The beginners guide to growing your own vegetables

Have you fancied growing your own vegetables? Sewing your own salad leaves? Cultivating your own cucumbers? Tending your own tomatoes? If you have, but you’ve not been sure where to even start, you’re in the right place.

If you’re a complete beginner, we have all the essential tips and tricks you need to get your vegetable garden thriving. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve got a window box, a plant pot or raised garden beds, all you need is a bit of ambition to get those green fingers in action!

How do I grow my own vegetables?

It’s not hard to grow your own vegetables if you start today. All you need is a window box or bit of garden space, nutrient rich soil, easy-to-grow seeds such as tomatoes or lettuce, and a sheltered but sunny spot to let them bloom.

Growing our own food can be one of the most valuable past times in our lives. From placing the seedling in soil, to eating your own homegrown veg, there’s a lot of rewarding aspects of cultivating your own produce.

It’s a common goal for people all over the world to want to grow their own vegetables. But before you take your first step into uncharted territory, it’s worth knowing why we humans love growing veg so much. Other than delicious and nutritious meals of course!

Physical & mental health benefits

The majority of the vegetables you find in supermarkets have spent days being processed, distributed and shipped. On that long journey, they lose precious nutrients and flavour they’d usually have. When you grow vegetables in your own home, you get the benefits of untampered nutrients and unique flavours.

Although you may already know, fruit and vegetables are amazing for your health–physically and mentally. One research paper has explained this further, suggesting the high concentration of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants in vegetables will help prevent chronic diseases (cardiovascular diseases, respiratory problems etc) and mental health problems (depression etc) too.

Self-supporting yourself & your home

Nothing feels better than getting something for free. Especially when it’s a sustaining and mouth-watering vegetable. But particularly during the Covid-19 era, when food security in homes saw a decline, growing your own vegetables was the hope and saviour for many people.

One research paper suggested that people who took part in home-growing vegetables felt lower levels of food insecurity, but they also found that they had a higher well-being too. Supporting your family with food security and positive wellbeing is certainly one of the easiest reasons to get behind growing your own veggies.

Helping the environment

When you seed and grow your own veg, you’re reducing the impact of global distribution and shipping on the environment by keeping it at your doorstep. The impact of this is difficult to see or feel, so it’s important to remember you’re reducing the amount of pesticides in use too.

In farming, chemical pesticides are used to treat crops, however they easily contaminate the ground, water and air. By growing your own vegetables, you decide exactly what goes into the crops, lessening the impact of pollutants on the environment.

Encouraging the next generation

A lot of young people are at risk of obesity and malnutrition due to lack of exercise and vegetables; the many benefits of growing your own veg can counteract this.

Already, over 1.5 million children in 90% of UK primary schools are involved in some sort of gardening. This is fantastic news! But ensuring you teach your children about the benefits of home growing vegetables will keep this trend growing, giving them a healthier and positive outlook for the future.

Vegetables require different levels of sun to grow optimally, so it’s important to consider how much sunlight your veg will get. Their roots also need plenty of space to grow and establish, so it’s equally as crucial to think about what your plants will be living in.

In your garden (vegetable patches, borders & raised beds)

With a garden, you can have a variety of areas where you can easily grow vegetables. Lots of houses come with predefined vegetable patches. But it’s equally as easy to create garden borders for your vegetables with some garden edging. Raised beds can also give your garden a modern, organised look, whilst also giving you easy all-round access to your veggies.

In a greenhouse

A greenhouse is an essential tool for those looking to expand their gardening habits. Before the last frost, a greenhouse gives you a safe and warm place to nurture your seedlings so they can be planted out when summer comes around.

There’s a massive range of vegetables out there, from arugula to zucchini. Don’t let the vastness of veggie species intimidate you, there’s a great selection of easy-to-grow vegetables that are ideal for any space you have!

Following these steps will get you on your way to having the best vegetable garden. Who knows, in a year’s time you could be growing harder veggies like aubergines and cauliflowers? But for now, focus on getting your home and garden ready.

If you are ready to get started, it’s time to go to your local supermarket or garden centre to find your seeds, compost, tools and pots. During springtime and summer these will be more readily available, with pre-prepared bulbs (i.e. onions) and seedlings there to help make it a bit easier for you.

Related Products & Articles

If you found this article helpful, and you are interested in preparing your garden space for containers and vegetable gardens, you may want to look at the following products to improve your garden space:

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