How to start a vegetable garden from scratch
Whether it’s rising prices, the desire for delicious food, or a healthier diet that’s inspired you to grow some of what you eat, if you plant a vegetable garden you are in for so much more than you’d expect. As joyous as cooking and eating homegrown produce is, the side pleasures – hearing a shift in birdsong with the changing light, enjoying allotment companionability or veg patch solitude, a stronger appreciation of the seasons, and more – might prove equally life enhancing.
It is, I promise, utterly rewarding, as long as you get a few things right before you start.
First, don’t be intimidated by what might seem like an Everest of knowledge you should acquire before you start. These next few paragraphs (and the instructions on the reverse of the seed packet) will get you a very long way. Secondly, resist the urge to be “doing” for a while. A little considered planning ensures the doing will be focused towards your aims.
Make a wish list
The single most important thing you can do is make a wish list setting out what you want to grow, as this lays out the parameters for success. The first year I grew vegetables, I harvested barrowfuls of potatoes, onions, cabbages, lettuces and carrots; I got what I asked for, but it was unspectacular and too much came at once. It didn’t feel like success. It convinced me to look at a veg patch as an unharvested menu. Grow food that inspires anticipation. If you love new potatoes, asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries and runner beans, get them on your wish list; if broad beans, courgettes, turnips and sprouts fill you with dread, they’re not compulsory.
If saving money is a priority, add your favourite expensive produce to the wish list. Check your food receipts: asparagus, salad leaves, globe artichokes, raspberries, sprouting broccoli and tomatoes are just some of the possibilities. Consider making room for them by dedicating less space to the cheapest vegetables, such as main crop potatoes and carrots.
Prioritise plants that give you multiple harvests. Nurse a cauliflower seed through germination, establishment, past the obstacles of weather and potential pests, and be nearby for the half an hour when it forms a perfect head before it bolts, and – after all those months – it will give you one lunch. The same time and space will give you repeated harvests of salad leaves, courgettes aplenty, and so much more.
Consider growing herbs. Perennials are easiest: bay, mint and rosemary, for example, take vegetables in distinctly different directions when you use them in dishes, and many are suited to container growing, ideally by the back door for easy access when cooking.
Keep your garden and your tastebuds interested by growing at least two flavours you’ve never eaten. Do this every year. Lemon verbena, oca, salsify and boysenberries are just a few of the many to choose from.
Be efficient with space, while prioritising plants that deliver flavour and yield. Peas and climbing beans offer repeated harvests while taking little floor space. Cut-and-come-again leaves – picking or cutting salads and chards around 5cm above the soil – allows the heart of the plant to grow more leaves for another few harvests. Interplant quick returns of radish with slow germinators such as parsnips. Create structure and define edges by growing espaliered, fanned or stepover fruit trees that take little ground space.
There is every reason to choose plants that almost grow themselves once established. Courgettes, broad beans and squash are as low maintenance as it gets, and deliciously productive.
Space and style
Once you’ve chosen what to grow, you have two key choices. The first is to do with scale: a small success feels a whole world better than a large failure. I speak from experience. Bite off what you can chew, then build from there in subsequent years if you fancy. Remember the space you create for growing also requires ongoing weeding, watering and maintaining. Strike a balance between ambition and the rest of life.
Starting with weed-free beds is crucial, and there are two main ways to go about it: dig or no dig.
The first involves using a fork – or a spade if needed – to turn the soil over, using the back of the fork to break clods into a tilth with the consistency of your gran’s crumble topping: extract weeds, stones and long-buried Matchbox cars as you go.
The no-dig approach involves laying thick card over any weedy or lawned areas and covering it in a layer of compost deep enough to accommodate the plants you intend to grow. You can sow or plant straight into it, while the card kills off the weeds and in time dissolves to leave a deep growing medium. This approach is particularly suited to colonising new ground and/or areas heavily populated with unwanted perennials (grass, docks etc). It also has the added advantages both of not exposing previously buried weed seeds, and of leaving what is likely to be a perfectly happy soil ecology undisturbed.
