Growing tomatoes and other things!

[Springisnear4]

I've got my first garden in years. I want to grow things but I don't know where to start! Flowers and tomatoes I think. My garden is north facing (I know) and I'm in North West England. I was thinking about getting one of those pop up greenhouses you can zip up? I've never grown anything before so any guidance I'd be so grateful for! I'm excited to become a gardener because I really enjoy the bits I've done before

Strawberries would be nice too

Tomatoes are good and easy, as are potatoes, courgette/marrow and runner beans. I doubt you'll get much off even half a dozen strawberry plants.

strawberries don’t need a greenhouse so you can start on those straight away

@RosesAndHellebores thank you. What do I do? Do I buy tomato plants and put them straight into the pop up greenhouse?

Thank you, how do I grow strawberries?

@Springisnear4 I'd get yourself a grow bag and pitch it in the sunniest spot you have.

I've never heard of grow bags. Sorry, I'm a complete beginner!

@Springisnear4

Most garden centres will have strawberry plants. Just stick them in a bed or large pots. They will get lovely little white flowers which turn into your strawberries. They will churn out runners - put the root stem in a pot until they take root and then you can cut them from the parent plant.
You can grow lots of things in pots or troughs- salad leaves, radishes etc have shallow roots so perfect for pots.
I grow my spuds in buckets as well.
Google succession planting and have fun!

Garden centre/Homepage for grow bags. They're quite heavy. You'll need a car.

A grow bag is just a long flattish bag of compost, you just slice them open and put your toms or cucumber etc plants in them. These plants do need support though

The RHS website is really helpful. Tomatoes need staking and the stems tied on to the cane as it grows.

courgettes are great. very easy. and easy to freeze when you get a glut.
tomatos are great as well. especially if you can grow varieties that you can't buy in a supermarket.

I grow a lot of food but it has to be a) something I particularly like b) something that's not cheap as chips in the shops c) something that's superior to the shop bought version d) something that has a good bang for buck ratio in terms of productivity and input needed. I second @RosesAndHellebores suggestions if that's what you like to eat.

I would start watching Beechgrove Garden on TV for some really sound basic advice. In the meantime get some windowbox sized containers, some multi purpose compost and some of the growing lettuce or herb plants you can get from supermarkets. Take them out of their pots, if they are obviously separate plants then separate them, plant 3 or 4 in each container and they should romp away. You can do the same with strawberry plants from the garden centre. You could equally well use grow bags but personally I think that containers are more forgiving than grow bags so easier for a novice to manage.

It will be a few weeks yet till beans, tomatoes and especially courgettes can go outside so you have plenty of time to get your head around what you need, and in the meantime you'll have fresh herbs and lettuce to be going on with. Enjoy!

Really? I’ve got about a dozen, and that gives the two of us a bowl each every day for the season. My largest gave me so many fruit last year that I counted them, it was certainly many dozens.

That's amazing. I've never had much success.

I grow dwarf French beans in pots and love them freshly picked. Just plant a few seeds every week for a succession of beans. I put the pot in a clear plastic bag until the plants start to emerge.
i grew a pot of peas one year and my grandchildren spent a long time happily picking the pods and eating raw peas.

I started growing things during the first lockdown when I had to work from home. I bought a kind of plastic greenhouse that's big enough to walk into and zip up.
Salad leaves are the easiest thing to grow! Last year I grew lots of tomato plants from seeds. Had so many! Also, I grew cucumbers for the first time (outside in grow bags) and they were really successful!
I grew lots of flowers too. Just follow the instructions on the back of the seed packets, or you can buy plants that have already been established but they're more expensive than growing from seeds.
Good luck! I haven't started any planting this year yet because I've been crazy busy but I need to start soon!

My tomatoes reseed themselves every year!

You say your garden is north facing... is it all in shade, or is there a sunny bit you can grow in?

A few years ago I was a beginner gardener and still have LOADS to learn but I've really enjoyed particularly growing tomatoes.

If you want to start small, get yourself a couple of tomato kits (lots of supermarkets now have them). Start growing them now but they'll need to be kept indoors for a few more weeks yet. Once it's not terribly freezing at night, they can grow outdoors though I keep them in one of those little pop up greenhouses until it's really sunny.

When it's warmer, you can remove the green house but once they start to grow you'll need sticks or cages to cable tie them to so they can grow upwards. It's great fun to be able to grow your own!!

There is a sunny bit, about half the garden was in sun this morning

Shade is the perfect spot to grow salad leaves.

I recommend YouTube videos to help you get started. GrowVeg, Emma's Allotment Diaries and the Grapevine Garden are all really good. And In the Garden with Eli and Kate is fantastic. Eli is so good at explaining things and their garden is reassuringly normal looking (not acres and acres it's very relatable as a normal suburban house garden).

Steve's seaside kitchen garden and Allotment channel is great but he is a bit of a genius with boundless energy so don't let it intimidate you. He is very prolific though so you will find a video on whatever you're growing and he makes a tonne of stuff available for free on his website.

There are a number of good groups on FB. Try the allotment ones, there are often experienced gardeners happy to give advise

Raspberries, blueberries, blackcurrants, strawberries, peas and tomatoes can all be grown in containers and this moved to where the sun is over the season.

There are lots of windowsill propergators that at fab for starting off seeds before planting out - currently I've got tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, cabbages, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, celery and spinach seedlings in various stages - first propagate, then according to when is good, then pots, I'll be transporting them into my little.pop up greenhouse for a few days before planting out (you can Google when to plant out various things and make a list for each month).

I've also sown onions, lettuce and peas outside already...

I've bought some copper tape which reportedly keeps the slugs and snails away and used a kids build a fort kit to make a structure for netting over.

I've found this book really helpful too. www.wob.com/en-gb/books/ian-spence/rhs-gardening-through-the-year/9780241315613?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=18124555096&cq_con=&cq_med=pla&cq_plac=&cq_net=x&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwnv-vBhBdEiwABCYQA8N2SeVnFMubkerHK-gs9DHIYTucHGydk7s6F2psVDJgi4847BnVABoCmZMQAvD_BwE#GOR009537282