Beginners Guide To Growing Veg

It’s the perfect time of year to start thinking about growing veg but it needn’t be a daunting prospect. If you have always fancied it but not known where to start then here is our beginners guide to growing veg…

You don’t need to jump in at the deep end and buy loads of special kit and have lots of knowledge – there are lots of ways to make it easier and cheaper and accessible to all.

A nice selection of easy to grow veg

Buy Seed Potatoes

We love growing potatoes as they are easy to grow and you can access some lovely varieties to suit how you use them. The easiest thing to do when it comes to tatties is to buy seed potatoes. Once you’ve purchased your selection, place them in a cool, bright area of your house (old egg cartons or cardboard trays are perfect for this) and let the “eyes” grow before carefully planting them deep into your soil.

Seed potatoes are an easy place to start

Buy Onion Sets

We’ve never grown onions from seed, instead choosing the simple option of buying onion sets. These mini onions will grown into a big onion in a few months time. It’s a little early yet but in a few weeks time plant them straight into your veg beds leaving the spacing detailed on the packaging.

Onion set are easier than growing from seed

Buy Veg Plants

This is a great time of year to get some veg plants that have already been started for you and at cheap prices as they are still quite small. We prefer buying our tomatoes like this as we can choose several different varieties rather than buying a pack of seeds and getting hundreds of the same plants. Chillis are also great to buy as a little plant.

Tomato plants are great for a head start

Buy Seeds

There are some veg that are super easy to grow from seed. There are some which we have started off in seeds trays just now to give them a head start (such as cauliflower, kale, broccoli and courgette) whilst others we will just sow directly into the veg beds in a few weeks (such as spring onion, salad leaves, radish, spinach, beetroot etc).

If you don’t have seed trays then yogurt pots, butter tubs, juice bottles etc will all suffice, just make sure you add drainage. Carefully pot on your seedlings as they get bigger and then acclimatise them to the outdoors before eventually planting in your veg beds once the risk of frost has past (normally May in Scotland.)

A seed tray can fit lots of different types of plants

Don’t try and do too much when you first start out. Pick something you like to eat and focus on that and once you get into the swing of things add more to your repertoire. The sense of satisfaction and the wonderful taste will make it worth the effort.

If you still need some convincing read our blog 5 Reasons To Grow Fruit & Veg for more inspiration.

Happy gardening!

Vialii

Spring Forward!

Now that we are occasionally getting some sunny days, it is the perfect time to “Spring Forward” and start venturing outside into the garden again and here are some jobs, perfect for those early spring days…

Have a Spring clean!

Check over all your garden tools and make sure they are clean and sharp for the season ahead. Clean out old seed trays and pots and clean your greenhouse windows. Dig out the power washer and give those slabs and decks a good blast too.

Get Painting

Now is the perfect time of year, before plants start to get big again, to give fences, sheds, walls, decking. raised beds and furniture a lick of paint. It will extend their life as well as instantly making your garden look so much brighter.

Paint your fences to protect and make them look good

Prune roses

Start by removing any dead, diseased or dying branches as well as any that are crossing. Then thin any old growth that you don’t want. Finally, encourage new growth by removing up to a quarter from the top of the remaining healthy main stems.

Make your beds!

Just as it’s important to make your indoor bed in the mornings, so it’s important to keep ontop of your garden beds and borders and keep them neat and tidy! Remove all weeds, cut back old herbaceous and trim grasses and shrubs. Once you’ve done that add some soil enhancer such as a fine bark mulch or some manure, your plants will love you for it!

Add a fine bark mulch to improve the soil and help reduce weeds

Get planting

First Early potatoes take around 10 weeks to crop and you can plant them in late February into March in deep planting holes to protect them. Once the soil is beginning to warm, around mid-March, you can plant onions and shallots, if you want to avoid bolting, use a variety that’s less sensitive to cold weather.

Sow chilli and tomato seeds

If you have a heated greenhouse get some early seeds on the way. Don’t worry if you don’t, a sunny windowsill in the house will do just as well. Remember to have a check of what seeds you have left over from last year and what you need to buy this year so you are ready to sow the rest of your crops as soon as the temperatures rise.

Check out your seeds to see what you need to buy for the growing season

For other ideas of things to do in the garden in March read our blog Spring Into Action.

Or if you are looking for inspiration in what to grow this Spring, read 10 Super Easy Spring Veg To Grow.

So, what are you waiting for? Go garden!

Vialii