Need info about Gardening;how to prepare soil, plant seeds

[downvalley]

Hello,

I need some information and guidelines in English regarding how to prepare soil, how to plant seeds, using fertilizer, taking care of the vegetables etc. Never did gardening before! The small piece of land (around 40 sq meter) is located in Pihlajamäki, Helsinki. Thinking to grow: zucchini, spinach, peas, coriander, pumpkin, chilly, tomato, cucumber and okra. But pls suggest me so that I can include and exclude from the above list which are suitable for Finnish weather and soil.

Thanks in advance

[Kössi K]

You'll be able to grow zucchini and tomatoes, from small seedlings, at least easily here, I've done so for years in various places in Finland. You can find these small plants (taimi, plural: taimia) sold in most green houses that sell usually flowers and plants; you can look for these: taimitarha (plant nursery), kukkatarha (flower house), puutarha (garden/nursery), puutarhamyymälä (nursery shop), or sometimes taimisto (plant nursery). Most often those places go by the names of puutarha or kukkatarha, but depends on the shop.
Those places wll also sell you the soil that is ready to use; for example, are turvemulta (peat soil mix) or kasvimaamulta (veggie patch soil), names depending on the manufacturers, like Biolan or Kekkilän, that are common favourites here. Those usually have some extras like clean peats, composts etc. added. So you won't need extra preparations or add in anything yourself.
You can ask the puutarha experts at those shops for their faves.

And as she said above, it's too late to start from seeds this late in the season - the growing season is short here, but with small seedlings you can grown anything from herbs to cucumber, chili, tomatoes, cucumbers, cauliflower, cabbages and salads, broccoli, brussel sprouts, even corn. I've done all those from seeds AND seedlings both (my parents have farmer roots and a green thumb), and the availability is pretty good - but be fast right now, as most places will sell out (if they haven't already - I got the last 4 corn and last 5 seedlings of broccoli and capsicum at my local place) - and some greenhouses may stop selling veggies (and smaller greenhouses/puutarha stop selling everything aafter Juhannus, I've noticed) around Juhannus (midsummer), but that varies a lot. Just a word of warning anyway, as those seedlings often sell fast because of the short season.

So yeah, herbs, peas, beans, zucchini, tomatoes etc. that you mentioned seem to grow all nicely - I haven't tried okra, so cant say for that. Trying pumpkings for the first time myself this year.