Help!! Newbie

[Tomwhite87]

Hi Everyone!

I've just acquired an allotment and completely new to this exciting world of growing your own fruit and veggies!
So many websites say when I can start to grow fruit and veggies, all say different times! Can someone please tell me when the best time to plant the following please:
* potatoes
* onions
* spring onions
* garlic
* spinach
* rocket
* lettuce
* strawberries
* sweetcorn

Many thanks!

P.S I live in south England

Tom:confused

[veggiechicken]

Hi Tom and welcome
You'll get lots of different answers on here too! Many of the veg you list can be started over a number of months - so there may not be a Best Date, just whatever suits you and the weather where you live.

Lots of advice about different veg on How To Grow Vegetables & Fruit | Growing Guides & Tips | Grow Your Own Magazine

[Tomwhite87]

Hi Tom and welcome
You'll get lots of different answers on here too! Many of the veg you list can be started over a number of months - so there may not be a Best Date, just whatever suits you and the weather where you live.

Lots of advice about different veg on How To Grow Vegetables & Fruit | Growing Guides & Tips | Grow Your Own Magazine

Thank you!!!! Will look at the post! So much I need to learn! :-)

[veggiechicken]

Are you ready to plant anything now?
We could suggest things to get you going!
Rocket, spinach, lettuce should be OK and they're fast growing too. You'll have something to eat in a month or so

[damian1225]

Radish are also fast growing and really easy, even I grew and ate some successfuly

[Jay-ell]

Hi Tom and welcome to the vine.

Seed packets will say the months you can sow the seeds on the back of the packet (usually). You'll often find some can be planted outside of these times depending on you own little microclimate (something you'll learn as you go on with your plot)

• potatoes - usually sown early in the year around March - especially for main crop. 1st earlies sown in August in a greenhouse may be ready for Christmas
• onions - Onions can be grown from seed or sets. For maincrop seed is sown indoors in January as it takes ages to grow into decent sized bulbs. Sets are usually planted in March/April and they are harvested in July/August. Overwintering onions can have seed sown in August, with sets being planted in Octoberish. These are ready around June/July.
• spring onions - can be sown most months up to September.
• garlic - usually sown in autumn as they need some cold weather to split, although some types are sown in February
• strawberries - runners can be planted in autumn or spring

[damian1225]

I was late putting my garlic in, went in the end of april lol, still starting to bulb up.. had a little scrat around yesterday and although small its looking ok.. give it a few months and I might just be lucky *fingers crossed*

[Tomwhite87]

Are you ready to plant anything now?
We could suggest things to get you going!
Rocket, spinach, lettuce should be OK and they're fast growing too. You'll have something to eat in a month or so

Almost! Just finished weeding and digging everything up! Just built my first raised bed then hopefully get things going!

[Tomwhite87]

Hi Tom and welcome to the vine.

Seed packets will say the months you can sow the seeds on the back of the packet (usually). You'll often find some can be planted outside of these times depending on you own little microclimate (something you'll learn as you go on with your plot)

• potatoes - usually sown early in the year around March - especially for main crop. 1st earlies sown in August in a greenhouse may be ready for Christmas
• onions - Onions can be grown from seed or sets. For maincrop seed is sown indoors in January as it takes ages to grow into decent sized bulbs. Sets are usually planted in March/April and they are harvested in July/August. Overwintering onions can have seed sown in August, with sets being planted in Octoberish. These are ready around June/July.
• spring onions - can be sown most months up to September.
• garlic - usually sown in autumn as they need some cold weather to split, although some types are sown in February
• strawberries - runners can be planted in autumn or spring

This is perfect info thank you! I have so much to learn but excited to get started. I will be using raised beds on my plot. Just curious but would a 50/50 mix of compost and top soil do?

[damian1225]

To begin with yes, you can always add too it and improve on it over time, the end of each year you can add spent compost as soil improver, also add leaf mould or very well rotted horse muck etc.. your soil is something you should always be looking after and you cant do it all at once really.. its a slow and gradual improvement over a few years but it pays dividends when you see the size/amount of your crops improving over time

[Tomwhite87]

To begin with yes, you can always add too it and improve on it over time, the end of each year you can add spent compost as soil improver, also add leaf mould or very well rotted horse muck etc.. your soil is something you should always be looking after and you cant do it all at once really.. its a slow and gradual improvement over a few years but it pays dividends when you see the size/amount of your crops improving over time

Brilliant thank you. I know I'm probably asking silly questions lol but once the soil is in can I sow straight away or does the soil need time to set etc?

[damian1225]

No you can just bang it all in and get started, just try and enjoy it to begin with, just put things in and google/youtube how to look after it and you will soon get an idea of what to do, then everyone will tell you "the best way" and you can then try a few that seem to make sense and see what works for you with your plot and your soil, everone has different results its just a case of trial and error if something flops dramatically you try a new approach the next year lol

[Jay-ell]

If you have beds ready but aren't planning to use just yet you can sow a green manure. Green manures act as a ground cover suppressing weeds and put on bulk that can be dug in, chop & dropped or composted. They also soak up nutrients and prevent them from being washed out. If grown overwinter they can help protect the soil. Some can help fix nitrogen, release nutrients from the mineral components of soil or bio-fumigate the soil.

Buckwheat, for example, if sowed now would be ready to cut down end of august. After being dug in the soil would be in better condition because the roots would have helped improve it and the top growth will rot down and add organic matter. The bed would be ready to plant out after a couple of weeks just in time for overwintering onions and garlic. It can also release phosphates from rock particles.