Growing your own veg Growing tips
Expert growing advice
If you're growing your own veg, follow our expert tips for getting a good crop.
Start a compost heap
Councils may provide bins
Your local council may provide a plastic bin or offer a discount on buying one. Otherwise one costs about £30. All you need do is deposit the material, including grass cuttings, and wait for it to rot down.
Find out what we thought about tumbling compost bins.
Watering
Water young plants and seedlings for a maximum of two weeks to help them establish. Afterwards they should find enough moisture in the soil.
If they are suffering during a long hot summer, go for a weekly drenching rather than daily sprinklings.
Looking after your plants
Manage pests
If small slugs are a problem, a biological control such as Nemaslug kills them in the soil.
Greenfly and other flying pests can be kept off crops using garden fleece or fine mesh netting (from garden centres).
Should you go organic?
Organic veg use nutrients from the soil and rotted organic matter. They grow more slowly and give a smaller crop, but some say they taste better.
Organic veg grow more slowly but taste better
Without man-made pesticides, the idea is to stop pests reaching your crop in the first place. There are organic insecticides, such as derris and soft soap, but use even these sparingly.
Veg growing calendar
Feb/March
Prepare the veg plot. Dig it over and work in organic matter (a bucketful per square metre). Stand potatoes in a warm place to sprout. Buy seeds of beetroot, carrot, salads, beans and lettuce.
Start veg in patio pots
April
Start potatoes and other veg in patio pots. Be prepared to cover if frost is predicted. Sow hardier veg such as carrots, beetroot and lettuce in a veg plot.
May
Buy in young plants of tender crops such as tomatoes and courgettes and plant outside when the weather is mild.
June
Harvest your first crop of salad, baby veg and new potatoes from the patio. As pots are harvested, start another batch for late summer.
Pick courgettes regularly
July/Aug
Pick courgettes and beans regularly when they’re big enough. Keep weeds under control and water in long dry spells.
Sept/Oct
Tidy the veg plot and put crop debris on the compost heap. Empty patio pots and recycle the compost as a soil conditioner or save to use for ornamental plots next spring.
There are some things which can be grown throughout the winter. See our guide to growing winter salad for more.
Veg for kids
Hands-on healthy eating
There’s no better way to ensure children eat healthily than to let them grow their own vegetables.
Tomatoes are an obvious choice, especially cherry types, as children can pick and eat them straight off the plant.
Cucumbers are another candidate. The traditional type is too large, but look for newer varieties which are ready when they’re just 10cm long.
Vegetables that produce something to eat quickly, such as radish, spring onion, baby carrot and baby salad leaf, are ideal. They should be ready in as little as six weeks in summer.
- Read our guides to growing soft fruit and growing your own herbs
- Find out how to start an allotment
- Subscribe to Which? Gardening magazine
For extra information, Which? also publishes a book Growing Your Own Vegetables Made Easy.
