vegetable patch

[sunshine185]

hi there,
i had our gardener dig up some of our turf at the end of our garden, rotovate and put some compost down for a small vegetable garden for my ds and i to do some planting.

does anyone have any suggestions for easy vegetables we can plant now (june) our garden is south west facing. i am a complete garden novice!

thanks! x

salad leaves.

fast and furious and hitting your table real soon.

Me too but I look at the packets. I've grown more unusal ones too like cotton and peppers kids love it!

Gardener's World Magazine say you can sow outside : Marrows, courgettes, squash, pumpkin, weetcorn, beetroot, carrots, peas, beans, turnip, cabbage, lettuce, spring onion, radishes, coriander, basil, parsley and chives.

bit late for most of those now tho... i think... when does it say to sow? can you do a late crop?

mind you, the dogs have dug up our beetroot, sweetcorn and cabbage, so the peas had better be good...

oh, and the 24 tomato plants that the dcs are growing...

if you can, I might have another go and fend the dogs off (sorry to hijack!)

I'd sow salad leaves from seed - Suttons do a 'speedy seeds' range with loads of different salad mixes (e.g. oriental mix, hot salad leaves and Italian). They are supposed to crop in three weeks. Sow a line every couple of weeks to keep you going (advice I always forget to follow and always regret). Radish are really easy and quick.

I'd then go your local garden centre and buy some young plants e.g. courgettes/squash/sweetcorn/tomatoes because it's getting a bit late in the season to grow the bigger plant from seed.

How big is your patch?

My elder son 4 has a couple of tomato plants and some strawberries. You can buy them from most supermarkets, greengrocers and DIY/ garden centers with small fruits on ready to plant out now. Radishes are good from seed because they grow quickly like wise cut and come again or baby leaf salads because they're fairly fool proof and quick.

Are you going to pellet or use slug traps?

I use cut in half 2litre plastic drink bottles around each little patch of seeds

It says they are all for sowing out in June, though does make the point that if you do them earlier than you will obviously get earlier crop.

I looked at some of the packets in the garden centre and they do say that you can put them outside in June. Got a packet of drawf french beans in front of me and it says that you can sow from mid April to the end of July, Coriander packet says sow from March to June so should be fine if you get on with it.

excellent, thanks so much for your replies and tips!!