Advice on how to start a garden needed :)

Looking good!

My favourite tip for when you're buying plants:
Homebase has a good variety of well kept plants and a regular turnover.

But.. the best thing about them is that once the perennials get a bit tired/finish flowering, they reduce them in price heavily.

So if you visit regularly over the year, or at least once a month you can get good plants that will be fine next year (they might even flower again this year with a little care and deadhead) and there are two advantages:
Spreading the cost and all year round interest for your garden plants.

Lots of people get the gardening bug and buy all their plants at once, which is expensive and means the garden looks fantastic for one or two months of the year and dull for the rest of the year.

 

Thanks very much for the advice guys. I will definitely use your tips. I actually planted the wild strawberries already, so happy to hear they could work, and I absolutely love the idea of growing mushrooms. I am a chef, and I love mushrooms. I even used to grow them indoors in little propagator and I am super excited to try growing them outdoors. I will do some research and see what kinds I can grow. I will make a trip to homebase surely too. Thanks again guys. All the advice is much appreciated.

Actually I have one more question. What do you think I could buy in a grocery store, and grow, still this year ? I am thinking its getting a bit late to start new seeds, but maybe buy pots of herbs and just put them in the ground, or pak choi bottoms or something. I know theres some things that you can start, using shop produce, just not sure about doing it in late june.

I still have peas, rhubarb, radish, kohl rabi and wild strawberries seeds. Do you think it's worth to still sprout them, or is it gonna be too late, especially considering they wont be getting that much sun, so could take a bit longer then normal.

 

I think you still have time for plenty of plants, even some seeds. Many of the seeds will say June is fine and what's a week or two and what's to lose?

For edibles, one you could consider is Cress. Can be planted anytime of the year, happy on a windowsill and doesn't even need much light. I bought a packet From Wilkos, I think it was 40 or 50p.
Germinated within 48 hours and has a gorgeous peppery flavour.
Has the added advantage of taking me back to childhood!

 

I'd go for it, too, especially if the seeds are expiring soon.

It's a shady location, but you're planting later than usual, so earlier in the year they'd have had less sun than is around now, if that makes sense.

 

I have made this hanging planter out of a wooden pallet and I am making another one today, to utilise the wall that gets the direct sunlight in the morning. I have put some chilli and peppers plants in it and I am planning to fill it up with herbs. Do you have any advice about what to I could grow in a hanging planter like that. Especially things to use in the kitchen. Mind it only gets 3h direct sun. I have the one on the picture to fill up and then another one, bigger then that that I'll finish setting up tonight. Any ideas on how to make the best use of them will be much appreciated. Thanks guys

 

That looks fantastic!

I would let your cooking inform your choices. If you cook with it, have a go at growing it. Just remember that some herbs are annuals and some are perennials, so you might want to separate them so you don't disturb the perennials when you're re-planting the annuals. Some (like rosemary) may also need more space than the pallet planter can give.

 

Very nice!
Great advice from Arlandria. Also bear in mind that some perennials, like mint, could take over so keep them in a container when you plant them.
Smaller herbs like thyme, chives and coriander would probably be happy enough with less space, rather than rosemary or sage, for example.

Edited to add: If you're not growing for flowers or fruit, I'd say 3 hrs of sunshine should be OK. (Having said that, we have hanging baskets out the front that only get 2 or 3 hours direct sunlight a day and they're fine).

 

Hi @Piotr W - you've done an amazing job! Pak choi are perfect to sow now - I have just sown mine and they are coming through. If you sow too early they go to seed. Just treat them carefully so as not to disturb roots too much and they will plump up quickly.

 

Good job!
Radish is a nice option too. Rocket as well, even if it likes sun.

Unless you know for sure that the pallets are not treated with pesticides, if growing edible varieties, just in case I would line the inside of the "pots" with plastic sheets (bin liners will do), to prevent leeching of chemicals into the soil.

 

That's a really good point about the pesticides.

 

Wow. I'm most impressed with the transformation, well done @Piotr W !

Raid the supermarket potted herbs selection, most will grow very well when first potted on into a larger pot and when they have filled it up, in the ground. Usually it's fine to rip the rootball in two to get two plants. Be careful with Mint. You have been warned

Dill and lettuce seeds can be sown now, both will mature quickly and do ok also in shadier setting. All kinds of edible leaves are quick and will be fine in shade. Beetroot and carrot leaves are edible even if the actual roots will not be that spectacular.

Great job so far, thanks for keeping us updated.