Digging, planting seeds and nurturing plants until you can eat food you grew yourself is rewarding on a level beyond just “I did this”. Beyond the warm fuzzies feels good though those matter too. It’s the fact you know precisely what happened to that food between it being seeds and it being on your plate. You didn’t have to deal with any packaging, no lengthy transport or retail mark up. If you’re doing things properly then you’re also eating at peak freshness so much better flavour and nutritional value compared to store bought equivalents that have been trucked from farm to warehouse to shop to your kitchen.
It’s a view apparently many people share. 33% of UK adults grew their own fruit or vegetables in 2024 (HTA State of the Market report) with 63% of households with access to outside space utilising it to grow plants (HTA State of the Market report). Both are stats that suggest a lot of us are getting our hands dirty for some proper veg.
The truth of beginning food growing yourself though is far less romantic than the ideal. There’s work involved in preparing beds and soil, watering regularly, pest control, and dealing with the disappointment when you’ve planted something that doesn’t produce edible goods. The basics though are easy once you know them, especially if you make sure to grow crops that want to grow in the UK rather than struggle. Below we cover how to start growing your own food by focusing on things almost guaranteed to work.
The Research Behind Growing Your Own
- Your garden stores carbon. UK gardens store around 158 million tonnes of carbon (The Guardian report on RHS and Gentian analysis) with two thirds of that in soil and root mass. Growing your own food at home improves the carbon stored in your soil while reducing the emissions associated with transporting food to you.
- You can’t get shop fresher. Lettuce isn’t storing nutrients while it makes the rounds of the supermarket, destined to be thrown away within days of arriving. When you eat food straight from your garden you can be confident you’re getting as much nutrients as that plant has to offer. Same with picking vegetables hours before you eat them versus being shipped across country or even continent. Nutrient loss isn’t significant except with a few things like Vitamin C in spinach, which can degrade by half in a matter of days once picked. But eating as soon as possible after harvest ensures highest levels.
- It might even have beneficial microbes. Not in a magical health improving local veg style way, but vegetables grown in your garden will have encountered your soil microbiome. That means they could literally have bugs in them that you need to maintain a healthy gut. Commercial growing systems and food processing sterilise most microbes out of food.
- The UK veg market is growing. Literally. Residential fruit and vegetables production is on the rise, with open grown fruit alone now worth just over £1 billion annually in 2024 (Defra Horticulture statistics). Grow your own and you insulate yourself from price rises. You also get access to produce that would cost significantly more than your setup costs if purchased retail, especially if you stick to organic varieties.
Start With Things That Will Actually Grow
Everyone has different tastes. There are few vegetables I like growing that I dislike eating, but that doesn’t mean I will eat anything just because I grew it. The key when you’re starting is learning what will grow well in your soil conditions with a minimum of fuss. Work up to trying exotic or challenging crops once you’re experienced enough to know what you’re doing.
Salads and Leafy Greens
The quickest way to get food on your plate from your garden is salad. Lettuce, rocket, spinach, other leaves – they all grow quickly, don’t take up much space and will tolerate being in partial shade. You’ll get usable leaves within 4-6 weeks of sowing most salad crop seeds, sometimes less. Harvest the leaves young and they’ll regrow again. A single sowing can give you several cuts.
Rocket is among the hardiest too. It will germinate in cold ground, it’ll even grow in poor soil. Unlike lettuce which can bolt quickly if you’re not careful, rocket tastes better when stressed by lack of water.
Even if you don’t like salad you’ll struggle to go wrong with leafy greens. Spinach is easy to grow and can be harvested several times. Miner’s lettuce makes a wild garlic style flavour salad leaf that will spread happily if left to its own devices. Choose one or two of your favourite leaves and try growing them yourself.
Radishes
Radishes take just 3-4 weeks to mature from seed and will grow in pretty much any soil. They’re one of those crops that is great for stuffing into gaps between slower growing plants or things you haven’t quite decided on. Nothing goes to waste in the garden. The whole plant is edible too – radish leaves are decent salad additions, the bulbs obviously can be eaten raw or cooked.
Go for French Breakfast radishes if you want something mild and crunchy. Daikon is white and bland, but stores for ages. Try Cherry Belle radishes for something a little spicy.
Herbs
Starting with herbs makes sense for economic reasons. Supermarket herbs are expensive and never taste as good as the ones you grow yourself. Buy one basil plant and you’ll struggle to use all the leaves it produces, but it’ll cost you less than a packet of fresh basil from the supermarket. Any herb that you already cook with regularly is a winner.
Parsley, chives, oregano, thyme – they’ll all come back year after year with minimal attention. Most leaf herbs taste better when they don’t have ideal growing conditions – a little less water and poorer soil makes for more aromatic leaves.
