Top Ten Easy To Grow Vegetable Ideas

Top Ten Easy To Grow Vegetable Ideas

If you're just starting out with growing your own vegetables these are the perfect selection to get quality home-grown produce with the minimum of effort.

1. Spinach Beet

Make sure you buy spinach beet seed rather than just spinach, as it's much easier to grow and tastes just as good. Just sow a couple of meters in the spring and you'll have spinach until the frost gets it in the winter.

2. Courgettes

Sow these in the spring and you'll be harvesting them most of the summer and autumn. The more you pick them, the more you'll grow, and if you chop them up you can freeze any you have left over.

3. Carrots

The easiest varieties to grow are Early Nantes for summer carrots and Autumn Kings for winter ones. Make sure you dig your ground over well to get long carrots, but don't use fertiliser or you will get 'fanging' (extra bits growing off the sides). Because of the warm, wet summers we now suffer from a lot of carrot root fly - you can get around this by growing them under insect netting (I also use this method on leeks because of leek moth)

4. Runner Beans

Plant these from May onwards (or when there is no risk of frost) about 15cm apart and as soon as you have some growth, give them a cane to climb up. Once you see small red flowers, you can water the flowers themselves to get the beans to set. Make sure you keep picking these as the more you pick, the more you'll get! Try to find a 'stringless' variety to make them less hassle to cook.

5. Potatoes

These are one of the few vegetables that are easier to grow in a garden rather than an allotment because of the risk of potato blight. It's still possible on an allotment but it pays to buy a blight resistant variety and grow them under a mini polytunnel. Potatoes will grow easily in a raised bed or in a potato planter on a patio.

6. Onions

Grow these from onion sets to make thing easier and put some bird netting over them to stop the birds pulling them up. You can grow winter onions planted in October/November which will be ready in early summer and plant standard ones in March which should be ready in September/October. Bend the tops over a few weeks before you lift them.

7. Lettuce

You can sow lettuce most of the year provided you protect them against the frost - a small polytunnel or bell cloche is perfect for this. Make sure you keep on top of the slugs and snails as they will destroy your plants, a beer trap or copper slug bands means you don't need to use pellets which can kill birds.

8. Garlic

You can plant cloves from a supermarket but proper bulbs from a nursery or garden centre will fare better. Plant the cloves just below the surface of the soil about 10cm apart. Plant in autumn and they should be ready around mid august time.

9. Leeks

You can sow these in an outdoor seedbed in March/April and transplant them when they are about the thickness of a pencil, or buy a tray of them from a nursery or garden centre. Plant them in holes about 20cm deep and filled with water - water them regularly until they get established. Cover them with insect mesh to stop leek moth (you can plant them next to your carrots and cover them both with an insect mesh tunnel)

10. Radish

These grow well in raised beds or patio planters - make sure the soil is well dug and add some bone meal. Plant summer varieties in mid-April and autumn ones from July. You can use a bell cloche to start planting earlier.