Need some advice from the green-fingered. I have a bramble patch in my garden that I’m minded to clear and set some vegetables. It’s more a fun thing to do with the kids at this stage, but to actually produce something edible would be great.
Not knowing anything about it – is there some sort of growing season that must be observed and is there still time this year to get stuff down in the ground? Or have I missed the boat for 2013?

Also, I reckon my garden may not be ideal for growing your own – there’s about 5 decent sized trees and the light is not great. It’s OK though. What veg is the most reliable and least fussy to consider setting – something for a beginner?

Salad. Rocket will grow almost anywhere, as will mustard (which looks fantastic too, and the taste is awesome).

Potatoes are a good first try. They’re a good indicator of the state of your soil, if they’re not too good when they crop then you need some horse doo-doo digging in.

You need to know the likely date of the last frost in your area, because many plants would be killed by it. Maybe next month? Ask neighbours who grow stuff. And you mentioned trees and shade: does the bramble patch get any direct sunlight?

Plenty of time left.

If it was me I’d be looking at the real easy stuff to grow that should be put in after the frosts are definitely over (end of May)

Tomatoes, Runner Beans, Courgettes

Potatoes are a good first try. They’re a good indicator of the state of your soil, if they’re not too good when they crop then you need some horse doo-doo digging in.

They also break up the soil well too.

I grow rhubarb in my shady parts of my garden, it also looks amazing too.

If you have kids, you must try growing some peas 😉

Get the brambles cleared first. That might take a while.

In the mean time, get to the garden centre and see what is being sold. Buy a few different things and get them going in pots. Experiment. See what grows.

Depending on how much space you have and what you like to eat you’ve got many options. Get the Brambles under control first, don’t get rid of them entirely if you fancy black berries later in the year.

Depending on the orientation of the garden you could try easy quick growing things like Early potatoes, Raddishes , lettuce, Beans, courghettes, peas,sweetcorn and sunflowers. Get a head start by buying seedlings from as garden center.

And grow stuff you’ll eat, not stuff that’ll grow easily

With my kids we planted potatoes, radish, spring onions, peas, onions all from seed and some strawberries from plants last weekend.

Who cares if they all don’t come through, the kids love it all.

I’ve just put some Sunflowers outside in pots, easy to grow for kids and great for bees and wildlife too, remember the bees! Herbs are good as well….. Growing lettuce hmmm, not unless you don’t have lots of snails or slugs….

potatoes are crap. lots of digging for a veg that tastes the same as from the shops and is really cheap anyway.
grow sugar-snap peas. they are easy and really really delicious when very very fresh. they are pretty and attract bees and butterflies too.
also sweetcorn is good if you are far enough south, you can get ‘sets’ from a garden center.
i would aim to grow stuff that doesnt store well. (the wives tale for sweetcorn is that you should get the water boiling before you go to pick it and walk to the garden so that you can run back. i cant eat it from the supermarket any more, not after having it fresh)
ive not planted anything yet since the weather is still a bit iffy here in south wales but will get stuck right in next month and stuff ussually catches up just fine.

this is a very good book. nice and simple and lets you know what to do on a monthly basis – http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegetable-Growing-Month—Month–earth/dp/0716021897/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1367184299&sr=8-2&keywords=veg+gardening

Thanks all – plenty to think about there.
I’m in Manchester and have had the house since last November – if we’ve had a sunny day in that time I’ve missed it. So I’m not certain about the light the proposed veg patch would get. Probably not great with neighbouring trees and buildings; guess I just have to plant something and see how it gets on.

Get rid of the brambles, which may be a case of digging deep. Build yourself a raised bed and fill it with really old manure.
Probably runner beans for a first try (don’t buy any I’ve got some and I start them off for you in pots).

Raspberries are good, however it’s not the right time of year to plant the canes.

Garry Lager – I can give you some stuff in pots when you’ve got the groundwork sorted.

Let me be the voice of pessimism here.. just for balance.