Potatoes
They take up more space than salad but potatoes are another near fool proof veg to grow. Early varieties like Rocket or Casablanca can be harvested as new potatoes around June and July before blight hits. Second early varieties like Charlotte or Kestrel are ready from late July onwards and store better than earlies.
Potatoes improve your soil too. Planting them loosens heavy clay soil as their roots push through it, and earthing them up leaves you with nice loose drainage improved ridges that can be used to plant other crops the following year.
How To Implement Growing Food At Home
Growing some of your own food is a cliché journey but anyone who actually does it will tell you it isn’t as difficult as you think. Pick something easy to start, learn as you go and expand year on year rather than cram all your planned crops into one frantic growing season.
Container Growing
If you only have a small garden, or one that’s mostly paved, container growing is an option. Don’t be put off by the plastic pots you find on display at garden centres – large food safe buckets, raised bed kits or even old builders bags can produce a surprising amount of food.
Containers need decent drainage so holes in the bottom are essential. Most veg crops will need containers at least 30cm deep for roots to spread into, salad crops and herbs will manage in less depth but fruiting crops like tomatoes and potatoes will need 40 litres or more of compost per plant.
Weight is another consideration if you’re intending to grow on a balcony or need to move your containers around seasonally. Spend the extra money on lightweight compost if you’re growing in pots on a balcony. A 40 litre container filled with basic multipurpose compost weighs about 25kg before you add water.
Raised Bed Systems
Raised beds are a good middle ground if you’ve space but poor soil, or just don’t like bending down to tend your plants. At 120cm by 240cm and 30cm deep you’ll have almost 3 square metres of growing space that can be weeded and cropped from the paths around the beds.
Material costs are higher compared to growing in ground – you’re looking at £200-300 for timber or other materials to make a decent sized raised bed, then another £100-150 for good quality compost to fill it. Watering takes slightly longer than in ground beds but the soil warms earlier in the year and drainage is generally better.
In Ground Planting
Growing food in ground beds requires the most work getting started but costs you very little once established. Most soils around the UK can be improved to successfully grow vegetables. It might take a season of digging in manure and compost to begin with but once you’ve built up the soil life it tends to look after itself.
You will have to cope with whatever plants are currently in the ground though. Improve heavy clay drainage with organic matter or grow veg that like plenty of water. Avoid growing directly under trees you can’t prune if their roots will take everything you plant. All can be overcome with effort or planning but are things you only appreciate once you start digging.
Mistakes To Avoid
Mistake #1: Going too big too soon Many new growers get excited and clear an area of the garden before researching how to actually grow vegetables. The results are overwhelming for beginners. Suddenly you’ve hundreds of plants that all need watering, pest spotting and harvesting at the ideal time. Put in far more effort than is needed and get disappointing crops as a reward. Limit your growing area to 2-3 square metres the first year.
Mistake #2: Buying tools you don’t need Knife. Watering can. Fork. Hand trowel. Secateurs. That’s really all you need to grow vegetables. Gardening tool adverts will try to sell you amazing gadgets that make garden preparation magical, but nearly all garden tasks can be managed with basic equipment. Once you know what you’re doing buy mid range equipment for jobs you do regularly. Leave the specialist tools until you’re certain you need them.
Mistake #3: Planting at the wrong time of year A lot of planting guides assume you’re growing food in Italy. Plant outside too early and most vegetables will die. Following generic sowing guides when planting indoors means you’ll likely either seed too early and fail, or play catch up later in the year. Find a sowing calendar for the UK and learn when your local last frost dates are.
Mistake #4: Giving your plants far too much water This is particularly true of containers. Overwatering kills more plants than thirsty gardeners. Vegetable roots need time to breathe. If your soil doesn’t fully dry out between waterings you’ll never develop healthy root mass. Get in the habit of feeling your soil before assuming your plants need watering.
Mistake #5: Expect supermarket quality veg from crappy soil and little sun If you stick newly germinated seedlings into a shady corner and don’t plan on putting anything back into your soil you’re veggies will suffer. They’re not doing it intentionally, but they will produce smaller leaves and yields while struggling to fight off pests and disease. Work with what you’ve got initially and plan how you can improve conditions over time, or accept your harvest will be disappointing.
Mistake #6: Growing stuff you hate Kale. Most people grew it at some point because it’s perceived as something you should be able to grow easily. Then they realise they don’t like the taste. Or meal burn. Or both. Stop making the same mistake. Grow stuff you like to eat. There’s a reason supermarkets stock every variety of lettuce under the sun but can’t keep cauliflower chou fleur in stock.
