THE TOP 13 CROPS FOR BEGINNERS
1 CUT-AND-COME-AGAIN SALAD LEAVES
There are many mixes available – try French or Italian, Oriental or Californian, peppery or mild. When the leaves reach an average height of 7-10cm, snip them off with scissors to about 2cm above soil level; the stumps will regrow and you should get two or three more pickings.
2
Red & Green ‘Salad Bowl’
This lettuce can be left to develop a heart or be grown as cut-and-come-again. Sow salad crops straight into the ground as soon as the soil is warm, towards the end of April. You can speed things along by warming the soil before you sow, by covering it with clear plastic for a few weeks (reuse it year after year), or by sowing under tunnel cloches. Sow as thinly as possible, in short rows or a small block, every few weeks throughout summer to ensure a continuous supply.
3 ROCKET
You can never grow too much of it! To stop it bolting (going to seed too soon), give it plenty of water and a little shade. But if it does start to bolt, just pick off the flowers – they are delicious. Sow in short rows or, for best results, in a window box that has a built-in water reservoir.
4 CLIMBING BEANS
These are incredibly easy to grow. Less productive than runner beans, but arguably finer-flavoured, are French beans – the purple-podded ones also have pretty purple flowers. Tie together bamboo canes to support them; wigwams look attractive, but rows are easier to harvest. If growing in bags or containers, choose a dwarf variety like ‘Sprite’. Sow directly into the soil in April; two beans at the base of each cane. Or sow into pots on the windowsill now and plant out in late May. When it’s harvest time, pick the beans regularly; the more you pick, the more you’ll get.
5 Mangetout peas
Varieties like ‘Oregon Sugar Pod’ are excellent, both for their crunchy tender pods and their shoots, which are tasty eaten raw in salads. Peas need a framework to support them, so put up some chicken wire or netting between two posts. You can sow them directly in the ground from now until June. But if you are troubled by mice (they love peas!), it will be safer to start the seeds off indoors, sowing them into a length of guttering. Once the plants are up, make a shallow trench in the veg bed, water the compost in the guttering so it holds together, then slide it, with the seedlings, into the trench.
6 COURGETTE ‘DEFENDER’ F1
This is prolific, reliable and disease resistant. You’ll only need a couple of plants, so it may be easier to buy them from a garden centre.
7
Tomatoes
Some of the newer tomatoes for hanging baskets are incredible performers: ‘Hundreds and Thousands’ can produce more than 2,000 fruits from a single basket! For a red cherry, try ‘Suncherry Premium’ F1; for yellow, ‘Sungold’ F1 takes some beating; or try delicious baby plum ‘Santonio’ F1. You can sow seeds indoors now, or buy young plants online. Tomatoes are greedy, so for bumper crops, water them daily and feed with a specialist potash-rich feed like Tomorite.
8 BEETROOT
Picked small and roasted, it can be delicious, and so are the young leaves. ‘Boltardy’ has good flavour and good resistance to bolting. Sow directly into the ground from now until July. Keep the soil moist and water every 10-14 days in dry weather.
9 RADISHES
These peppery favourites are a doddle to grow, are ready within four weeks and look so pretty in salads. Sow into containers, or directly into the ground throughout summer, like other salads.
10 CARROTS
Beginners often steer clear of these, because carrot fly can so easily ruin your crop. But if you sow a resistant variety such as ‘Flyaway’ F1, you should get away with it. You can sow now under cloches, or unprotected from mid-april and throughout May. It’s the smell of carrots that attracts the fly, so sow very thinly to minimise disturbance when you thin out the seedlings. Or use a seed tape, so the carrots are correctly spaced. Then sow spring onions alongside, so the smell confuses the pest.
11 HERBS
There is always room for herbs in the garden. Low-growing thymes and marjoram grow happily in gaps between paving; fennel and angelica make statuesque border plants; while rosemary and sage are lovely beside a door or path. Grow mint and basil in pots to bring inside, and add a dash of colour to your food with the edible flowers of viola, nasturtium, marigold, rose, sweet rocket and chives.
12 NEW POTATOES
Buy six seed potatoes and put them in an egg box in a cool, light place until they produce plump, green shoots (this is called ‘chitting’). Then fill two containers a quarter full with compost, burying three potatoes in each near the bottom. As the shoots grow to the surface, keep adding more compost until the container is full, keeping it moist. After 10 weeks or so, your potatoes will be ready.
13 BLUEBERRIES
These have pretty white flowers in spring and fiery autumn colour; choose two plants of different varieties for good pollination and plenty of fruit. If you don’t have the kind of moist, peaty soil in which rhododendrons flourish, grow your blueberries in pots of ericaceous compost.