Beginnger Questions - Taters

Hi all,

Just moved into my first house last year and have undertaken the process of clearing all the gravel chips out the garden to reveal some rather nice soil.

So far I've got about 12 square metres dug up and raked. I was planning on chucking some Arran Pilots in the ground, but this is my first attempt at doing any kind of gardening  , can anyone offer some guidance?

The area we live in is built on old farm land and my neighbour said the soil is quite good as a result. The garden area is raised up and on a slope with a retaining wall in front.

I also bought some seed packets of carrots, broccoli and squash. I hope I'm right in thinking that I should probably hold off on planting until sometime in April, just in case there's another frost (not at all unlikely here).

I was also curious, should I level off the area I'm planting on? I was just concerned that when it rains it might wash some soil away or am I just being paranoid and so long as the soil is well dug it should absorb most of the water.

Thanks!

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We have several members from Scotland who hopefully can advise you about what does and doesn't grow (winter squashes might be a bit tricky, but that's a guess...........)

All the crops you mention grow fine for us here, but we are very western and far south compared to your location. We tend to go by the middle to later end of the planting times given. There are those further north and east who might like to give their opinions too. We tried outdoor cucumber last year , as its very sunny on our site but they had to go indoors and then flourished. Sweet peppers also ripen rather late in the season to be of much use, but apart from that you can grow most things.