Hi all, I'm a total, utter beginner to all this...

[headshot_harry]

Hi there, as title says, total newbie to attempting to grow some of our own veg.

We have a small back garden, and in an attempt to bring the garden back to some of it's former glory we've spend the weekend weeding and hacking back some of the overgrown stuff from the borders that works its way round the edge of the lawn.

In one of the more bare areas of the border we decided to s*d it and stop battling with the millions of roots just below the surface, so we built a small raised bed, about 40 cm tall, 70cm deep and about 1.5 to 2m in length with some of the spare left over decking materials, and now we are looking for some advice on what to start growing in there. I'd say the raised bed spends half the day in shade and half in full sunshine... UK sunshine that is!!!

The soil is a mix of basic topsoil (purchased from a local garden centre) and some all purpose compost (mostly topsoil though).

Whist realising it is probably way to late in the year now to actually get something planted and grown, we'd like to at least plan to grow some of the basics (potatoes, lettuce, broccoli, carrots, onions etc)

Is there anything I can think about planting this week that might have a chance of harvesting this year?

We're not looking to be totally sustainable or anything like that (yet lol) but having never grown anything other than a geranium before we both like the idea of having this small patch and at least getting something out of it ourselves :-)

Thank you in advance for any advice...

[roitelet]

Hi and welcome to the Vine. You will get loads of good advice here from very friendly and helpful people.

For a start you could try some quick maturing crops like lettuce and radish at once.

[headshot_harry]

Thank you for that, I'll try sowing some lettuce this week and see if I can get something harvested by the end of summer :-)

[veggiechicken]

Hi Harry and welcome from me too! I grow mixed salad leaves and rocket. Quick, cheap and cheerful - and immensely satisfying in a salad!!

[hamamelis]

Quite a few of the fast growing crops would still be fine to plant- you could try some of the quick growing carrots, kohl rabi, and quite a few of the salad crops.

I'd look at getting some overwintering plants as well, it's about the right time to plant some spring cabbage seeds, and you can get plug plants for things like leeks and sprouting broccolli from garden centres now- they're slow growing, so you won't get to eat them for a while, but growing your own is all about thinking ahead!

Anyway, welcome to the vine, and enjoy!

[alldigging]

Rocket (touch wood) seems immune to slugs so is a good safe bet as well as lettuce, radishes, beetroot.

See what plants the local garden centre has at the moment.

[rustylady]

Hi Harry, welcome to the Vine. As the others have said really, and I managed to get some cabbage and leek plug plants at the local car boot sale yesterday cos the snails have eaten all mine.

By the way, could you add your location to your profile please - then it will show up on your posts and save us having to keep asking whereabouts you are. You can see from my post that I'm in Lowestoft.

[headshot_harry]

Thank you all, one thing I've noticed in our garden, we seem to have a LOT of slugs, snails etc. Not so sure what to do about them when it comes to growing things to eat!!

Also, been having a browse through the tutorial section (awesome by the way!!) seems I'm not to late to pop in some potatoes. Would my 30-40cm raised bed be suitable for these? Or should I build something separate and a bit taller? (not only do I love potatoes, I'm also looking for an excuse to build something else lol)

If I went out and bought "seed potatoes" can I just put them in the ground now, or do I need to let them sprout first (and risk running out of time?)

Apologies for the newbie questions, sometimes its nice getting answers from people that have been there and done it before :-)

[Potstubsdustbins]

I honestly think your'e a bit late for spuds unlees you plan to have them for Christmas. If thats the case you will need to protect them from frosts. Many people use the black Morrisons flower buckets to grow spuds in and with these you could move them somewhere suitable during bad weather.

You will have to do something about your snail/slug population or you will be growing to feed them. If you look in general chat you will find a thread entitled 'snugs' loads of info there.

And welcome to the madhouse.

Colin

[Peas'n'Kews]

Hi Harry, and a warm Vine welcome to you!

All the things I would've suggested growing have already been suggested. However you can think about overwintering Broad Beans (Aqua Dulce are a good variety to start this year, you still won't harvest until next sping though). you can also grow lettuce all winter - Winter Little Gem is a good choice, but doesn;t provide food till next year. Some salad leaf types survive and produce all winter - lambs lettuce for instance.

Pop down to your local £1 shop and pick up a few plastic cloche-style poly tunnels - ideal for keeping your overwintering plantlets dry and unsquashed by snow....

And enjoy!

[headshot_harry]

Thank you to all for your help and suggestions - can't wait to get cracking now - only issue I see is that I've blatantly not got enough space for all the things I want to try :-)

I'll put up some photo's of the plot once I get a chance.

Thanks once again to all - nice to meet you.

[headshot_harry]

One other quick thing, the soil mix was mostly topsoil bought from a landscaping company and a couple of bags of multi-purpose compost chucked in for good measure... should that be ok to get me started?

[lottie dolly]

Hello and welcome,save a bit of space for some sensui overwintering onions,nice to have something to watch growing in the spring,for next year,you could grow things like beans,cue's,toms,salad leaves,carrots and more, in flower buckets,a lot of shops give them away,like asda,some peeps grow taller things in among the flower boarder,as you browes away over the next few months,all sorts of ideas will loom at you,you will find yourself,looking at skips,freecyle ext,and saving your loo roll middles and such like,no question is daft or extreme just ask away and enjoy yourself,

[veggiechicken]

One other quick thing, the soil mix was mostly topsoil bought from a landscaping company and a couple of bags of multi-purpose compost chucked in for good measure... should that be ok to get me started?

Should be fine Harry - better than most of us start with!!

[Bren In Pots]

Hello and welcome to the vine Harry