What veg to grow - novice gardner

Hi there, I'm new to the forum and relatively new to gardening in general.

I've grown some veg over the last couple of years either in pots / a bit in the ground and using one of those 4 tier mini greenhouse things. This year I've invested in a greenhouse, which I should have up and assembled this weekend (weather allowing). Posted a thread about that in the greenhouse section as I wasn't 100% sure how to build a base - although that's now done.

So essentially I'm getting a bit excitable about what I can grow / how to grow it. I'm planning to use large pots for stuff in the greenhouse, some pots outside and maybe a bit in the ground. Issue there is we have very heavy clay soil, and it's also quite stony (the area used to be used heavily for mining).

The only thing I've successfully managed to grow in the soil to date are courgettes - butternut squash didn't go well, and neither have mange tout, carrots or dwarf french beans. This despite mixing in a fair amount of compost and using some veg feed.

So the seeds I have to plant are as follows - I've had no issue with mange tout / courgettes / tomatoes / lettuce, but all the others are either new or I've not done very well with them. Any hints or tips would be great. I have a 52cm heated propogator in our conservatory which I have available to start things off - got 4 tomato seedlings and 2 bell pepper seedlings up so far which are now just sat in the conservatory for frost protection.

Chilli
Long / sweet peppers
Dwarf french beans
Strawberries
Aubergines
Spring Onions
Rocket
Beetroot
Pak Choi
Broccoli
Sunflowers

I've planted some chilli / strawberry / long pepper seeds in small pots in the propagator, but after 3 weeks I have nothing come up as yet (in the same time tomatoes and bell peppers have germinated).

 

Hi Joe Bristol, welcome to the forum.
I also have clay soil & at times it can be a blinking pain to say the least! Here's a few tips, I'm sure you will get lots of other advice too:
Carrots/parsnips/beetroot don't like manure, I tend to decide where I'm going to grow my snips/beetroot & carrots & leave that manure free!
French beans like manure, I give the bean area a really good manure, & dig it in well several weeks before I sow my seed.
Courgettes are easy to grow, they just need plenty of water!
I grow most of my tomatoes in grow bags in the greenhouse, they don't like to dry out, you will need to put up some shading in the GH I use fleece attached to the metal frame! I've put some matting on my greenhouse floor to stop the weeds & stones on top of that just so it looks better & helps with drainage!
Spring onions are good croppers, I've grown them in pots & the garden, sow a few every few day or you end up with a glut!
Strawberries are lovely to grow & taste lovely out of the garden, you will need to cover them with some net, the birds love juicy strawberries!
Onions & garlic are also easy to grow. Have you thought about growing some potatoes? Again they need lots of manure, digging up the potatoes for me is like digging for gold! It's one of my most favourite jobs on the veggie plot!
I don't know where you live but if you have any riding stables/horse owners near you they will be only too happy to give you some horse muck! I strongly believe veg growing is all about the prep work, get that right & you are half way there!
I hope that helps you a bit & I shall look forward to hearing about your progress

 

Just included a couple of picks of what I have grown so far / what is currently planted up.

Think my tomato seedlings might be what is classed as 'leggy', although they are still standing up completely straight. Thinking I'll transplant these to a taller pot but do as you suggested - plant them deeper so a lot of the existing stem is under soil and just the leaves above ground. Might plant some extra seeds too, just in case these seedlings don't survive / do very well.

The greenhouse floor is going to have that weed control stuff on it, then some paving slabs down the middle as a path, with thick gravel either side - again for drainage. Planning to grow tomatoes / chillis / peppers etc in the greenhouse, plus anything else that'll be better off in there. Other stuff like mange tout / courgettes etc will be outside.

Not considered potatoes - not sure if the other half will be keen on me taking up loads of flowerbeds with stuff - she moans that for 2/3rds of the year it effectively looks empty which she doesn't like. So I think what room I have got will be for courgettes - everything else will be in pots.

 

Hey Joe

I'm a novice too, will be watching your thread with interest for any tips! Good luck!

 

It might not be so much tips a showing you some disasters I've had! Feel free to post up anything you grow with any observations you have.

 

Hey Joe, sounds like you are making good progress, my tomatoes often go leggy, with work etc sometimes it's tricky to keep up with everything, I often have to plant mine in a deeper pot but generally speaking they do well. As you said you could sow some more tomato seeds now, this might give you an extra couple of weeks produce & also you won't end up with a glut.

