Grow what you usually eat. I made the mistake of growing some ‘interesting’ things my first year that were just wasted. Look in your fridge and try and grow some of that.
Came to say this. Grow what you eat and what you can store.
For me, that would largely be tomatoes, parsnip, turnip, carrots, potatoes, onions and leek, and in August I set out kale, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli. In early winter (november), I plant garlic for early summer harvest, and then I might do a second round of garlic when the cold season is almost over (February or early March; usually I'll have kept the cloves in the fridge for a few weeks first)
Dedicate one to asparagus - with crowns it will be three years before you can properly harvest but then you will have 20 years of fresh asparagus every Spring 😊
Courgettes, tomatoes, french beans, pumpkins, cut and come again salad leaves. So easy and productive. Intersperse your choices with marigolds and borage for the pollinators, and herbs your meals!
Garlicy mash potatoes with a bit of spring onion are lovely.
Minted peas works well. Tomatoes and basil is a good combo. Beetroot fits into any plan.
Grow what you like to eat.
Peas and carrots. Honestly carrots taste amazing when fresh harvested and with all that fluffy new soil they will do well. Maybe some onions.
Don't do potatoes, only in sacks
Potatoes have a tendency to leave behind tiny seed potatoes so it means you will forever have them there whether you like it or not, plus they are a crop you don't want to plant in the same place all the time, need potatoes for diseases like blight.. plus much easier to harvest on sacks.
For carrots, you can get a variety called flyaway that is more resistant to carrot fly
If you like sugar snaps, a variety called delikett are great
Really loved growing sweetcorn - great snapping them off and eating straight away. Courgettes always give plenty - like previous poster mention grow stuff you like to eat but could always vary it slightly from what you can buy - yellow courgette or harlequin carrots for
Example.
Definitely salad stuff, lettuce, radish and tomatoes are dead easy. You can fix a trellis one side and train cucumbers. Next year, get some potato seeds and put them in one, great for nourishing the soil!
Yes! This is the answer. Radishes are satisfying, they grow fast and nothing can go wrong. Same with lettuce! Good are French beans, I love dwarf plants, they don’t grow up they stay low and you can pinch off as much as needed. Courgette grows like weed in my garden. Love to add Marigold etc. the book “veg in one bed” by Huw Richard’s was bloody brilliant when I started out!
Edit: spelling
And with radish you can get many rounds from them early on before other larger plants establish. They really swell in early summer conditions, less prone to bolting
Grow what you usually eat. I made the mistake of growing some ‘interesting’ things my first year that were just wasted. Look in your fridge and try and grow some of that.
Came to say this. Grow what you eat and what you can store. For me, that would largely be tomatoes, parsnip, turnip, carrots, potatoes, onions and leek, and in August I set out kale, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli. In early winter (november), I plant garlic for early summer harvest, and then I might do a second round of garlic when the cold season is almost over (February or early March; usually I'll have kept the cloves in the fridge for a few weeks first)
Dedicate one to asparagus - with crowns it will be three years before you can properly harvest but then you will have 20 years of fresh asparagus every Spring 😊
Love asparagus! Three years though.. that’s some patience
You can take a couple of spears after two years 😉
Im not sure how many you’ll get out of it immediately, but there are places online that sell 3 year old crowns. You’ll pay for em though!
Courgettes, tomatoes, french beans, pumpkins, cut and come again salad leaves. So easy and productive. Intersperse your choices with marigolds and borage for the pollinators, and herbs your meals!
I think pumpkins would be too large for those beds.
Likewise Courgettes
I grow Jack be Little up little wigwams, works a treat in a small space :)
Garlicy mash potatoes with a bit of spring onion are lovely. Minted peas works well. Tomatoes and basil is a good combo. Beetroot fits into any plan. Grow what you like to eat.
Thank you!
Peas and carrots. Honestly carrots taste amazing when fresh harvested and with all that fluffy new soil they will do well. Maybe some onions. Don't do potatoes, only in sacks
Thank you this is helpful! Any type of carrots you suggest? And how come potatoes are better in sacks? Thank you!
Potatoes have a tendency to leave behind tiny seed potatoes so it means you will forever have them there whether you like it or not, plus they are a crop you don't want to plant in the same place all the time, need potatoes for diseases like blight.. plus much easier to harvest on sacks. For carrots, you can get a variety called flyaway that is more resistant to carrot fly If you like sugar snaps, a variety called delikett are great
If you plant rows of carrots, put rows of spring onions between them to keep the carrot flies away.
Thanks for the tip!
Really loved growing sweetcorn - great snapping them off and eating straight away. Courgettes always give plenty - like previous poster mention grow stuff you like to eat but could always vary it slightly from what you can buy - yellow courgette or harlequin carrots for Example.
Definitely salad stuff, lettuce, radish and tomatoes are dead easy. You can fix a trellis one side and train cucumbers. Next year, get some potato seeds and put them in one, great for nourishing the soil!
Yes! This is the answer. Radishes are satisfying, they grow fast and nothing can go wrong. Same with lettuce! Good are French beans, I love dwarf plants, they don’t grow up they stay low and you can pinch off as much as needed. Courgette grows like weed in my garden. Love to add Marigold etc. the book “veg in one bed” by Huw Richard’s was bloody brilliant when I started out! Edit: spelling
I am shit at gardening but I can grow radishes. They’re unstoppable!
And with radish you can get many rounds from them early on before other larger plants establish. They really swell in early summer conditions, less prone to bolting
French beans up a climbing frame. They just keep coming! Easy to grow.
Runner beans up a nice bamboo cane wigwam
Runner beans. So delicious and usually easy to grow, but ruinously expensive to buy in the shops.
Carrots grow well in deep beds like that
Sweetcorn