My first veg patch

[warmmfeet]

Got my first proper veg patch set up, lined with sleepers. It's about 2m by 3m. What should I grow?! I'm quite new to it, had some success with growing potatoes and courgettes and tomatoes in containers.

What is not to challenging and fun to grow? Easy wins?

I'm excited. Also about to plant apple and pear trees so any tips for them also gratefully received.

Ooh what fun. Tomatoes, courgettes/zucchinis, cucumbers, green beans and broad beans have all been quite successful and easy-going for me :)

Grow what you eat, no point in growing stuff that will rot in the fridge!
What is expensive to buy in shops (fresh herbs!!!)
or impossible to get (courgette flowers, weird squashes, green garlic etc)

carrots and onions not worth it. Cheap enough to buy, takes forever to grow and between carrot fly and fungus on onions 🤯

I had great success with purple sprouting broccoli one year - you can eat the leaves like cabbage so it was an amazing crop, and I left it to run to flowers at the end and it put on a show of beautiful yellow flowers all winter! It was a big plant so I only had 3 and it took up sooooo much space. Fab though.

Climbing French beans, swiss chard (like spinach). Magentaspreen for spinach and beauty combined. Sugar snap peas (eat the pod as well)

Yes - grow what you eat. e.g. We never bother chard because I don't like the suff. But things we do grow plenty of and find the easiest are garlic, spinach, beetroot, runner beans, herbs and courgettes.

I think courgettes might have been the first veg I ever properly grew and that summer I ate nothing but courgettes! Just 3 plants can provide so many veg.

Agree with PP, grow what is expensive to buy that you will use and eat.

I wouldn’t grow them in the veg patch, but have a freestanding container with a favourite potato. I love Pink Fir Apple.

Thanks everyone. Thinking to try courgettes, toms, some sort of salad leaf, some climbing beans and some herbs. So excited!

Now I need tips. How to keep the plants healthy - last time I tried courgettes was in large containers and they kind of got all damp and I lost most the plants in the end. The leaves got some kind to white mould stuff on them.

To keep plants healthy they need lovely soil. If you have raised beds I presume that you are importing the earth, so use lovely compost and mix in a bit of well rotted manure in while everything is still dormant. I use cardboard to cover the soil and keep the weeds away when beds are empty. Also warms it up ready for planting in spring.
Encourage predators of common bugs by providing them with the right food/shelter/habitat : e.g. hedgehogs and song thrushes predate snails, ladybirds predate aphids, frogs and toads (pond?) slugs. If you get aphids spray with dilute washing up liquid. Net brassicas(pigeons) and fruit bushes to stop birds eating. Keep plants weeded and watered so they grow strong and can withstand attack.
Rhubarb is really easy to grow - just ask neighbour/friend for root. Squash, kale, cut and come again mixed salad are all great. Loads of people happy to share herb cuttings like mint and lemon balm(keep in separate places as invasive), thyme, marjoram, oregano, etc great for making teas/cooking.
Really exciting to start growing your own, here’s to a perfect spring!

@Eyeofthestorm7 thanks so much! Yes I'm really excited. Will put a few marigolds near by too I think I heard they are good to protect veg maybe tomatoes? From some pests. Somehow!

What about beetroot? We love eating it.

Beetroot easy to grow. Yes to marigolds forgot about them. Attract pollinators and think they repel harmful bugs. It works for us. Also with growing tomatoes outdoors - they can often get blight (airborne disease) Also grow some in pots in greenhouse/conservatory/sheltered sunny place indoors or near house so can check daily. We get loads like that.

If you're willing to play the long game, I'd plant asparagus crowns. It will be 2 or 3 years before you can harvest it but it will come back for years.

I'm waiting to buy a new house before starting a veg patch. I'm planning on growing beetroot and courgettes in different colours. I love the look of yellow courgettes. My colleague grows Middle Eastern courgettes which are delicious. It's a pale shorter, fatter courgette with fewer seeds.

We don't have much space in our current garden but last year we grew chillies and had an absolute glut. I think the heatwaves helped. They didn't need any special care at all. We had padron peppers for the bbq, jalapeños to make jalapeño poppers, lemon drops for cooking Mexican, Birds Eye chillis for Thai food, Fresno chillies for garnishing and curry chillies for Indian food. We made several bottles of Jamie Oliver's chilli sauce towards the end of the season, dried some of the Birds Eye chillies on string and still ended up with a freezer drawer full of chillies. We bought two of each plant and thought it might not be enough 🤣

The leaves got some kind to white mould stuff on them. They always do eventually get mildew. Keep them well watered, take off any leaves which are too covered to have any beneficial effect, and harvest as much as you can before eventually throwing the plants away.

Remember you can also eat beetroot leaves, small ones in salads, larger ones cooked.

You can sow beetroot and lettuce now, either inside and transplant when they are a couple of inches tall or sow now, cover with some plastic to keep the snow off and remove it when it has germinated/is a couple of inches tall.

You can also sow spring onions, and radish now. If you like either. They help to fill the gaps before courgettes go in. If you put the courgettes in the corners and train them to grow off the sides they won't take up too much of the precious planting space in the bed.

If you are new then it might be best to buy a few chillis or tomatoes when they are for sale as it is a bit of a faff trying to get them big enough to put out for a good harvest whilst they are indoors. I have been growing for donkey's years and still always buy a few tomatoes and peppers and last year I had so many peppers from my bought plants that I have bags of them still frozen.