Topic: It's my first year

[Bello]

Hello Everyone and Happy New Year.

I am preparing my allotment for my first growing year......It's feels somewhat daunting.
I thought I would start looking at which seeds to buy........there are Millions!!!
I mainly want to grow salads for the summer and experiment with other things.
I was wondering if anyone could recommend any variety of potatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, peppers etc, to help me on my way.

Thanks.

[tim]

Do you have any protection for cus & peppers?

How many to provide for? Are they fussy about food?

[Bello]

Hi
I am only growing for my wife and little boy. He's not fussy and likes anything that's given to him.
I wasn't going to start planting until late March early April, is this to early for peppers.

Thanks for you reply.

[Hyacinth]

Hello! No, not too early for peppers; they need an early start, with heat, to get the growing season they need..

If you want salad leaves - look for me in Swap Shop - loads going free!

Cheers and good gardening,

Lishka

[supersprout]

Hello Bello, lucky you having the prospect of grow your own for the first time!
Just write down all the things you & your family enjoy eating that would grow, then grow as many as you might need or have space for! There's no shame in growing only ONE courgette plant for example, even though you might have squillions of seeds. You want to keep your friends after August ... ;D
For seed varieties, I always ask around my neighbours - and keep a close eye on when the peeps with immaculate lotties are planting, and what. If it's your first season and you are charming  8), your neighbours may give you seeds and seedlings to try, and there are loads of lovely peeps on A4a who offer seeds in the swap shop, so you could save ppps if you want.
Just grow what you & your family love to eat, and enjoy experimenting. (chants, 'there's always next year ...')  ;)

[Derekthefox]

Being one of the less knowledgeable members, I will restrict my comments to simple fare - lettuces. I grow two varieties with some success ... early on, I start with little gem - seeds are available everywhere, and they are very easy to grow. You can afford to grow them close together and just harvest the hearts ... sheer indulgence ... Then for later when the slugs starting having parties, I grow a red variety - Red Fire, I find the slugs regard red lettuces at less appetising ... by successional sowing, you can keep the lettuces going all summer, winding down at the end with little gem again ... not imaginative perhaps, but along with peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, red onions ... it all looks terrific on the plate!

[daveandtara]

everyone will probably groan because i always reccomend the same firm but the vive verde 'real seed catalogue' are fab  ;D.
 we grow to persuade our kids to eat more greens  ::) so we've chosen their 2 inch cucumbers so babes can just pick and eat like fruit.
most of their stuff is pretty easy to grow, they include full instructions and recipes and because they're REAL seeds, you can save your own seeds for the following year.
we got ours just four days after ordering online.
definately worth a look,
good luck,
Tara and Dave

[John_H]

That’s spooky Derek, I grow little gem plus a red lettuce, for just the same reasons.

Because of the size of Little Gem they just make 1 meal and then I can start on the next fresh lettuce from the plot, it saves me feeling like I have to eat something old which has been in the fridge for a few days.

Don’t forget some flowers are edible too, so you could grow pansies and nasturshums and add them to salads.

[Merry Tiller]

I find the slugs regard red lettuces at less appetising

I don't blame them ;)

[spacehopper]

Probably contravertial, but my advive would be to read the description on the packets, make a choice and not worry too much about it. As this is our first year we have looked for keywords such as 'hardy', 'reliable', 'easy' and so on. Chances are you'll end up with a load of lovely veg, and if there are one or two things you don't like then just strike them off the list for next year. And there is always next year to try different things. It's easy to over analyse with the huge choice of seeds available. As David Brent from the office would say, you could become 'paralysed by paradox'!  ;D

[glow777]

Don't be afraid of wasting seed, most of the seed keeps or can be given away or swapped and in reality you usually only need 1 or 2 successful plants (or a bunch in the case of carrots) to recoup the cost of the seeds


Most importantly have fun

[Moggle]

I had reasonable success this year with Marvel of the four seasons red lettuce and red salad bowl too  :)

For potatoes, I would say get yourself to a potato day, or at the very least a garden centre that lets you buy seed spuds by the tuber and get yourself say 5-10 tubers of lots of different spuds. That way you can see what varieties work on your soil. Would need good labelling for that method though both when buying and when planting  :)