Starting to grow veg, herbs, fruit Northumberland/Cumbria Need advice

is there a local gardening club/allotment society?,ask the older men in the local pub ,they will know,they buy in bulk and you might save on seed prices,you will also get some donations from established growers,refuse nowt,it may not be a favourite,but its free,and there may be more to your liking following on,and dont be afraid to try unusual stuff,tender?,we have grown stuff here we never attempted when living further south,we had peaches from the g/house last year,despite the weather,we moved over 400mls north some 12 years ago and grow more now than we did before,the local lads will fill you in on what will or what wont grow,they even have me entering in the local show,with a little bit of success....good luck..

Unless you are very high up there not much there you are going to have trouble with.

The only two things I can see that could not be grown in containers are apples and sweetcorn.

Potty

sweetcorn i agree with but dont tell my james grieve apple as he doesnt know he is potted,gives good fruit too,never be large but with the other trees plenty for us..

Freecycle is a good place to start looking for equipment. You can grow in all sorts of containers. Potatoes can go in empty compost bags, if there are any pubs / restaurants near you it's worth asking if they have any empty food tubs as mayo, jam etc often comes in 5 or 10 litre pots, basically anything that will survive the elements and can have drainage holes added. You can also start seeds off in toilet roll inners or pots made of newspaper.

Wherever you are on the Northumberland /Cumbria border you are going to be pretty high up and will have a fairly short growing season so my advice would be to get some protection for your crops to prolong the season. I'm in north Cumbria but on the Solway shore and there's almost nothing I can't grow but I have a big greenhouse and various cloches. As long as you're not fussy about having a house full of plants you can start off early potatoes, etc. in containers indoors (utility room) as they don't need light till they actually poke their shoots above the soil.

If you want good freebie containers ask local farmers if they can spare any empty salt lick tubs. These come in a range of sizes up to 100 litres!!

My advice for what its worth, grow the items that are more expensive to buy and buy the items that are relatively cheap i.e spuds that way you will use your space really effectively If you grow sweetcorn you can grow something like radish inbetween while its growing

You've made a good start with your list.
Next job is to buy seeds, and start planting them. You could sow directly in the soil, which is cheapest, but I get too many losses (to pests like slugs) to do that, so I grow everything in modules or 3" pots to give them a headstart.

You don't say how much land you have?

If you're limited, then grow the crops which are expensive in the shops, eg herbs & salad.
Sweetcorn is cheaper to buy (frozen kernels) than to grow. "basic" spuds are cheap to buy, as are onions.

Tomatoes & peppers will need to be grown under glass, not outside.

Brassicas take up a lot of room for a long time, so you need to make a considered plan, using the correct planting distances (which are on the seed packet). Things can be grown closer together, so you get more in, if you use block planting rather than long rows.


Only the perennial stuff need to be portable, ie in containers. Everything else (annuals) only lasts for one season anyway

Quite. Stay away from garden centres & online then, where you'll often be paying over the odds for P+P (unless postage is actually cheaper than petrol for you).

Don't buy any fertilisers or soil improvers, or other such potions. You don't need them unless your ground has been intensively "farmed" for a long time.

Seeds: Lidl, Aldi, Wilkinsons etc are good for seeds to start you off. If you intend to hang around on here, you can join the Seed Swap.

You can grow peas & beans from packs you buy in the supermarket. Beans make up a large part of our diet: cheap protein, easy to grow

The traditional one would be squash/pumpkin, which can be allowed to sprawl around the feet of the corn, shading the soil, keeping moisture in and suppressing weeds

Two sheds you are just a wealth of information

First off all thank you so much for your replies. I was doubtful I would get a response lol

Im not sure if there is, I will look into this, we are moving from out of the area so all new for us

Not sure how I can check this?

great idea, hadnt thought of that
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If you want good freebie containers ask local farmers if they can spare any empty salt lick tubs. These come in a range of sizes up to 100 litres!![/QUOTE]

I certainly shall have to introduce myself to the neigbours great idea

Fair point, I thought it would be rewarding still to know I can grow stuff we would eat as space isnt really a problem

Probably the best option, we would have quite a bit of land available, Im not sure on the quality or if it has been worked before. Thanks for the advice will start looking.

Welcome to the vine.

Get to know folks at your local allotment - they will quite often have spare seeds and seedlings that they will be very willing to swap with anything you have spare - after all, when some seeds come packed in hundreds who can grow all of them?

If you look at the freebies on the monthly gardening magazines you can pick and choose when to buy an issue so that you maximise your seed pool - and you can get a good read virtually for free if you factor in the seed costs.

Use recycled containers to sow seeds and pot on seedlings - I have found that yoghurt and cottage cheese tubs are great for thiis but remember to make drainage holes in the bottom.

Make yourself a little watering container by drilling lots of little holes in the cap of a 500ml pop bottle. I find this much easier to direct water to where it is needed rather than flooding a larger area with a watering can.

Andy

You always get a response on here - that's one of the great things about the Vine.

When do you move? Have you not seen the place yet?