With the current economic climate, choosing to grow your own food makes very good sense. As well as saving money, there are health benefits to eating fresh, home grown, organic produce.

If you’re not much of a gardener but want to start your own vegetable patch, the first thing you need to do is come up with a list of what you and your family want to eat. Otherwise, it can feel quite confusing looking at the vast array of seeds and types of vegetables available for you to grow.

You need to start at the beginning…don’t be tempted to just run out and buy loads of seeds. List all the fruit and vegetables that your family likes to eat, then eliminate the ones that you are not going to be able to grow. If you have very sandy soil, cauliflowers and cabbages don’t do well, but carrots and parsnips should. Some veg such as sweet peppers and aubergines need pampering and can be difficult to grow. They could be something to leave until later when you’ve got the hang of the basics.

On the other hand, potatoes are quite easy to grow and are great for your soil, but you will need to have enough space to store your crops over winter. Grow a couple of rows of new potatoes for their wonderful flavor – and when you see the price of the first new potatoes in the shops, you’ll find they taste even better!

Absolute beginners should try salad leaves, lettuce, carrots, potatoes, beetroot, string beans, radishes, courgettes, peas, onions, tomatoes, sweetcorn, spinach and broad beans. Some fruit can be quite complex when it comes to pruning, so it’s best to try strawberries first. Pick five or six varieties you would like to start with and you can always try growing other sorts of fruit and vegetables in the future.

Lots of new varieties of vegetables do well in containers, so no matter how limited your space, there are still vegetables that you can grow.