The practicalities
In many ways, there’s little point in getting to know your soil – whether it’s sticky clay or dry sand, acidic or alkaline, the solution is always adding compost – but understanding your soil is at the centre of what we do as gardeners. Our primary job is to build that precious few centimetres of topsoil on which human life depends, and to replenish the nutrients we extract as food.
A garden centre pH test will tell you that your soil is in all likelihood lightly acidic: if not, add compost. Attempting to roll a handful of moistened soil into a sausage will tell you the degree to which it is clayish or sandy; adding compost will lighten the former and bring body to the latter.
Good light is crucial to most plants, but summer’s intensity might be too much for some: coriander and rocket are two that will go to seed with the slightest encouragement. Prioritise the sunniest, most sheltered spots for sun lovers such as tomatoes, and pair any shady areas with those that will thrive there, such as sweet cicely, Morello cherries and redcurrants.
For now, don’t get too worked up about rotation. It’s enough to know that growing closely related plants together allows you to cater easily for particular requirements they may have, and that – over time – it is advisable to grow those groups of plants in a new location each year to minimise the potential for disease and avoid depleting the soil of the particular nutrients they favour. For now, grow as you like and consider rotation next year.
Some form of undercover space is invaluable: chillis and other heat-lovers will thrive, and many seedlings enjoy a protected environment in which to establish. If a greenhouse or small polytunnel isn’t possible, a window sill, cloche, cold frame or small vertical grow-house can provide the sheltered, warmer conditions your seedlings will love.
Nature provides the essential sun, rain, air and soil: your task is to replenish the nutrients you extract from the soil. Compost is at the heart of this. The essentials are few but vital: never add meat, eggs or anything cooked to your compost bin; add reasonably equal amounts of greens – grass cuttings, veg peelings etc – and browns – torn-up newspaper, fallen leaves, prunings etc. A three-bin compost system is ideal: add only to bin 1; when it’s full, turn it into bin 2; when bin 1 is full again, turn bin 2 into bin 3, and bin 1 into bin 2, and – with luck – by the time bin 1 is full again, the compost in bin 3 should be ready to use. If space is limited, use two bins and turn the contents frequently.
However it feels at the moment, rain is likely to be in short supply when your plants most need it. Capturing what you can is both sustainable and economical: funnelling the rain from your guttering drainage into a water butt should give you all you need.
Unless you enjoy making barrels of green bean chutney or dealing with numerous lettuces at once, it’s wise to embrace successional sowing for a drip-drip-drip supply. Potatoes and sprouting broccoli are examples where choosing varieties that mature at different times gives you a long season. Others, such as peas, beans, radishes, spring onions and salad leaves, are relatively quick to productivity and can be sown in small quantities, repeatedly, over the growing season for a steady supply.
It is no trickier to grow delicious varieties than the plainest, so seek recommendations from experienced gardeners and look beyond varieties you see in the shops, as they’re often chosen for uniformity and disease-resistance, rather than flavour.
‘Green Ginger’ rosemary, Apricot chilli, ‘Hurst Greenshaft’ pea and ‘Honeycomb’ tomato are among my favourites. As a rule, I’d suggest growing at least four varieties of everything. It’s sod’s law that of the four, you’ll love two, not mind one and find the fourth a touch bland: replace your two least favourites next year, and soon enough you’ll have only deliciousness. It’s also good practice as some varieties will thrive better in your conditions, and perhaps be more susceptible to local pests and disease.
The kit
Quality tools are important: buy once and buy well. You’ll need a shovel for moving compost, and a fork (and possibly a spade) for digging if that’s the route you take. I like a hand fork and a trowel for loosening soil when planting and weeding. A hoe – and a sharpening stone to keep it keen – will allow you to quickly slice through young weeds. Good string is essential for tying and will bring symmetry and order when sowing and planting out.
A good garden knife is essential, as are secateurs if growing fruit. Many plants are best started in modules: well-made, long-lasting module trays will last years and get your seedlings off to the best start. Lastly, I have to say, I find a phone indispensable: I use it to take pictures, to identify wildlife both welcome and otherwise, and for recording voice notes – buy more compost, order broad bean seeds etc – as reminders for later.
