Right, been thinking about this for a while, 2 years actually…..we have a large patch of garden/land which is just a mess, so I have decided to have a go at growing some veggies….

Anyone else doing something like this for the first time ?

Any suggestions for a good book or website for beginners ?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X2GD5C_wHY[/video] 😉

Vegetable Growing Month-by-Month is a decent book to get you started.

I grew a few veggies last year, mainly in pots. I just bought a few seeds from the local garden place and followed the instructions 🙂

Home grown snack by simondbarnes, on Flickr

More free food. I love my veg garden. by simondbarnes, on Flickr

Untitled by simondbarnes, on Flickr

My very own pumpkin by simondbarnes, on Flickr

Dig the ground. Get seeds of stuff you want to eat and follow the instructions on the back of the packet, late feb march is a good time to plant. So you’ve not got much time.

That’s a chuffing big plate you’ve got there simondbarnes. 😉

It’s great fun. Buy a wee book, get some seeds and go for it.

My advice would be don’t. It’s a RIGHT ballache.

Or more sensibly, it’s a hobby. Don’t expect to chuck a few seeds around and expect to dine on it for the autumn. You have to be really into it to remember to do all the stuff you have to do. You have to think on a Saturday ‘hey I’d love to spend some time in the garden, what jobs are to be done?’.

We didn’t, and got some lovely broccoli flowers (not florets, actual flowers. Ever wonder what those flower bud looking things end up like?), enough lettuce to fill a skip with salad but it was a bit much for the three of us in two weeks; and perhaps enough tomatoes to make a pan full of pasta sauce but I ended up messing it up, so that was the whole year’s harvest in the bin 🙂

Seriously give it a go. The book I recommended got me going a year or two ago. Now I’m addicted, quit my job and have gone back to college to study Horticulture! It’s addictive!

It’s a giggle.

I grow my own herbs, toms, peppers and last year also did courgettes.

I had tomatoes coming out of my ears (made chutneys) and the herbs are still going strong even at this time of year.

But, as said, it is work – but rewarding 🙂

Thanks for that alexonabike, just ordered the book 🙂

schools are growing lots of veg beds at the moment…. start off small, i started off with strawberrys in strawberry hanging containers, then i grew some corn on the cobs….

I’m looking at apples, pears, plums to take over 1/2 my 1/2 allotment as I can’t hack all the weeding. Soft fruit is brilliant, we do Raspberries, Black/Red currants, Strawberries & they taste amazing. Courgettes – you only need 2-3 plants to keep you going for the summer – but the biggest advice is paths – if you can get some decent square paving slabs down & you’ll never have to weed them at least! 1 book reckons 30 mins a day & I try to get down alternate Sundays for a few hours in winter & evenings in summer. Get perennials like artichokes to fill it out a bit too.

I will have a think about, do some research on the web and start off with the simple stuff, but I am excited about it !