Nothing beats growing and of course eating your own food. Its fresh, flavoursome, nutritious, hasn’t travelled half way across the world, isn’t wrapped in plastic and depending on the way you grow it, it will also be organic. Also as well as all that, it is also extremely satisfying and very rewarding, knowing that you have grown it yourself.
But where do you start and what do you choose to grow?
We are lucky to have a couple of allotment plots, one of which we have had for two years now and the other for one year and we grow lots of different fruit and veg, most of which we eat ourselves and then some gets given to different family members. But you don’t need an allotment to grow your own food, in fact you don’t necessarily need a garden, just a bit of space to put a few pots or containers.
I am going to share a few things for you to grow which we think are quite straight forward to grow and easy-ish!
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- Radish
This small but mighty vegetable is a great addition to any salad to add a bit of flavour. They grow really quick and (if the weather is good) they can grow in 4-6 weeks and don’t take up too much space. I like to grow these in any spaces I have in between other crops but they can also be gown in pots.
2 of my favourites to grow are:
Globe Sparkler – pink, small and round
French Breakfast 3 – pink and elongated
2. Courgettes or Patty pan squashes
If you want something that produces plenty of fruit with very little input, then these are for you. Courgettes or Zucchinis for my American friends are part of the squash family, as are, Patty Pans .We actually had so many of these last year, that we were giving them away to everyone!
They are great fried or roasted and can be used in soups or grated to make fritters. You will need a bit more space for these though as the plants themselves are quite large but you can grow them in a large pot.
These beautiful yellow ones produce so many fruits, the more you cut, the more they grow!
3. Beans
Runner beans are probably the easiest and most common to grow. These don’t necessarily take up too much ground space as they grow upwards but you will need canes or a fence to grow them up. We like to grow runner beans, borlotti beans and beautiful purple dwarf French beans, that turn green when cooked.
Runner beans are also really nice to just pick off the plant and eat straight away.
4. Peas
The peas from our plot very rarely make it back home as you cant beat just popping them out the pod and straight into your mouth, there and then!! But if they do make it to your kitchen, then be sure to try them in a mint and pea soup.
Peas grow similar to beans and grow upwards, so again you will need some canes or a fence to grow them up. Peas can also be started off a bit earlier than beans, so you get a lovely early crop. We love these peas for an early crop.
5. Cucamelon
These aren’t your run of the mill crops and some people love them and some hate them but we are definitely lovers here. These little berry type fruits are a cross between a watermelon and a cucumber. They look like mini watermelons but taste of cucumber. They taste great straight off the plant or add them to salads or how about sliced in a cool G & T! These are also a climbing plant and can either be grown up canes or I also grow them in a hanging basket.
You should give Cucamelons a go.
There are so many more crops that you can grow easily, like carrots, raspberries, kale and swiss chard, to name a few but I wanted to choose 5 that we found the easiest and don’t require too much work – now if someone could help me grow broccoli, I would be very grateful!! haha
Amy