Hi all new to this and it's my 1st year of gardening.

[Luke6]

I'm currently Making a raised bed at the moment and thinking of growing carrots,onions and potatoes. Any advice would be great. Thanks in advance


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[PyreneesPlot]

Hello Luke and welcome to the Vine.
Grow what you like to eat and what costs a bomb to buy or is best eaten really, really fresh

[Florence Fennel]

Hello and a very warm welcome to the Vine If you look around the threads Luke, you'll find all you need to know, or post a specific question and we'll all help.

[Kristen]

thinking of growing carrots

best on light, sandy, stone-free soil. If you've not got that then might be worth saying what you have got for suggestions (probably conflicting advice!!)

Onions and Spuds less fussy. Main Crop potatoes cheap as chips (Sorry!) in the shops, so not ideal as a first crop for newbie - lot of area taken up for a low value crop - but its a good crop for cleaning the ground, e.g. on a newly cleared allotment. Main Crop varieties, maturing later in the year, prone to catch Blight, which can wipe out your crop over night.

Early Potatoes, on the other hand, expensive in shops and taste fantastic freshly harvested (Sugar starts turning to Starch upon harvest, so harvest, cook and eat promptly knocks spots off the couple of days it takes Supermarkets to get them from Farm to your shopping basket. Only problem with Early Potatoes is the risk of a late frost - the stems and leaves need covering (typically by earthing up and covering them with soil) when frost threatens, or putting Horticultural Fleece over them on chilly nights. I grow the earliest ones in containers in my greenhouse to avoid having to go out with a torch at night trying to put fleece over them when I take the dogs out for their her final pee before bedtime and discover its a lot colder out than I was expecting!

[Tripmeup]

Hello and welcome!

[Jeanied]

Welcome to the vine Luke.

[Bren In Pots]

Hello and welcome to the vine Luke, I'm not to far away from you here in NE Derbyshire

[Verinda]

Hello, welcome to the forum

[mothhawk]

Hello and welcome, Luke. You can't do better than follow PyreneesPlots's advice, especially if growing space is limited. If you like them, French beans are easy to grow and quick to mature (seed to bean in 12 weeks), and give a good yield per plant - I grow them because I like to have at least one crop that is pretty much guaranteed not to fail

[KittyColdNose]

Hello and welcome to the vine.

[Glutton4...]

Hello, and welcome to the Madhouse!

[out in the cold]

Hi and welcome.

Carrots like poor soil, so don't be tempted to plant where you have just dug in a fertiliser. We did that in first year and got lovely rude shaped, comedy carrots. They tasted fine, but we're forked all over the shop.

Good luck.