Help needed.

[LWF2011]

Right here's the score, I've recently moved into a house with a garden and although it's not massive I'm wanting to grow some veg, fruit and herbs.

I'm new to all this and there's so many books, websites and magazines it's mind blowing so if people have any easy straight forward advice for me it would be much appreciated.

I basically have a 5 tier greenhouse one of the Gardman ones, a potato barrel and limited space in the garden as my partner puts plants and what not in the borders, the lawn can obviously not be touched.

I know how to do strawberry's in the tumbler and the potatoes in the barrel but I'm wanting to do herbs or maybe even veg in my greenhouse so my question is what can I do and when can I do it ????

I have things in mind like mint, parsley, chives, chillies, peppers, majoram, thyme, rosemary and such like and already have the trays, little pots and everything to get started all I need is the seeds.

Also what veg and fruit if any can you grow in a greenhouse ???

[Florence Fennel]

Hello and welcome to the Vine. Whereabouts are you geographically please? That information in your status line will help people to advise you. Have you bought any seeds? There are good guidelines on the back as to how to grow them. My other suggestion is to take a good look around the Vine, where you can gather loads of useful information and advice and then you could post specific questions. Someone else will be along soon I'm sure to give you maybe more detailed advice.

[binley100]

Hi and welcome to the vine........Oh and wot she ^^^^ says

[LWF2011]

Hi, sorry about the location thing I didn't realise.

I'm located in Warrington which is in Cheshire (North West). I haven't yet bought any seeds yet as I'm still undecided, I know that herbs would be pretty straight forward but I was unsure if I could grow Veg in a greenhouse ???

[Bigmallly]

Veg would look great in the borders amongst the flowers.....................Oh and a big welcome to the vine from me. Do you have any spare bit of garden you can use.

[Scarlet]

What Fruit and veg do you like to eat? How big is your greenhouse? Chillies,Toms, peppers, cucumbers are an obvious choice for growing in a greenhouse, also courgettes but they do get large! How about carrots outside in pots?

[solway cropper]

Just about any veg can be grown in containers. You can start off things like lettuce, spring onions, french beans in the greenhouse and put them outside when the weather warms up. If you don't have a lot of space think about growing upwards as well as horizontally. Make a wigwam out of canes in a border and grow climbing/runner beans. Some of them have pretty flowers.

[Two_Sheds]

I was unsure if I could grow Veg in a greenhouse ???

You don't have a very big space - you need to consider the final size of any plant that you grow. eg a tomato plant can be 6' tall and 2' wide

Salads will use less space, you can grow cut & come again lettuce etc in fairly shallow trays

As the others have said, grow veg in containers if you don't want to dig up your lawn (yet )

[LWF2011]

In my mind I'm going to be growing potatoes in the barrel and carrots is a big pot, tomatoes in a tumbler, herbs are straight forward but I believe things like Radish, spring onions, garlic, chillies and peppers can be grown in pots and never need to be put in the borders. If I was to sow them and put them in a big enough pot that would be ok ???

I would be happy at gaining experience in growing the above before moving onto bigger things such as cucumbers, rhubarb and onions.

[becslb]

Fraid I would be digging up the lawn! Most things can be grown in pots, I did that for many years. Have a look on your library website for container gardening books - it could help you plan what to squeeze into the borders, the greenhouse & then in pots. All your mentioned veg can be grown in pots.

[taff]

rosemary can be grown in a border [it does better in the ground than in a pot as I found out ] and I'd reccomend buying a small plant or taking cutting for that rather than growing from seed, and thyme along the edges, chives too, lovely flowers on those
Definitely grow the mint in a pot or it'll take over, but you'll have to pull up and separate it once a year otherwise you'll end up with a pot full of roots and not much mint [again, as i found out ]
you can use your greenhouse to start all the seeds off in modules, and if you take two shelves out, leave the one under the apex and you can grow little bush chillies in there, like Prairie Fire, or Demon Red, and the peppers underneath. Make sure it's attached to something strongly, because they're a bit flimsy, tie the supports to a fence or something.
As everyones said above, you can grow climbing beans in the borders etc.
Although Alice wotsernames programme wasn't brilliant, The Edible Garden, if you can find it on the iplayer or somewhere else may give you and your partner an idea of how and what you can grow in your borders...