First vegetable garden - advice please!

[Startingagainandagain]

I moved into a new house a few months ago and I finally have my own garden.

I want to start growing vegetables and cooking herbs. I am in Kent and my medium sized garden gets a reasonable amount of sun.

What would people advise in term of:

• what vegetables might be easier to start with
• what equipment/supplies I will need
• any tips about making sure everything grows properly
• I also want to plant a lemon tree so any suggestions about the best type to pick would be great.

I know this a lot of questions but I am really excited about it and want to try to get a good start...

Lemon tree isn’t hardy in the UK, so grow it in a pot.

What vegetables would you like to eat?

Easy peasy to start you off I'd say courgettes and a thing called perpetual spinach which isn't technically spinach but a beet with green leaves that you eat like spinach. Don't buy too many courgette plants you'll get bored with eating them!
Grow your own tomatoes too in grow bags and choose the fancy varieties that cost more to buy, you'll get great flavour and you can grow a few different ones which is fun. Herbs maybe in pots - parsley, rosemary (yum with chicken or potatoes), mint you must put in pots otherwise it'll go rampant and you'll be trying to get rid of it!
What fun OP. Good luck! 👍 🙂

Lemon tree: Meyer's Hardy Lemon. Not that hardy but you might get away with it in Kent if you have a sheltered spot.

Dwarf peas are good, they come in packets of hundreds so grow a few plants for actual peas and pick the rest early for pea shoots.
Onion sets are pretty easy to grow too, poke the tiny onions in the ground and leave them there until the green leaves go brown. Then pull up big onions.

Strawberries and raspberries are super easy and keep multiplying. Expensive in the shops too, so good saving. Things like pumpkin, tomatoes and Mediterranean herbs love a bit of sun. Potatoes are easy, but very cheap to buy in the supermarket, so probably no cost savings. Carrots and cabbages are a bit of a bugger because so much wants to eat them that covering is a must.

If you have space for a greenhouse or polytunnel, you will have a better chance at citrus. You can get hardy lemons, but they are not likely to taste the same.

Look up Charles Dowding on YouTube. Lots of great step by step advice for veg sowing and growing.

Only grow things you actually like eating is my top tip! Cucamelons, never again

You could start off with veg plug plants which are inexpensive and eliminate the need to start everything from seed. Garden centres and supermarkets often sell veg seedlings and the great thing about these is you just buy as many as you want/need. Alternatively you can buy online from various websites.

Growing from seed is a joy in itself though - beans and squashes are so easy to grow from seed and look decorative in the garden. You don't need to spend loads on equipment and there are loads of good channels on YouTube and instagram accounts you can follow for advice and how tos.

Perennial herbs can be bought cheaply as small plants (around £3 or less for a 9cm pot) or you can use the living herbs from supermarkets which are just a mass of seedlings. I used one of those to propagate a dozen thyme plants last summer.

Fruit is well worth growing as it's expensive to buy. As a pp said lemon trees are not hardy so you will need to overwinter it in a frost free environment like a greenhouse.

Do look at no dig (as pp said Charles Dowding on YouTube and many others). It's better for soil health, minimises weeds and is generally easier.

I meant to add if you're growing brassicas you will need to protect them against cabbage whites and pigeons. I have some metal hoops over mine covered with veggie mesh otherwise the pigeons would have them.

Maximise your space by adding arches or teepees for growing vertically eg climbing beans, squashes, thornless blackberries.

Thank you so much everyone for all the advice!

That is so helpful.

I will check out the YouTube videos as well.

I had not thought about berries but that makes sense too.

I am vegetarian so I really want to enjoy some nice fruits and legs.

Food is getting so expensive that it makes sense as well financially :).