Newbie Veg Grower - Any help welcome

[April1988]

Hi
I am starting to grow my own vegetables for the first time. If you can give me any advice or tips i would really appreciate it. I am hoping to grow potatoes, carrots, onions, lettuce, courgettes, aubergines and tomatoes. I have tried starting from seed but without much luck! Whats the best way to plant carrots straight into the ground?

Thanks

[gibson1314]

Potatoes come as seed potatoes and you need alot of room i found out ladt year! Dont plant onions from seed they come in sets and are cheap and fairly easy to grow. Carrots need a fine soil with no stones to grow big. Courgettes can grow big also but are very easy once established a couple of plants is more than enough for a family, got sick of them last year.

[Hammer]

Just a bit of advice, do not manure area where you are planting Carrots - they don,t like it, it will make them fork. Also you say you want to grow Potatoes and Tomatoes - keep them away from each other, as they are members of the same family they are both susceptible to Blight and if one gets it, it will transfer to the other. One way around this is to grow first early Potatoes which are ready to eat in June - Blight is not a problem until July. First earlies will give you New Potatoes which are expensive to buy, whereas Main crop Potatoes are cheaper. I don,t mean to put you off Main crop Potatoes - I grow both myself, but space is limited, if you go for Main crop then spray them to protect against Blight.

Best of Luck

Hammer

[April1988]

Hey, thanks for the advice! Hopefully i will manage to grow some veg!

[April1988]

Courgettes can grow big also but are very easy once established a couple of plants is more than enough for a family, got sick of them last year.

Gibson1314 I have got 3 ball courgette plants growing and 2 more normal courgette seeds have just popped up. So i guess we are going to have a lot of courgettes to eat.
I do love the ball courgettes, discovered them when in Argentina and they are delicious stuffed.

Any more advice is very welcome.

Thanks