Getting started with veg

There are lots of advantages in growing your own vegetables; and we all have our reasons. I don’t have enough room to grow everything I need but my raised beds allow me to grow a fair amount and I have a poly tunnel that allows me to grow crops that might struggle outside and to extend the growing season so I can have early and late crops. By growing my own I can be sure the crops have not been treated with chemicals and they are fresh. I can also grow crops that are expensive to buy in the shops such as yellow courgettes. I do not grow my own primarily to save money.

This may be surprising but, when you add up all the costs you will not always save money, though you will with some crops. But there will always be the satisfaction of picking your own.

This week I will consider the best ways to start your veg plot and go into more detail next week. With our household budgets being squeezed there has never been a better time to start your grow-your-own journey.

peas growing in a pot

Various vegetables have different needs and it is unlikely that you will succeed with them all. And they may need more care than you expect so begin with just a few. I would recommend that you begin with those you like the most. Beetroot is easy to grow but if you won’t eat it then there is no sense in growing it!

Having said that, I would suggest that the best to start with are: courgettes, onions (from sets), early potatoes, French beans, salad leaves and leaf beet.

If you have a garden then select an area in full to grow your veg. It is fashionable to make raised beds and I have done this in my own garden. But you don’t need them. Just choose a good bit of soil, get rid of perennial weeds and you can soon start sowing. Raised beds allow for better drainage and deeper soil – useful if your soil is not good. Beds 15cm deep are fine. You can also put the raised beds on concrete or tarmac but it is an advantage if these are slightly deeper. You can also grow veg in pots and growing bags but all these need more careful and regular watering.

If you make raised beds you will have to fill them with compost. Multipurpose compost is fine for pots and for quick-growing crops but it is better to fill raised beds with topsoil if you can arrange it – it will save a lot of problems later.

The trickiest bit of growing your own is knowing how many plants to grow. Remember that one radish plant will produce one radish but one bean plant will produce many beans. You will also have to eat seasonably, which is no bad thing, because most plants have a small window of harvest. Tomatoes are an exception, which is why we all love to grow them. I always grow a few cauliflowers but they are all ready at once so I try to never grow more than six at a time. I like cauliflower cheese but not every night for a week.

I always grow sweetcorn too because I love to eat it raw off the plants but it is a space-hungry plant and each plant only produces one or two cobs.

baby-leaf kale in growing bags

Before you start you will need a few basics. Apart from the tools – which include a spade, trowel and rake – you will need the seeds, some fertiliser and some form of slug control. To protect the plants from others problems some fleece or protection mesh is handy – to prevent caterpillars and carrot fly. If you are growing in pots get some multipurpose compost or some growing bags.

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