Recommended Further Research
Our planet could benefit if everyone who read this went and started growing food themselves. But research shows that isn’t necessary to make a difference. Growing some of your own vegetables, herbs and salads is enough to provide tangible benefits. Just make sure you don’t waste compost growing stuff you won’t eat.
Home grown veg are more nutritious, study finds | The Guardian
These guys nailed it. Growing your own isn’t a magic bullet for nutrition or climate change, but when you look at the whole lifecycle of food transport and retailingle benefits are clear.
Some very scientific research from the team at About Grow Veg.
How Much Money Can You Save By Growing Your Own Vegetables? | About Grow Veg
Cost isn’t everything, but reducing how much you spend on food makes DIY veggies even more attractive.
Case Studies: Adaptation To Your Garden
You grow salads and leafy greens at home because that’s what you can’t find at shops, or they’re expensive. Tailoring the principles of beginner crops to your specific garden situation is important, so below we cover some of the most common scenarios and how to successfully grow your own food within them.
Renter with Limited Ability To Modify Land
Containers are your friend. Pick large pots you can move around with you, window boxes that let you grow up and module raised bed systems like the lasagna garden.
Everything you grow will need watering regularly so choose containers near a water outlet if possible. Check your tenancy agreement before drilling holes in garden walls or digging up lawn.
Very Small Gardens
Smaller gardens need to grow up as well as across. There’s not much point in containers if your ground space is limited too. Climbing beans and peas take full advantage of walls and fences. Use tiered containers to stack growing layers.
Variety breeding means there are compact versions of every vegetable. Look for “bush”, “dwarf” or “container” on seed packets to find the correct varieties.
Areas Of Heavy Clay Soil
Don’t try and convert your whole garden to loamy miracle soil. It’s expensive and you’ll probably fail. Build some raised beds or fill containers for your first few years while making improvements to your clay soil in 1m sq patches. Add manure and compost and plant a brassica or spinach. If it grows then great you know you can successfully grow vegetables in that soil. If not apply more organic matter and try again next year.
Root vegetables will suffer in clay soil. Stick to beans and leafy crops first.
Shaded gardens
Most veg are sun lovers, but that doesn’t mean you have to surrender if your garden is under trees or gets full shade at certain times of day. Many leaf crops actually prefer partial shade – especially salads. Most herbs will tolerate full shade too. Parsley, chives, mint. If you’re growing outside avoid trying tomatoes, peppers, or other vegetables that require long hours of direct sunlight.
You’re On A Tiny Budget
Start with seeds. Lettuce, spinach and rocket seeds are around £2 for a packet that gives you dozens of plants. Flea beet plants cost £5+ each. Save your money and start from seeds.
Everything you need containers for can be grown in large food safe buckets or planters you make yourself. Shop bought containers and raised bed kits save time but are expensive starter costs.
Look at herbs and salads first. Yes vegetables are cheap to buy too, but you can pick a salad plant once then pick it again. Plant a beetroot and you’ll get one root, maybe two if you’re lucky.
The Benefits You Gain
When it comes down to brass tax it’s about cost savings and better tasting food. Food security is a nice bonus that becomes more tangible as the cost of living crisis continues. But you know veg from the supermarket are 🥬 packed with flavour. They’re not. Grow your own and you’ll enjoy your home cooked meals more too.
- Better tasting food
- Nutritionally dense food
- Food security
- Lower food bills
- No plastic packaging waste
- You get outside
- Learn new skills
Timeline: How Long It Takes
1 Month: Learn about soil preparation and improve your soil ready for planting. Focus on containers or small raised beds your first year.
2-3 Months: You’ve planted your first seeds and have some early growth. Build a basic toolkit and collect seeds from cut and come again salads to improve through your first season.
4-6 Months: By mid summer you’ve fed your soil and your plants and have made your first harvest. You’ll still have mistakes to learn from but also want to expand what you’re growing.
7-12 Months: Expansion is the name of the game in year 1. You’ve now got a taste for growing and want to try more crops. Perennial herbs and berries are a great way to extend the food you produce year on year.
Vegetables don’t all have to come from shops. They don’t need to be expensive entires in your food bill either. Plant salads, herbs and potatoes your first year. Plant more thereafter.
Final Summary
Eating food you grew yourself is a joy. There’s far more satisfaction in taking something plant grown, picking it at peak freshness and putting it straight in your dinner than something trucked across country, stocked in supermarket shelves and packaged in plastic. Gardening isn’t everyones idea of a fun afternoon and it requires work, but learning where your food comes from is something everyone should do.
If you’re interested in what other changes you can make to your home to reduce your impact, our comprehensive guide to reducing your environmental impact at home covers everything from food growing to energy use. Prioritise the changes that matter, don’t feel like you have to do everything at once.
