Can I grow any vegetables cheaply and with low effort at the moment?

[TheProvincialLady]

I have the following ingredients:

1. A small garden with no space to plant anything out but plenty of paving, some in deep shade, some in full sun
2. A bag of compost - I think it is meant for new plants as I bought it for some plants I bought that died because I never got round to planting them
3. A toddler
4. Not much energy, due to (3) and also I am pg
5. Some containers, not many and not any big ones
6. Two of those propagator box thingies but no sunny windowsill to put it on

We have a Homebase nearby but no car so it is our only (expensive) option for seeds etc, and I don't want to buy anything else if I can help it as the object is to save some money on veg if possible.

Is there anything I can do with the above? We like all vegetables. I would love to grow something this year - all advice welcome. Oh, and I should probably add that I am a really, really rubbish gardener and it would need to be about as easy as you can get.

Salad, rocket, mizuna, lollo rosso,

radishes, spring onions.

All easy and pretty effort free once set up.

Most seeds are 99p a packet. If you need freebies, try joining yahoo groups, freecycle for your area and ask for some seeds or small plants you could pot on.

Get some mixed salad seeds planted, we got a bag of compost and a packet of seeds on the basis that one of those pre-packed salad bags is £1.50 so if we have 3 meals out of it we're quids in! I'm planting little containers with seeds every six weeks so we don't run out, and the leaves are delicious and fresh

We've also got a bucket full of carrot seedlings just now, and you can get all sorts of herbs and chives planted in your propogators.

IARCFB - where did you buy your seeds from? Did you just whack them in the soil and they grew? Sorry if that sounds stupid but am completely clueless!

Thanks for the advice everyone. I will go to Homebase for salad leaves on Tuesday and if I definitely get them planted then I will go for the spring onions and radishes. I've already got a (feeble and not very appetising looking) herb garden with chives, mint and lemon verbena.

With the salad, do I water every day? A lot? Do I put the pots in the sun or the shade, and how can I protect from slugs/snails? I was thinking about putting the pots on bricks but that is probably a rubbish plan.

I got a pack of seeds for around a quid from the local ironmonger/hardware shop, and a bag of multi-purpose compost. I already had some plastic troughs. I just dumped the compost in and slung in the seeds, scattered a fine layer of compost on top and watered well. Keep the tubs moist and they'll sprout within a couple of weeks. The packets usually have directions on them anyway. Good luck!

Thanks - I am going to need it, my house and garden being the place where plants go to die.

If you have a slug problem, we have found that they are less partial to red leaves than green (our red oak leaf lettuce never gets munched) and also to stronger tasting leaves like rocket and mustard. Little gems dissapeared overnight!

Most things like the sun, although I have noticed that chives are fairly shade tolerant and my spuds don't seem to object too much either. Tomatoes need lots of sun.

No need to water everyday, just make sure that the soil stays damp and if anything shows signs of wilting, water.

That's a good tip re the slugs, thanks. Luckily we are more partial to the stronger tasting leaves so that should suit us.

Our chives are planted in deep shade and have come back again this year, which I hold to be an enormous success - not just for the fact that they grow in deep shade, but that they are prepared to give it another go in our garden!

in the sun usually for growing veg, although you can grow some salad leaves in shade. what size are your containers, compared say to buckets?

have you any smaller garden shop near you? they usually have small veg plants, a courgette might be worthwhile and some tomatoes. or a local plant sale, fete..? just i have found homebase and similar not to be very useful for this sort of thing.

Car boots often have some trays of veg plants, or your local market. Last year when DD was still tiny I did not sow anything really, I just bought 50p mini plants and grew them on.

You could grow dwarf french beans in tubs. If very small just pop in 2 seeds per tub and see what grows, they like the Sun and water every day (unless it rains).

I have also just planted some Squash seeds. I made Butternut quash risotto for DD and shoved 2 seeds in a pot - they have 4 leaves already and have only been in a week. Just put the pot on a windowsill until they are a few inches high then plant out. You might need to buy a growbag but you can pick them up for 99P in tesco/wilkinsons etc. Good for toms as well, you should be able to get free plants off freecycle.

Lidl sell cheap seeds - about 3o - 50 p

If you can get some sharp sand or some small sharp stones then put those around the bottom of your pots as slugs hate slithering over things that hurr their soft bodies.

You can also buy insect barrier glue which you apply in a band around the pot, it keeps slugs away too.

The problem I have is not owning a car, which makes buying garden things from anywhere other than Homebase, which is a 20 minute walk away, a real pain. Homebase is really rubbish and overpriced but it's the best I have for the time being. I hope they sell that insect barrier glue, that sounds v handy.

I am really keen on the idea of butternut squah but don't they grow huge? I had a few pumkins once and they needed a lot of space.

You can order the glue online here. They don't specify it as a slug repellant, but I used it on my pots of hostas which is a slugs favourite food and they haven't had any slug damage. Except for once when a leaf got so large it dragged on the ground and it was munched to bits.

Yes Squash grow huge

But they only need a gowbag of soil, you can step over the leaves The DC will love them. If you position it right you could get it to grow along the bottom of a wall or fence maybe?