I’d like to grow stuff this year

[DepthOfTheAbyss]

In particular herbs, rocket, maybe some strawberries.
I’ve half heartedly tried by throwing seeds in a pot but they have always failed. I’d like to do it properly this year. Can anyone give me any tips to get some good plants growing this year please?

Growing from seed is not always as easy as just throwing any old seeds around. I have passion fruit which I started from seed. but they need real nurturing in the Uk. I tried cyclamen with no results at all (my dp didn’t help by dropping the whole seed box 🤣).

Try the easy seeds like hollyhocks, sun flowers, cosmos and coleus. Just read the instructions on the packets.. they are there for a reason !

Parsley is easy and mint and rosemary too. I can’t seem to grow thyme, it could be where I live that’s the problem.

Hi OP,

Anyone can grow, it's about having the right setup and know how - but this doesn't need to be expensive.
Strawberries are notoriously difficult to grow from seed and you'll be better off getting some bare root plants or smaller plants for those. Strawberries are great and will multiply year on year if you plant the runners and make new plants.

Seed wise, it's probably a little early for the majority of things right now - but check the packets. All you need is a sunny windowsill (or heat mat) and a tray with compost. Seeds are best germinated with heat, but quickly need light to grow on and prevent them becoming too 'leggy'.

There's a great FB group - Veg Gardening UK which has lots of help and tips and I'd highly recommend joining there.

Hope that helps!

Rosemary is easy to grow and easy to propagate. If you have a friend with some rosemary ask them for a few cuttings.. stick it in water and in a couple of weeks you will have roots.

I wouldn’t grow rosemary or strawberries from seeds. Buy some strawberry plants it’s much easier.

Parsley and Basil are easy to grow from seed. Start them off indoors, as others have said. Basil will need to stay inside until the weather gets really warm, June onwards.
For Rosemary, it buy a supermarket pot from the veg bit. When you get it home and divide the several plants you’ll find into separate pots.
Thyme is also easy to grow, but again the supermarket pots are good starters.
Some flowers from seeds do take a long time to germinate and some will not develop to flower until the following year, so need nurturing over the winter.

Great tips here. Thank you everyone. Makes me a bit more confident to try again.

I recommend starting with courgettes / zuccini. Plant five or six, they can do well both directly in soil or bucket-size containers.

By July, all your neighbours will be on a courgette diet and you will experience a proper delusion of gardening grandeur.

I’ve grown rocket from seed very successfully. I grew it outside in a pot. Follow the instructions on the packet - space the seeds out well and water when you plant and then regularly in the summer (unless it rains).

Once they get going you can harvest leaves every few days and they’ll keep going for ages if you harvest regularly.

Another way to grow herbs is to buy a tub of living herbs from a supermarket, gently tease it apart into smaller clumps (don’t worry about getting single plants) and pot up each clump separately. Not as cheap as seed but cheaper than buying individual plants.

Chives grow beautifully from the supermarket pots, here's mine last year. Bees adore it, and it's already roaring back to life, so fresh chives almost all year round.

Marjoram oregano and thyme are also dead easy from tiny plants.

Mint needs to be kept in its own container as it is a right thug and will swamp everything else.

If you get a lot of slugs, start your seedlings indoors and grow them a bit bigger before you put them outside

Spinach is probably the easiest thing to ever grow in a pot or tub or largish container.
Fill with compost, lob seeds in, water sometimes.
I've done potatoes not successfully but I did get 6 or so spuds in each pot.
Carrots were easy too, lob seeds in, put in sunny position and water daily.
Corn needs more space than I can spare, courgettes were easy too, plenty of water.
Sunflowers pretty easy, you can get other colours of sunflowers too, dont need to all be yellow.
I cant grow herbs anywhere, inside or out they die on me, even mint which is very hardy and virtually unkillable.

Tomato seedlings are easy to grow on a windowsill first the transplant out when risk of frost is gone.

I've had great success with ' cut and come again' salad leaves. Many can be grown all year round in pots etc... though be wary of slugs etc.. and remember to sow seeds every few weeks to keep a succession of leaves going.
Courgettes are easy, grown into a 3 inch pot ( sow the seeds on their side!) then once it gets to a couple of inches put them into a bucket sized pot, feed them every week with tomato feed, and enjoy.

Get a big pot ( plastic is fine) and make a wig-wam of five or six canes. Put a couple of runner bean seeds next to each cane. You'll get splendid results.

A margarine tub, narrow trough , ice cream tub of compost on your windowsill will make a great pea shoot crop.
Buy a packet of dried marrowfat peas ( Bachelor's ) from the supermarket which cost about 50p and soak a handful overnight in water. Plant them into compost next day and keep moist. You'll have pea shoots in no time.
Cut them down to the lowest leaves and you might get two or three more crops.

I wouldn't bother with potatoes in pots. Too much compost and too small a yield, so not cost effective. Only grow potatoes if you've got a fair bit of space in your garden.

With the right kit you can grow the hardest of seeds easily. A fool proof method...

Go to B&Q;
Get a propagator
Get tray inserts
Perlite
Vermiculite
Seed sowing compost

Method:

• mix some perlite in the soil for aeration
• dump soil in trays from a height (dont push it in)
• scrape off excess on the top
• tap the tray firmly and it will be a perfect height, perfectly condensed but not squashed.
• sit soil tray in water to soak up (fill the propagtor)
• when top of soil is moist empty propagator and let it dry and let the tray drain any excess
• distribute your seeds (mix with silver or sharp sand if they are tiny to help)
• read the packet for depth
• if surface depth then skip this. If 1.5cm top up with sieved soil. If deeper push it in a bit with a pencil end.
• sprinkle with light dusting of vermiculite.
• place in dry propagator, close the vents, dont water and leave it alone.
• return to check occasionally.
• when you have good growth open the vents

Thank you so much for all the amazing helpful posts.
I’m looking forward to growing all these.