new to this

[spring in a leek.]

hi all, I'm new to this and will be looking on here for lots of advice, I'm starting a allotment group with clients with mental health problems etc and this will be great for them, so any good advice on what to grow easily and is cheap to start as funding isn't to good.
thank you so much.
north wales.

[veggiechicken]

Hello again and Croeso from Sunshiny South Wales
Gardening is wonderful therapy for everyone, whatever their needs.
How much garden do you have for your group? Maybe, if we have some ideas of what you have and your hopes, we could suggest ways for you to achieve them.

[Chris11]

Welcome Spring, and good luck with the allotment group. Sounds like a very worthwhile thing.

Look forward to hearing reports and updates from you

[Bren In Pots]

Hello and welcome to the vine Spring, have a read at this part of the forum you might find some good offers :-

Top Tips

[Baldy]

Welcome along - good luck with the group...

[Snoop Puss]

What a fantastic initiative, spring. Hope you all have lots of fun.

As for ideas, VC is right. How big is your plot and what kind of state is it in at the moment?

[Mr Bones]

Hiya Spring and welcome to the vine

[Cadalot]

Hi Spring - Go to B&Q and have a chat with the manager about your group, a few years ago they were helping local groups such as yours by giving them a £100 B&Q voucher that they could buy equipment or plants etc. to help get them going.

[Small pumpkin]

Welcome to the vine
Good luck with your group. Look forward to hearing more about it.

[Jay-ell]

Hello and welcome - sounds like a great project.
How large is the group and have any of the members experience growing anything?

Have you campfired ideas with the group - they might have good ideas about what they would like to grow.

[Jungle Jane]

Hello & welcome,things that you can sow direct like lettuce & peas are easy,nothing's really difficult but some plants can't tolerate the cold,like tomatoes & peppers,they would need starting off indoors on windowsills. Seed packets usually have all the info everyone would need,sowing times etc. Hope it all goes well!

[lolie]

Welcome.

I'd start off with low maintenance, fast growing stuff. Pretty much anything which turns up in gardening kits meant for kids tends to be fast growing. That should help keep people interested while you wait for other crops to mature.

I'd also plant lots of spuds. They're something which pretty much everyone uses and they're low effort.

You can almost certainly get people to donate seeds and cuttings. Where it might get expensive is if the soil on your plot isn't that great.

While some of the allotment holders on here are happy to wait a year to improve their soil with free stuff, you're going to want a plot you can use straight away so that interest doesn't wane.

There are lots of ideas on here about doing stuff cheaply or for free. For stuff which really requires money, you may find other community groups are able to donate small amounts if you can't get businesses to donate goods (in addition to approaching businesses directly, approach groups like Rotary which have a lot of business owners among their membership).

Also, think about pest control before you plant a thing (think about watering, too). If you're not on the site daily, things can get out of hand in between visits and you want to prevent that as much as possible.

[Lumpy]

Hello Springy and welcome to the Vine.

As the others have said if you let us have a bit more info I'm sure ideas and suggestions for your group will come flooding in.