I’ve grown an awful lot of fruit and veg over the years, these photo’s are of a Victorian kitchen garden I renovated for a local hotel. It was an acre and sadly neglected; belonging to a country house estate, it had fallen into decrepitude whilst in private ownership. When the house was bought and turned into a hotel, the dream was to grow as much produce and flowers as possible on an entirely organic basis. It took a lot of work, but we got there. From waist high docks and thistles, to production in a little over a year; these before and after shots were taken roughly seven months apart – apologies for quality of the pics, they’re photo’s of photo’s.
The purpose of this thread is hopefully to encourage many of you to “grow your own”, I shall endeavour to show you don’t need lots of space; I had an acre to play with but a back-to-back terrace with a yard, has room for a couple of pots and grow bags. Hopefully I’ll convince you it doesn’t take every spare minute you have to achieve success and as for the know-how; well I’ll start at the beginning and try to dispel any ideas of gardening being a black art and “green fingers” a necessity. Anyone can do it, honestly.
So, let’s start with the stuff you grow it in and what you add to it to make it more productive, if you’ve only got a little plot, you want to get as much out of it as possible.
Soil
Start by getting mucky; when the soil is neither soaking wet nor bone dry, take a handful and squeeze it, have a good look, rub it between your fingers and see what it feels like. Here are some general guidelines to soil types, what it means in terms of growing plants and what to add to them.
Sandy - gritty and unwilling to stick together, not very fertile, drains easily, doesn’t get water logged; on the plus side, this soil type warms quickly in the Spring meaning you get a head start on those with clay soil. Add plenty of organic matter and fertilise regularly.
Clay - dense and smooth, sticks together when squeezed, fairly fertile but slow to drain and cracks when dry, also slow to warm up in the spring; in a cold, wet spring this can delay sowing and planting by quite a few weeks. Add plenty of organic matter and grit.
Chalk - pale in colour, often containing lumps of chalk, very free draining and probably the least fertile of all types. Add plenty of organic matter; green manures are particularly useful (red clover).
Peat - rich dark and moist, not particularly fertile and prone to water logging but a devil to water if allowed to dry out; dry peat shrugs off water better than any coat. Needs regular feeding, add grit to increase drainage, if prone to water logging then raised beds are the most successful option.
Loam - rich dark and crumbly, the perfect soil, holds moisture but drains easily. Add organic matter and fertilise to maintain your perfection. If you live in the Lincolnshire Fens, thank your lucky stars because that’s most likely what you’ve got.
Acid or alkaline - generally only peat is definitely acid, only chalk is alkaline, the rest can be either; pH scale for soil is 1 to 14, neutral is 7 – between 6 and 8 is ideal for most plants. There are particular exceptions to this rule – cabbages and all brassica’s loath acid soil, Rhododendrons and Azaleas loath alkaline soil. Simple pH testing kits are available from all garden centres, I’d advise anyone to check their soil before growing anything.
Organic matter - garden compost, animal manure, leaf mould, composted bark, and mushroom compost. Organic matter is added both to breakdown heavy, water logged soils and to increase water retention in porous, free-draining ones. All can be used freely with the exception of Mushroom compost; this is very alkaline and can drastically affect the pH balance of soils. Animal manure should NEVER be used fresh, it must always be stored for a minimum of six months, preferably twelve before being incorporated into soils which are to be planted, or spread over as a mulch. Green manures such as Red Clover or Alfalfa should be sown, allowed to grow then the entire plant is dug into the soil.
Grit and Sharp Sand – these are used to break down heavy, water logged soils like clay, they encourage drainage by opening up the structure of the soil.
Fertiliser – liquid use as a top up, growing season boost, throughout the season, the best known general purpose one is Miracle Grow. Solid ones such as pelleted chicken manure (organic) and Growmore (not organic), should be applied in spring, a mid-season top-up can also be applied to veg patches, Blood Fish and Bone is also an organic fertiliser which may be used in the same way. Bone meal encourages root growth so sprinkle and mix into planting holes (especially trees and shrubs). Specific fertilisers are also available for particular crops; Tomatoes for example, commonly suffer from magnesium deficiency, showing itself by a yellowing of the leaves between the veins, quickly remedied by watering in a specific fertiliser (e.g. Tomorite).
Which plants and crops need particular elements, I’ll cover later but as a general rule
Nitrogen (N) is needed for leaf growth, Phosphorus (P) for healthy roots and Potassium (K) for flowers and fruit. This is referred to on the packaging of most fertilisers as NPK, different fertilisers have different ratios; lawn fertiliser is high in Nitrogen to encourage leaf growth, a Chrysanthemum feed will be high in Potassium. If in doubt then stick to a general purpose, all round fertiliser.
Anyone can join in, please feel free to add tips, info, shortcuts, and links; this isn’t supposed to be a “Jethro says” thread.
All joking aside, I do think more of us should try to grow something edible, I've spoken to loads of folk over the years in the course of my work and a very large proportion of them don't bother because they think it's all terribly complicated. It really isn't and if this thread encourages a few more people to give it a go, then it will be worth it. As for you young man, it isn't too late to do something this year, get thee down to the garden centre, buy some compost and pots and get growing - salad crops can be sown throughout the summer, Runner Bean plants can be bought as can Tomatoes; go on, off you go... 
