West kent - please help! I am not very good at this!!

[vegtable newbie!]

Thank you
X

[chris]

If you're debating what seeds to buy - have a look at our virtual seed parcel before you go out and blow a load of money! It's basically a seed swapping system - you send in say 3 packets of seeds - and choose 3 new ones to have in place of them...

[snohare]

Have you tried YouTube for gardening videos which show how to do various things ? Personally I find people can tell me how to do things until they are blue in the face, but it goes in one ear and out the other. I don't know if that is associated with my (mild) dyslexia, but once shown something even just one time...that's totally different !
I also find making notes in a notebook, which I take with me to make plans, record the positions of plants etc, is helpful. Increasingly often now I make a wee video or photographic record of where things are and how they are coming along; put that in one folder, and I can compare to the previous year(s).
My memory is dire (memory like a sieve, bank account to match ) so I make notes on a piece of A4 from each seed catalogue of what I am interested in, then compare the notes of prices, varieties, and quantities, postage etc between bits of paper. Eventually I have one or two sheets with what I have decided on, the contact details of the companies etc - usually I phone up if I don't buy online.
All vital information in my house lives on a cork wallboard by the phone, safely pinned to make sure it doesn't get lost, that's where I put details of what and how to plant etc.
I also have a circular planting planner, it is wonderful, tells you when and at what spacings to plant each plant. I take it with me to the lottie as a memory aid, I cannot recommend it enough !

[horticultural_hobbit]

I got one of those planner thingies too! Had been coveting one for ages after little sister joked that I should have one. Sometimes pictures do help. This combined with learning by doing is also useful.

If you take bubba with you, and explain to her what you are doing as you do it. That will help too. The show me tell me technique as though were on TV.

Bless her, Ma told me to go look up when I have to sow marrows, but not to grow too many. This the lady who asked for two courgette plants this year. She's not seen my seed stasher.

[veggiechicken]

Hello Sue and welcome. I'm not very good at planning a garden but I would say that you should think about what you like to eat and try to grow the things that cost the most to buy. Some things like potatoes, parsnips and onions occupy the ground for a long and are quite cheap to buy. So if you like beans, courgettes, salad leaves, rocket and tomatoes, for example, which are all expensive to buy but quite easy to grow and have quite a short time in the ground, concentrate your efforts on those.
Fruit is also expensive but a strawberry bed can be very productive. Start with a dozen of so plants this year, grow on the runners next year and before, you know it, one of your raised beds will be full of strawberries. Rhubarb is also easy, can sit undisturbed in a corner of your garden, but produce a lot of fruit year after year. So be selective, grow what you like to eat, expensive to buy in the shops and is easy! Happy gardening.

[vegtable newbie!]

Thank you all very much!

Well I have written a list of what I would like to grow and what I think can be productive for my family and I! I think I have constructed a growing plan! I just hope it will work! I won't know till I try! Shall I tell you what I plan to grow and you can tell me if I am going horribly wrong?!

Just need to source seeds now and then off I go. There is so many seeds of each thing to choose from! Although cost has a lot to do with it for me!

Thank you very much

[Two_Sheds]

You're in Kent, the garden of England, so you can probably grow pretty much anything. Don't get bogged down in different names, just get down your local shop and see what they've got.

After your first year, see what worked and do that again. The things that weren't so good, try & find out why.

[vegtable newbie!]

Thank you two_sheds - fantastic advice. I will take baby for a walk this morning to the shops and see what we have!

Thank you! It's all very exciting!

Sue