The Beginner Gardener’s Blueprint: No Experience Needed

Over the years I've helped countless gardeners get started with growing a garden from scratch, and I've distilled this down into three fail-safe blueprints which will work for anyone, and by the end of the video you'll know which one is right for you and how to make it a reality. Let's go! First up is the fastest growing garden of them all, a salad garden which can be fitted into just about any outdoor space. Now at the heart of any salad garden is of course some beautiful leafy greens such as arugula or rocket, lettuce or pea shoots, along with extras such as salad or spring onions, radishes and perhaps some baby beets for slicing or grating raw. Try including a few edible flowers as well, perhaps some calendula for their sunny blooms or nasturtiums for a peppery tang. The real beauty of a salad garden is the sheer speed of growth, with plenty of opportunity to re-sow and grow throughout the year, ensuring harvests month after month. Like many of the things I grow, I prefer to start my salads off in late winter by sowing into plug trays of an all-purpose potting mix. Now by starting them off undercover I can enjoy a bit of a head start, protecting them from the worst of the outdoor conditions. Then by early spring, once daytime temperatures are consistently above about 50 Fahrenheit or 10 degrees Celsius, they can be transplanted into their final positions outside. And I like to cover those first early plantings with some row cover of fleece. That will help to keep them snug but also keep hungry pests like pigeons off. Most salads are thirsty crops so you'll want to keep them well watered to encourage steady growth. Now if you are in a particularly hot part of the world then you may want to seek out a spot that gets dappled shade or that is at least shaded during the hottest time of the day. Keep things going by sowing the next batch of salads into plug trays before the earlier ones have finished. That way you can make sure that once your salads are harvested you've got a new lot ready to go in and to keep those harvests coming. Now how about including a salad bed as part of an ultra productive but easy care garden that's ideal for the gardener with bags of enthusiasm but not so much time? Well allow me to introduce to you this low maintenance garden blueprint which also includes some fruit, some potatoes and garlic, as well as a bed of ultra productive favorites that every garden really should include if possible. Strawberries are a fantastic low maintenance choice because once they're planted they will yield their delicious aromatic berries for several summers to come. Include a slug trap amongst your plants to stop them from nibbling your fruits before you get a chance to. Potatoes are a wise choice for time-starved gardeners because once they're planted all that's really necessary to do is to keep them well watered until it's time to dig them up and enjoy them, and I've included some garlic alongside the potatoes because garlic is one of the easiest bulbs you can grow and it will store for ages, meaning you can enjoy your own garlic in your cooking for many many months after harvesting. Oh and garlic has a really strong smell which may help to deter pests which will keep your potatoes happier and healthier. Zucchini or courgettes are my absolute go-to for any beginner gardener because once they get started they will keep pumping out the fruits all summer long, and I've included dwarf or bush beans because they will produce lots and lots of pods without having to go to the effort of setting up the supports which you need for climbing types. Most of the vegetables featured in this garden can be planted in a few short weeks in spring. Salads from an early sowing, then garlic using a spring planted variety planted in very early spring, potatoes from mid-spring, and then strawberries whenever they become available. And then it's just a question of sowing your zucchini or courgettes and beans indoors protected from the frost to plant out after all danger of frost has passed. This all makes a fantastic little project for budding gardeners to dip their toes in the water and get really encouraged and build their confidence ahead of next growing season. And look, if you want more details on growing any of the crops that we feature today I'll pop links to growing guides on them in the video description below. If you have the space I've also included some raspberries and a couple of blackberries into this low maintenance garden blueprint. Now both of these are fast-growing cane fruits which should produce their first berries the summer immediately after planting, or certainly by the second summer, and they're really easy to prune too, simply by just cutting out the fruited canes once a year. If you have a little more space and just a tad more time then this next blueprint has got your name written all over it. It expands and tweaks on the salad and potato beds featured in the last plan, then adds in some more warm season crops, some protein-packed pods and some spinach to keep you lean, green and keen. Now the plan in this blueprint adds vertical interest courtesy of some climbing beans and peas, and if you are in a warm climate you could put these on the sun-facing edge of the garden so that the spinach and salads that will then sit behind it will really enjoy the cooling shade that that will cast. Both beans and peas can be sown directly against their supports, or my preference, sown into pots or plug trays to grow on into young plants to then plant out when they'll be a little bit bigger, sturdier and able to resist pests such as slugs. This is one reason I really like to plant out young plants rather than sowing directly a lot of the time, it just means they're more resistant to pest attacks. What I'm calling the warm season bed is a tried and tested collective of warm season summer staples that just love to bask in the sun, so zucchini or courgettes are joined by tomatoes, peppers and a few cucumbers, trained up an obelisk like this to add more of that valued vertical joie de vivre. All of these tender crops will need starting off undercover or indoors in the warm, then grown on in a frost-free place until it's time to plant them out once those chilly nights are done. I've also included some companion plants in this bed, both to feed pollinators and to attract pest predators. So we've got some basil which is a natural companion to tomatoes, and I just love those beautiful little flowers. There's also some parsley and of course some nasturtiums to flower their pretty little hearts out. I love this plant because it covers most bases in what's still quite a compact space, so we've got carbs courtesy of our potatoes, garlic for intense flavor, then we've got protein-packed pods, a leafy green, salads and of course lots of lovely fruiting veggies for divine dishes and sassy sauces. All three of these blueprints use clearly defined beds. Now you could mark these directly into the ground, no problem, but I've used in the plans raised beds, and it's what I use in my garden here. I really like raised beds because they're nice and tidy, and because the soil is raised up it drains through and warms up that little bit quicker at the start of the season, and I reckon it makes planning in future seasons a little bit easier too. Now you could be forgiven for thinking that raised beds mean a lot of extra faff, but really that couldn't be further from the truth. Hear me out, raised beds are very easy to set up and they will last for several years. You could even use off-the-shelf ready-to-go raised bed kits, or pallet collars as I've used here. If you're on a sloping site, raised beds enable you to essentially terrace the garden, ensuring a perfectly smooth, flat surface to sow or plant into. Beds can be dug into the slope, built up on the lower side, or a combination of the two. Then it's just a case of lining the bottom of the bed with cardboard to stop any weeds growing through, then filling with compost or manure, or a combination. Put the lumpiest material into the bottom of the bed, finishing with your finest on top, as this is what you will sow or plant into. You could leave the paths between the beds as they are, but I prefer to save precious time cutting grass or weeding by lining them with more cardboard before finishing with the topping of wood chips. And I have to say, I reckon the end result is really pleasing on the eye. If you would like to use or adapt any of the blueprints featured today, you can. They are all among the sample plans in our Garden Planner, and you can give that a try for free by just signing up for our seven-day free trial. There's no need to input any payment details, and you can even print off your plan before the end of the trial if you wish. Best of all, the Garden Planner uses data from your nearest weather station to produce a personalized planting plan for each crop, so you sow or plant at exactly the right time for your garden. Nice! Just follow the link or scan the QR code over here to start your trial. I'll catch you next time!