Help for a newbie please

[foxie]

Hi all

Im new to growing my own, well i say new i grew some salad stuffs in pots last year but thats all, id like to know how to start growing in my garden.

ive got a south facing garden and all but one side has sun most of the day, the other side gets it at tea time when its cooler, could you please advice which is best veg to grow in a sunny position im thinking of having raised beds all along one side and id like to grow , pots, turnip,carrots,lettuce, chives and broccolli to start with will these grow well where i intend to put them ?

id appreciate any advice you could give me thanks very much .foxie

[sewer rat]

Hi Foxie and welcome to the 'Vine
Luck you having a south facing garden which basks in the sun all day - this means you can grow whatever you want basically.
I think the easiest way to give you advice on the crops you wanna grow and the use of raised beds is to advise you to enter "raised beds" or the name of the crop you wanna know about, into the forum search tool at the top of the page, have a look at what comes up and come back to us with any specific questions - can guarantee you'll find someone on the 'Vine who can help.
Not sure if you need to grow chives in a bed - a large-ish pot would do.
If you are thinking of buying a book about growing veg, the members of this site seem to recommend two in particular - Joy Larkom's "Grow Your Own Vegetables" and Hessayon's "The Vegetable and Herb Expert" - one of the "expert" series.
Cheers for now

[nick the grief]

Hi Foxie,

Anything will grow on your main bits in full sun & the shadier border will be OK for Lettuce & the like, they tend to wilt a bit in the heat.

Most of what you list will be ok in raised beds as a lot of the grapes will tell you. Just dig it over well especially for the carrots as they like a nice deep soil.

[foxie]

thanks



Hi sewer rat,
thanks for the advice, theres so much to learn i didnt know where to start, lucky having the south facing window i suppose that makes it a bit easier for me

ill have a look out for those books, ive just planted some herbs a few days ago, ive just taken them out of the airing cupboard they seem to be doing ok all ready i wonder how long it will take for me to kill em

foxie

[foxie]

hi ntg,

thanks for that, is there any particular carrot you would recommend? im thinking i might try peppers aswell but forgot to mention them in my first thread, where would they grow best? thanks

foxie

[Shortie]

Anything will grow on your main bits in full sun .

ntg, did you quite mean that?

Welcome Foxie.
I've never had luck with peppers, cayenne or bell, but my boss swears by growing them on the kitchen window sill so that's where I'm trying them this year (I don't have a greenhouse)

[bramble]

Hi Foxy,
Welcome to the vine. If you're thinking of grow3ing peppers you would be best to grow them in pots. Perhaps you can put them along your south facing wall as they like a warm sheltered position.
Good Luck.

[Lesley Jay]

Hi Foxie welcome to the grapevine. A good carrot variety is Flyaway. I get mine from www.thompson-morgan.com They normally have an offer buy Flyaway and Resistafly together for a special reduced price.

[smallblueplanet]

Hi Foxie, when we first started growing veg (and even now) we found Pippa Greenwoods 'Pippa's Organic Kitchen Garden' (Dorling Kindersley) very useful, quite concise but straightforward. A good starting point.

Organic kitchen garden

Not sure why the 2nd reviewer doesn't like it, as it is a good book for beginners from first principles. But it also talks about which varieties of crop to buy and how each is grown.

Anyway my suggestion would be decide what veggies/fruit you enjoy eating and grow that (seems obvious but you can get carried away trying to grow bits of everything!). After you've decided what next plan a 'crop rotation' for the area you are going to use to grow the veggies in. Then grow 'em!

[SueA]

Hi Foxie,
I don't know if it's still in print but I have a useful book called Gardeners' World 'Vegetables For Small Gardens' by Linda Brown published by BBC books which covers growing veg. in raised beds, in the ground & in pots with methods & recommended varieties. I'm lucky enough to an almost South facing garden too & grow in a raised veg. bed & lots of pots, the only thing you have to remember is to keep an eye on watering as things dry out fairly quickly.Good luck.

[Alice]

Hello Foxy and welcome to the Vine. I too have a lovely sunny south facing garden. You'll be able to grow all the things you mentioned there. If you're a real novice I would say to you remember not to water anything while the sun is blazing on it. It scorches all the leaves. Happy gardening.

[nick the grief]

ntg, did you quite mean that?

I was looking at some dodgy website LJ had reommended

Peppers will grow in the garden but they like it really hot (I was going to say hot & sticky, but you lot are as bad as me now). What you can do is make a cloche out of some thin blue Alkathene piping (the sort the use for water) about 2' diameter & cover it with clear polythene but leave the ends open. then plant you peppers in there. It will be nice & cosy for them & you'll get good ventilation thru the open ends.

As to Carrots, Flyaway is a good one, I like Chantenay Red core they are a bit thicker & shorter than some of the others but nice flavour. If you want to extend the growing season a tad you can grow any of the early carrots that ar quick maturing as a late crop under the cloche, but cover the ends up to keep the warmth in later on. then you can doo the same in the early spring as well to get them earlier.

I think Rat recommended the Joy Larkin book & the Garden Expert one they are both excellent & my copies are well used now.

If you fancy having a go at something, get teh seeds And have a go. It's great fun.

[Lesley Jay]

Oh Nick! You are going to get me a bad reputation!!

[sewer rat]

LJ
Don't understand why you are using the future tense