 

Progress update - repotted all my tomato seedlings to bigger pots - will probably leave in those for the summer now as they're the ones I managed to use last year with reasonable success.

Also repotted my bell pepper seedlings to medium size pots - no idea how big the plants get / how big a pot I need - any ideas?

Now got Pak Choi / Beetroot / Rocket / Broccoli seedlings coming up too. Going to keep them in the propogator a couple of days, then remove and keep in the conservatory for a while.

No sign of chilli / strawberry / sunflower / aubergine seeds doing anything so far......

 

Sounds like you've got some good progress going there!

I'd be interested to know about what size pot for peppers too. I've got some Romano pepper seedlings so slightly different but possibly a similar size plant?

 

Hello Joe
in my veg growing days , I found onions from sets very easy . Mange toute and sugar snaps easy and lovely . French beans germinated inside in barely moist compost are good to grow , you can get these in normal size , they grow to about 6 feet , or dwarf types grow to 18" and are very easy to handle . I grew Slenderette type , a superb bean.
I never had any success with Spring Onions

 

I'm also a novice gardener, this is only my second year of actual gardening, but in my first year what I found the easiest to grow were peas(Hurst Greenshaft) and cucumbers(Marketmore). Out of all the veg I grew I think these performed best, and they were so easy to grow. Just be sure to give peas good support, because they have fragile stems, and often get quite heavy when the pods are ripe. Cucumbers would also benefit from some support, but it depends on which type you use. Mine were a trailing type, so I trailed them up some netting. One last tip, if there if persistent heavy rainfall, make sure to make some kind of waterproof shelter for your tomatoes, or bring them indoors. I didn't do that and all of my tomatoes(which had so much fruit and were almost ripe) got wiped out by blight. But just enjoy growing, I guess gardening is all about making mistakes and learning what you grow best

 

Thanks for all the replies! My tomatoes will go in my greenhouse once the last frost has gone. Going to have another crack at French beans - will try to germinate them in my heated propagator indoors, then put them in long trough type pots to grow outside, along with the mange tout which I normally just plant outside and leave them to grow on their own without heat.

Got a few pictures to add of what I have so far as seedlings in the conservatory. Now have a courgette, tomatoes, aubergines, pak choi, beetroot, bell peppers, a long pepper, broccoli, rocket and a chilli one.

 

Hi @Joe Bristol, I had terrible problems with my beans last year! I tried three times to start them off indoors in the end I bought some from our local farm shop! I wish you the best of luck, they can be tricky apparently! Please let me know how you get on, I'm hoping you can teach me how to sow them indoors!

 

I wouldn't hold out hope I'll show you how. I've tried a few years in a row to grow beans and never been successful. Never tried starting them indoors before though, so fingers crossed! Need to get some more long trough style pots to plant them on into if I do get some geminated.

Wonder if I've jumped the gunwith growing stuff early, but sems to be going alright in the conservatory. Guess it'll be getting maximum light available, without ever going below 10 degrees sobthat should help. Just itching to put stuff in yhe new greenhouse but think it's to cold a the moment.

What do you usualy grow well?

 

I've 'bean' growing veg for a couple of years now and have had lots of success but also many failures. Last year I tried to grow unwins burpless cucumbers in pots and they were fantastic! I started them off indoors and after the fifth leaf, I pinched them out and then built a really simple wigwam support for them to grow up and around. I kept them indoors for quite a while before moving them outdoors in a sunny sheltered spot. I've just planted my seeds for this year and so fingers crossed they will be equally successful. I grew mine in pots and had to make sure they were well watered everyday. When the fruits are ripening, they drink bucketfuls!
Good luck!

 

Thought I'd post an update. Going fairly well thus year with growing in a greenhouse got the first time. My tomatoes from seeds (4 of them) that I thought had gone leggy are getting quite big already. Chili's are ok, but not growing very quickly. Bell peppers doing better, but nowhere near the speed of the tomatoes. Broccoli died off - will have to have a go at done more seeds this week. Beetroot seems to be going ok, as do the aubergine seedlings.

One thing not going well is my mange tout. Previous years have Ben epic - this year only 4 seeds germinated so far - and they all flopped and Died. Need to plant some more and hope for the best. Photos below - comments welcome!