Easy veg to grow?

[GreyishDays]

I have some normal slightly sprouty potatoes that I’m aiming to plant.

We’ve grown carrots before which have been variable (0 one year)

Anything else easy? Have no greenhouse but could start things off in the house for a bit I suppose.

Oh, and thank you to those who said nice things about my garden.

If you are new to gardening, it really does sooth the soul. There is nothing like planting a seed and seeing it grow (other than having baby of course!). And there really is something about putting your hand into the soil and making a connection with the earth.

I hope that more people turn to this in these turbulent times.

As I seem to be on a roll, you might like the last tweet of Leonard Nimoy (Spock from Star Trek) - "A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory".

OverTheRainbowLiesOz and everyone else, thanks for your advice. We definitely need to use this as a support group.

I am going to utilize old bird seed bags as grow bags - they are good size and I can easily cut holes near the bottom. Before this thread, I hadn't even considered the need for holes .

Something to be careful of - once your seedlings are popping their heads up, water them with tepid water, rather than cold water. Windowsills are okay, but ensure they aren’t in a draft. Don’t plant them outside until all risk of frost has passed.

I am going to utilize old bird seed bags as grow bags - they are good size and I can easily cut holes near the bottom. Before this thread, I hadn't even considered the need for holes blush.

Perfect. I'm a complete amateur and that was my first year of growing. Providing you read up on your crop it will be fine. Main thing to watch out for is frost. You must cover plants with garden fleece at night to begin with until all danger of frost is gone.

Or if you don't have garden fleece anything waterproof will do. I've used my picnic blankets a lot!

I've cleared a small patch of the front garden. DD Insisted on planting sunflowers so we have those at each end. Any recommendations as to what else I could plant? I would love some food and herbs.

Tomatoes (with tomato supports) would be easy at the back (by the wall) if it gets lots of sun.

Ooh that sounds good! Any particular type?

Last year I grew three types of tomatoes - Tigerella, Sweetie and Yellow Pear varieties. They were all really easy.

And I got so many tomatoes that I'm still finishing frozen tomato soup I made with the tomato glut in August. From about 14 plants.

This is such a useful thread! Thanks everyone!

I'm in Chicago so we have a hotter, shorter growing season. Last year was my first year with an allotment so I stuck to the basics - green beans, kale and red peppers. So satisfying. I also tried peas but I think it was too hot and a rabbit kept eating them. This year I'll be adding butternut squash and some beetroot.

Sorry that's probably not useful but I love allotment chat!

Fedupandpoor - we really need to know whether that’s a sunny spot or not to advise you what to plant there. Is it fairly sunny?

@Fallen Thank you for the link. I will check them out. With eBay I don’t know any trusted suppliers - do you have any recommendations? I am now trying to find a best spot to grow the veggies but because it’s a north facing garden I am struggling..The front garden has lot of sun but I think it will be weird to have a veg patch there .. If I have to look for sunny areas in the north facing garden - which place do you think should I prefer? The place where midday sunlight is or the place where morning/evening sunlight is ..

@FallenMadonnawiththeBadBoobies It's quite sunny yes, I've just used the compass on my phone and it's south west facing. I'm in Devon so it's been very wet here.

Any tips on sowing and growing perpetual spinach? My seeds have arrived today, think I’ll head outside with the kids and sow them. They will be going directly into a raised bed

They grow like weeds @Waitasecond. Just follow the instructions on the packet.

If you want to grow veg in the front garden, grow things that are pretty, runner beans have pretty flowers, herbs like bronze fennel are decorative at the back of a border, nasturtiums and rainbow chard look colourful etc.

If your garden is north facing, your season will be later and shorter.

I grow carrots very successfully my method is very large pots 1/2 filled with garden compost top half 50/50 compost and builders sand well mixed. Sprinkle seeds in closeish rows cover with more 50/50 mix. Wait til you can't see the earth for the greenery and then carefully start pulling up the congested ones. I plant 3 pots in 2 week intervals and am swamped with practically perfect carrots which cost 30p a bag in the shops but mine taste better

I have a small yard with lots of snails. I am going to try and grow a little bit in pots. I may or may not dig some of the yard up. I have successfully grown salad leaves, herbs, carrots and chilli in the past.

Luckily I live right next to an allotment and I have a lot of things I might be able to trade with the allotment growers. This seems like a more realistic approach than trying to grow all my veg myself.

Trading is a great plan you alwats get a glut of something

Broad beans are easy - put beans in ground. Later, beans grow. No effort required from grower. You can take the tops off the prevent back fly but in my lazy gardener experience this is strictly optional.

My gardening book suggests focussing on things that 1. you like to eat, 2. get max pay off for less effort and 3. are not widely available in the shops for less effort than it takes you to grow them.

OK, parameter 3 may have changed right now but my experience of growing cabbages was that they were hard work and despite my best efforts, I mainly created a butterfly sanctuary and not many cabbages. Meanwhile many many nice and cheap cabbages were available daily in Lidl.

My row of cut and come again salad however paid off over and over as salad bags are expensive.

Only grow one courgette plant. They is a limit to how many courgettes one human being can eat.

This might to be a silly question but please keep in mind that I've never grown anything before, not even herbs in pots on the windowsill. I live in a city and have never really thought about this sort of thing!

If I buy grow bags, soil, and seeds, is that all I need to get started? I'd like to try growing potatoes (using sprouted ones), courgettes and spinach, and have a small garden I can put the bags in. I can find information online about when to plant things, and spacing/thinning out (although I'm a bit worried that at first I won't be able to distinguish my baby plants from the random weeds that are likely to pop up too!) but I feel like I need 'gardening for dummies' advice - are extra fertiliser or 'plant food' type products necessary, or anything to deal with garden pests?

Thanks for all the advice on here, it is really appreciated.

I have sown/planted quite a few seeds. As a complete novice, I can report that tomatoes and courgettes popped their heads up quickly, as did the cauliflowers - literally within a matter of days on a sunny south-facing windowsill. The aubergines are coming along but no sign yet of the peppers, and the new potatoes (seed potatoes) went in today. I live by the beach and have put vraic (seaweed) on them, it is used as a fertilizer.

As for snails, I have bought copper tape which, according to google, is a harmless but effective at keeping snails and slugs from plants.

How big an area and how many plants/what would you need to grow to be as self sufficient in salad/veg as you could be? I understand the hunger gap in spring, but a lot of root vegetables you can store?