Getting started

A black cat sitting next to a small yellow melon.
Caspar is far less impressed by this homegrown melon than I am

If you’re right at the beginning of your journey and you’re getting started with growing, you probably have a couple of questions:

What will work in my growing space? Is my soil suitable?

How do I decide what to grow?

Where can I buy the best seeds, and where can I find the equipment I need?

But first, let’s start at the very beginning: what grows well in UK gardens? In other words: what is possible?

Vegetables you can grow outside in the UK

Potatoes

Carrots

Parsnips

Cabbages

Swiss chard

Spinach

Broccoli

Cauliflower

Swede

Turnips

Onions

Garlic

Courgettes

Lettuce, chicory, and other salad leaves

Radishes

Brussels sprouts

Kale

Mushrooms

Spring onions

Tomatoes

Chillis

Cucumbers

Artichokes

Jerusalem artichokes

Broad beans

French beans and pole beans

Sweetcorn

Celery

Celeriac

Beetroot

Pumpkins and winter squash

Kohlrabi

Peas and mangetout

Pak choi and bok choi

Mustard greens (e.g. tatsoi)

Vegetables that do better in greenhouses or polytunnels

Red and green peppers growing on a small bush

You may still be able to grow these successfully outside if you live further south or have a very warm, sheltered spot:

Peppers (the plants will grow fine outside, but the fruits need extra heat to ripen)

Aubergines

Sweet potatoes

Fruit you can grow outside in the UK

Apple trees

Pear trees

Plum trees

Strawberry plants

Raspberry bushes

Blackberry bushes

Gooseberry bushes

Cherry trees

Blueberry bushes

Redcurrant bushes

Blackcurrant bushes

Lemon trees

Fig trees

Grape vines

Medlar and quince trees

Rhubarb

Freshly picked red strawberries in a small blue bowl.

Fruit that does better in a polytunnel or greenhouse

As before, if you live further south or have a very warm and sheltered spot, you may still be able to grow some of these outside:

Melons

Peach, apricot and nectarine trees

Apricot trees

Orange trees

Kiwi fruit

Pomegranate trees

Herbs and flowers

Apple blossom: white flowers with mustard yellow middles
Apple blossom

All cut flowers can be grown outside, as can nearly all herbs (in fact many would struggle in the heat of an under cover environment – with the exception of basil, which loves as much heat as you can throw at it!). You can grow as much dill, parsley, rosemary, thyme, sage, lavender, lemon balm chives and bay as you like (and that is not an exhaustive list).

If you’d like to try growing ginger or turmeric root, they prefer to grow under cover but can also be grown in pots on a sunny windowsill.

Anything else…?

If you grow something that isn’t on these lists, please drop it into the comment section below. If you don’t live in the UK, tell us what your climate is like. Perhaps it is similar enough that we can give your crops a go!

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