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

Sow Sow Yummy!

The sun is shining (or at least it was when I wrote this, it is probably snowing now knowing Scotland!) so it’s the perfect time to sow vegetables in the garden. Don’t know what to do? Well, lucky I am here to show you how and to tell you about some wonderful tools I used along the way…

Soon you could have a barrow full of amazing leeks just like mine!

WEED YOUR VEG PATCH

It’s important that you have a weed free veg patch and that you have good quality soil. Add some new compost or fertiliser if you need to.

Weed your veg beds before you start sowing your seeds

PREPARE YOUR BED

Once you are weed free, take a few minutes to make sure your veg beds are nice and flat and even. It’s a bit like making your bed in the morning, you have to make it nice and neat and ready for bedtime! I used my Twigz rake, perfect for this job. Maybe not so much in your real bed though!

Rake out your veg beds and make the nice and even

MAKE A DRILL

Not the tool kind silly! It’s a little line in the soil where you can sow your seeds into. Use a cane to help make sure your row is nice and straight.

Make a row to sow your seeds into

SOW YOUR SEEDS

Carefully pour some seeds into your hand and sprinkle them into your row, making sure they are evenly sown. Gently cover them over and water them in. If you are sowing seed potatoes or onion sets, gently push them into the soil to the depth stated on the instructions.

This ickle onion will grow nice & big, just like me!

KNOW YOUR ONIONS

It’s important to remember what you have planted where – you don’t want to be making chips out of your shallots – so make sure you carefully write your vegetable names on a plant marker. I like to draw a picture too – here’s my rocket!!

Zoom zoom, a rocket!

Now you just need to sit back and watch your seedlings pop up. You will need to “thin them” which means removing some of the smaller seedlings and give some bigger ones space to grow. Keep your seedlings water and weed free and before you know it you will be picking fresh veg straight from your garden.

TOOLS

Good tools are the back bone of any good gardener and I have found some wonderful ones to use in my garden. To do all of the above I used:

• Twigz tool set (to weed and mark out my drills) £19.99*
• Twigz rake (to make sure the veg beds were nice and flat) £8.99*
• Twigz watering can (to water all my lovely wee seeds in with) £10.99*
• Twigz wheelbarrow (to barrow away last year’s leeks I dug up!) £49.99*

Twigz do a wonderful range of garden tools for children

I thoroughly recommend the Twigz range of gardening tools for kids. They are great quality and can even last the rigours of a professional like me! They are a little pricier than some alternatives but the quality and durability makes it worth it. They get a big green thumbs up from me!

For more seed sowing inspiration read my other blog Sowing The Seeds of Love.

Love Lulu xx

*Price correct at time of publication