Top 5 things to Grow in Your Veg Patch for Beginners
If you have become interested in the trend for homegrown produce but aren’t sure where to start then here are a few beginner-friendly things to get going with, and some handy tips.
- Salad Leaves
Fresh leaves are perfect for so many different dishes. Some grow as quickly as three weeks and they will continue growing so you can harvest them again and again.
Sow them throughout the summer, plant them in pots and keep them well watered.
- Beetroot
This deep purple root vegetable is fast becoming a superfood, with a host of health benefits. There are a number of colorful varieties available, and all easy to grow. Sow seeds between March – July and harvest over the summer May – September. Sow seeds directly into moist soil & compost, they’ll be ready to harvest for salads and sandwiches a couple of months later.
- Onions and Garlic
The power couple of the cooking world. They are super easy, almost maintenance-free produce to grow, so a great place to start if you’re new to growing veg. Plant onion bulbs or garlic cloves into the soil in spring or autumn – hen leaves them to do their thing. In late summer when the foliage dies away, you can harvest them, easy-peasy!
- Peas
These sweet little veggies are an easy-to-grow crop that enjoys cooler weather. Sow them directly into the ground anywhere from March to June and look forward to fresh-picked peas later in the summer from June to August. They will need a support system for their stems, a bamboo stick is a good option, and add some chicken wire or netting between supports at each end of the row. Handy tip: the more that you pick them, the more they produce.
- Potatoes
Plant potatoes during late February & March in potato bags that are part filled with compost. When shoots begin to appear above the soil, cover them over with more compost. Repeat until the bag is full, and then make sure to water them! 10 to 20 weeks later when the foliage starts to yellow and die back, tip the bag out and collect up your own home-grown delicious potatoes, perfect for so many dishes!