Tomatoes – forget it, they’ll produce some nice flower and look promising, then it’ll get windy and smash them all over the place. The half-dozen that survive will do ok until they are nearly ready when sudden wet weather will swell them so the skins split, and they’ll go rotten and get eaten.

Strawberries – a great way to ensure the slugs in your garden are very well fed.

Herbs – great for a season then they’ll either get huge and straggly or take over your garden. Or die.

Beans – it won’t be worth harvesting five or six individual beans, so you’ll forget about them and they’ll basically die off anyway.

Swedes – there’ll be some lovely looking swedes but they’ll have huge holes in them where they’ve been eaten. You’ll put them on the compost heap then they’ll start growing again from the underneath of the plant.

Blueberries – it’ll be either too wet or too dry or both, at the same time. Won’t do well.

Apples – you’ll get some lovely blossom, about half a dozen set fruit, then one or two will make it to maturity and taste like crap after having got your hopes up all summer long.

Carrots – safe bet, they’ll do well and you’ll think ‘oh well at least we’ve got carrots’ til you dig them up and reveal a three inch long wizened pale yellow tasteless disappointment.

Pumpkins – maddening – big fat flower, then as soon as the fruit is as big as a conker it’ll be gone.

The rest of the squash family – you’ll begin to wonder if you imagined planting them since they’ll vanish without trace into the bellies of thousands of slugs.

jut go buy about 30 ‘living salad’ trays from the supermarket and plant them in your freshly prepared patch 😀

For slugs – slug pellets and/or beer traps (work very well but would need a few of them).

You could also try the cheap poly-tunnels if you have low growing veg (lettuce etc) or if you want to try tomatoes etc then a cheap plastic greenhouse works very well.

Slugs and wind damage to tall plants (eg courgettes) are the main problems we have. We normally grow lots of lettuce and rocket, herbs, courgettes, mange tout, tomatoes, chillies etc. Gave up on spuds etc. The dog normally eats the strawberries and the low tomatoes as she thinks they are grown for her to snack on, oh and she has been spotted digging up carrots to snack on too (she gets fed a lot of fruit and veg so really enjoys them).

Picking fresh salad out of the garden right before dinner is worth the effort though. If doing things like strawberries then don’t scrimp and only buy a few plants as you will only get a few at a time and then leave them and then lose them to the slugs (or the dog!) making it not worth it.

Try not to use slug pellets, they’re bad for the birds.
Put in a small pond to attract wildlife such as frogs, toads and birds, the love a good munch on a slug or snail.

molgrips – you have had a bad time of it 🙁

potatoes are crap. lots of digging for a veg that tastes the same as from the shops and is really cheap anyway.

Eh? Stick them in the ground and earth up occasionally. And can you really not taste the difference?

That said, I’d stick to high-value stuff if beginning. Tomatoes, strawberries, salad leaves etc. Buy plants rather than seeds to keep things simple.

Peas! Easy-peasy (is that where this saying comes from?!) to grow, taste great & kids’ll love em!

Courgettes are easy too.

This is from my 1 year of experience (where the Mrs & her mum did most of the work)…

and reveal a three inch long wizened pale yellow tasteless disappointment.

That’s a disappointment I’m already providing.

For slugs – … beer traps work very well

Yeah in the same way that throwing stones would’ve worked against the 1st Panzer division..

Can you tell I’m bitter? Probably just as well otherwise the slugs would eat me too.

Last year was very depressing on the allotment, endless floods and damp made for a tidal wave of slugs that seemed to eat everything in sight.
Swiss Chard and rocket were the only salad leafs that seemed to be able to survive.

I only managed to harvest a few courgettes last year, whereeas the year before I got sick eating them 😀

Thank you Daily Mash…

Fury as allotment gardeners discover vegetables can be bought in shops

Grow some chillis for proper man-veg, I’ve started early under a 125w cfl lamp this year after a rubbish crop last year.