Fruit and Veg for beginners

[GrumpyHoonMain]

So we will be moving soon and will finally have a garden suitable to plant things in. What would you recommend in terms of fruit and veg for beginners?

So far I was thinking - strawberries, a dwarf apple tree in a planter, mint, rosemary, and I have been told certain types of chillis grow well outdoors in the UK too so am researching them.

Is there anything else I can do? Garden isn’t huge - probably 4 x 3 but it is fairly well drained according to DH.

Chillies outside are tricky. If you want them, I'd try them inside. They can do ok outside in a hot summer, but they'll die at the first slight chill.

Strawberries are easy to grow, and autumn fruiting raspberries. Totally hardy. Mint would need to go into a pot, even if you then sink that pot into the ground. It'll spread everywhere if you don't. Rosemary, sage and bay will be happy in a sunny spot in the ground or in pots - they can cope with drying out every now and then so watering doesn't have to be too perfect.

But fruit trees in pots are a faff. If you forget to water enough, they'll get too dry and not fruit. So much easier if you can just plant it into the ground!

@TheSpottedZebra

Chillies outside are tricky. If you want them, I'd try them inside. They can do ok outside in a hot summer, but they'll die at the first slight chill.

Strawberries are easy to grow, and autumn fruiting raspberries. Totally hardy. Mint would need to go into a pot, even if you then sink that pot into the ground. It'll spread everywhere if you don't. Rosemary, sage and bay will be happy in a sunny spot in the ground or in pots - they can cope with drying out every now and then so watering doesn't have to be too perfect.

But fruit trees in pots are a faff. If you forget to water enough, they'll get too dry and not fruit. So much easier if you can just plant it into the ground!

Brilliant thank you!

Apples aren't self fertile - you'll need another apple tree in flower at the same time to pollinate yours - this might be a tree belonging to a neighbour. You can get very dwarfing rootstocks - neighbour has an apple tree which is still only about 4 ft high after nearly 15 years. neighbour beyond that has killed about a dozen fruit trees in pots.

Tayberry, loganberry and other hybrids between raspberry and blackberry are easy to grow and fruit heavily. You'd have room for only one, trained along the boundary.

If you like spinach, try swiss chard, especially rainbow chard - similar taste, with broad edible midribs in a range of colours - white, yelow, orange, red. Ornamental as well as good eating.

We’ve had success with blueberries and raspberries in pots. I’m a fan of growing parsnips (in a trug) as we only use one at a time and I never have one when I want one! Lettuce in the summer is great as a cut and come again crop. We’ve also had success with courgette and beans.

You can grow lettuce as cut and come again throughout the year. We grown it in shallow troughs, or grow bags would do. In large pots, you can grow carrots and spring onions ( not confined to the spring!).
Leeks are quite an undemanding crop to grow and potatoes do well in potato bags.

I have just got 2 small raised beds this year and have strawberries, blueberries, peas, courgettes, potatoes and cherry tomatoes all doing really well with very little input (apart from watering). I do have 2 raspberry canes but no fruit. Think they went in too late for this year

Def for fruit: strawberries and raspberries and if you like blackberries you can get thornless varieties. Blueberries can take up to 3 years to fruit so you need patience with them.

You can get varieties of strawberries and raspberries that give you a crop from summer to late autumn so you can get a decent crop of a while.

With strawberries and raspberries once establishment you will never have to buy anymore plants as the strawberries will make runners of baby plants and raspberries will run like a bugger. (One of mine even managed to escape from it's pot and make new ones just outside!)

For veg this year I have had great success with the following all grown in pots: Peas, sugar snap peas, broad beans and dwarf french beans and even some pak choi. Also outdoor tomato varieties (remember to check they are OK for being outside) are great and easy to grow and mine have grown into triffid proportions with huge toms, just waiting for them to ripen!

Chillis are best grown in a greenhouse or indoors in a nice sunny position (I've got a plastic walk in cheapo greenhouse I got a few years back for about £30) and mine are flowering now under the mutated indoor tomatoes.

Lettuce and oriental cut and come again are easy to grow but can bolt very quickly.

Basically what fruit and veg do you like to eat?? This year I'm growing things I know I will eat.

Mint def needs to grow in a pot or will take over your garden. I have a bay and rosemary growing in pots (they seem to love being root bound as well so you only have to re pot them up every few years).

And also don't panic if things don't grow or die. It just means you have new space to grow other things

Oh and second trees in pots... just don't bother... stick them in the ground.

Also check out some online seed and plant shops and order a catalogue from them to see what they sell.

You can spend HOURS going through them and making wish lists and using that to do additional digging around on the internet on what you fancy!!! (I do that with a nice cup of tea and biccies.. lovely way to kill and hour or so)