home today so I might take a book out into the garden and do a sun plan! Thank you for that, I wouldn’t have thought about it at all
I’ve just planted some different bulbs n pots actually! (Tulips, daffodils and a few others I’ve forgotten without looking at the packets!)
I’m so excited about this, thank you again!

Just what I was going to say re planning out your beds and working out where the sun shines in your garden.

Also assess your soil type and have a bit if a dig in a few places to see how deep it is and if there is any rubble in your soil.

There are loads of veg growing books in most local libraries so check them out for a read.

You can grow garlic now so I would stick some of that in. You can just plant cloves of garlic from the supermarket but ideally better to get cloves especially for planting, as this reduces the risk of disease and means you can choose your variety.

If you can be sure of where you'd put an apple tree, now is a good time to plant, but if you haven't done any gardening before you might be better off waiting till next year when you've had a year of gardening in action.

You could also plant rosemary and sage as plants from the garden centre to get your herb garden started.

Finally, read up on compost making and start filling a compost bin. Oh and if you eat yogurt in plastic pots, save them for spring seed sowing (pierce holes in the bottom for drainage). You can also save toilet roll tubes for starting broad beans (you could sow a crop of broad beans in November if you have somewhere sheltered to keep them)

Sorry the android app has taken all my paragraphs away. Hope you can still read all that ramble!

Possibly even try and plant an apple tree? You need two apple trees. Apples don't self-pollinate, so you either need to plant two that are in flower at about the same time, or a "family tree" that has 3 varieties grafted on the same stem. But they're a good choice, especially if you choose varieties that aren't available in the supermarket. Come back for more specific advice once you're close to choosing and buying.

Something you can do now is look out for "apple day" events near you where, with luck, you may be able to taste different varieties. Most of the RHS gardens do them, and other places too.

And send off for seed catalogues (or browse websites, but catalogues are more fun). I get most of my seeds from Chiltern Seeds but other suppliers are available.

Thank you all for your help, very appreciated!
@deplorabelle I will get started on my herb garden and garlic first then! I think I’ll wait until next year for the apple tree, I need to do some research first and build up my confidence I think. I started my compost bins around a month or just over ago and they’re doing very well I hope to have home made compost to use next year! I was leant a book called backyard composting which has some great tips! Thank you, will save loo roll tubes, I actually bought a fair few of the little seed trays for sowing ready for the spring so I’m ok there.
Its ok my phone “corrects” things all the time! Still read well.
@MereDintofPandiculation thank you, I will definitely wait until next year for the apple tree! I will look into apple day, it sounds great! And will order some catalogues too

Dormant season, ie Nov-Mar, is best for planting trees, so I'd suggest choosing apple trees and preparing the ground for them is a good autumn job, for planting in early spring. You won't get fruit the first year, so best to get any fruit trees into the ground asap.

You don't need to aim for perfection. Assuming you've made your compost bins as large as possible and as cubical as possible you should be fine. Heat is generated according to the volume (so large) and dissipated through the surface (so small surface area relative to volume, hence spherical is ideal but has obvious problems, long and thin is a bad idea). Try not to put too much of one thing on together -eg if you have a 6 inch layer of grass cutting, add a layer of something else (cardboard, general weeds, even soil) before adding more grass cuttings. "Good enough" is all you need to aim for if your livelihood doesn't depend on it - you need to enjoy your garden as well as get produce from it.

You don't need two apples if you live where there are people with gardens, there are usually enough people around you for their apples to pollinate yours. Unless you live miles from anyone else.

And conversely, next year's season actually starts on Monday with the Autumn Equinox. which means that your garlics can go in any time after Monday and be ready next June.

My top tip would be though, to plan plan and plan a little bit more. Start with a small space and, if you have never grown anything before, learn how to do that well. And then expand once your skills do.

I'd recommend garlic, spinach and winter lettuces go in now. And Just set up enough areas to grow those over winter.

Then in the spring, grow peas, and a few weeks later, and sow tomatoes and French Beans - if you choose dwarf peas and beans, and bush tomatoes, all you have to really do is to stick some sticks in here and there to give them something to lean on. And you will get decent crops from them whilst you are thinking about what else to grow. Then add in a couple of courgettes and a cucumber early summer where the peas were as they crop earliest, and some larger canes to tie the cucumber in and you are already cooking on gas.

But before you do, work out how you are going to grow. is it straight in the ground and if so, what is the soil like? Are you thinking of raised beds in which case, what is your budget? I now grow trees, flowers and shrubs in the ground and veg in pallet collars filled with topsoil, as i lost so many veg to pests in the ground, it is so much easier to contain them in raised beds. I would never attempt veg in the ground these days, and that's from someone who is paid to teach veg growing in schools and colleges and had a community garden for years.

www.google.com/search?q=pallet+collar+raised+bed&safe=off&client=firefox-b-d&sxsrf=ACYBGNQHs_y8Vm7McHZ3t4hDRIwa29vqGg:1569062239234&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=EkfJqz6raLmM_M%253A%252C24Aca9P9DBYZAM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kQ3idMw_hY7pCZHLuqkXXIYyMaUYg&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjzqZmr3OHkAhU7TxUIHXVCDE8Q9QEwBXoECAcQDg#imgrc=EkfJqz6raLmM_M:

I now grow trees, flowers and shrubs in the ground and veg in pallet collars filled with topsoil, as i lost so many veg to pests in the ground, it is so much easier to contain them in raised beds. I would never attempt veg in the ground these days, and that's from someone who is paid to teach veg growing in schools and colleges and had a community garden for years.

The above is so true. I made the mistake of putting in raised beds and digging in the main soil (which is heavy clay) into the bed with added compost. The result is solid clay which make root veg really difficult to grow and dig out, especially carrots & beets. Also something attacked my potatoes.

However our cucumbers, tomatoes and pumpkins have done well.

i'd say that unless you have ideal loamy soil, plant root veg in large pots or beds separated from the garden soil.

You don't need two apples if you live where there are people with gardens, there are usually enough people around you for their apples to pollinate yours. Unless you live miles from anyone else. But then you're dependent on someone else for pollination. I'm urban, but I think there's only one other apple tree within 100yards of me (everyone's into ornamental gardening or lawn+trampoline), and I'm not comfortable with relying on the bees to find me over larger distances.