Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Give it a go on March 19, 2010, 14:52
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If there were a top 5 list of easy crops ::) what would be in yours?
I’m sure us beginners would appreciate your views :)
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beetroot , spuds , radish , runner beans, and good old tomatoes
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Spuds...Chard...French/Runners...turks turban/bns/pumpkins.....courgettes
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leeks, onions, garlic, chillis, courgette, runners ... ohh, that's 6 :tongue2:
¥
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leeks , runners, beetroot, sweet coen and .........courgettes!
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The easiest for me I think are, potatoes, onions from sets, runner beans, courgette/pumpkin family and short self-supporting peas :D
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French beans
squash
carrots
tomatoes
sweetcorn
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tomatoes are hard!
i got about my first successful harvest last year from 6 plants and i've been trying for about 8 years!
my easy ones are
carrots
courgettes
potatoes
raspberries (can we include perennials?)
runner beans
:tongue2:
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Turnips
Leeks
Cabbages
Chard
French Beans
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Courgettes are really easy...
Strawberries
Beetroot
Sweetcorn
Radish
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Interesting thread.
I wonder if knowing what folk regard as Medium Difficulty and Hard, and thing that people would avoid (no flavour, lot of work for very little gain, takes up huge amount of space for the weight of harvest etc) would be of help to people just starting out and trying to decide what to grow?
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Dont bother with:
Perpetual Spinach (vast amounts of work to get small portions)
Peas (you have to grow acres to fill a pint pot)
And purely based on utterly disgusting tase, i wouldn't waste land growing:
Swedes
Butternut Squash
Pumpkins
In fact the only thing ive ever tasted that makes me retch more than pumpkin is Hammerhead Shark. To duplicate the taste of Hammerhead Shark, boil newspapers in used motor oil for four hours.
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Dont bother with:
Perpetual Spinach (vast amounts of work to get small portions)
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that's odd - we had about a dozen plants, POP to grow and they've kept us in spinach for a year now - and they're not done yet
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Dont bother with:
Perpetual Spinach (vast amounts of work to get small portions)
Peas (you have to grow acres to fill a pint pot)
And purely based on utterly disgusting tase, i wouldn't waste land growing:
Swedes
Butternut Squash
Pumpkins
If you get your peas right you can pick twice a day when they get going, have a freezer full and then lots of stuff for the compost heap. Peas is good.
Swede is great - essential in any winter vegetable stew and if you thinks its disgusting then you maybe need a new chef in your house :D :lol:
Daughter makes a mean butternut squash soup :D
There we go - different opinion.
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French beans
squash
carrots
tomatoes
sweetcorn
Ditto Blackcap
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My faves for easy growing are
courgette
runner beans
broad beans
borlloti beans
onions
peas
leeks
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And purely based on utterly disgusting tase, i wouldn't waste land growing:
Swedes
Butternut Squash
Pumpkins
oooh, they all taste great ::) :lol:
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onions spuds tommies leeks and any brassica
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beetroot , spuds , radish , runner beans, and good old tomatoes
Pretty much what I'm growing this year, plus garlic and onions!
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As a newbie ive been looking closely at this thread but what would you keep well away from if you were new to GYO :D
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Grow stuff that you have a passion for - doesn't matter if it's considered to be 'difficult' because you'll do more research and tend it with greater care.
Keep away from stuff you (or your family) don't like, because you'll either give it away/compost it/or neglect it (are you really going to squish CWB eggs on brassicas if you don't like your greens!).
SS
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Don't grow stuff just because you think you should. Stick to the things you like and are more expensive in the shops.
Don't start off with things that take a lot of room, like sweetcorn, brassicas need a lot of room, so I'm not giong to do many tis year, after all farm shop up the road sells 2 cabbages or 2 cauliflowers for 70p!
As to "don't bother with" Bostoninbred! Perpetual spinach, was brilliant, kept picking it for the chickens and it kept growing! PEAS? May not get many lbs for the space, but Pennydog and I love eating the peas as we are picking them. Well I pick she eats!! lol
I love swede mashed with a little butter and black pepper, and Butternut squash makes a superb soup!
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tomatoes are hard!
i got about my first successful harvest last year from 6 plants and i've been trying for about 8 years!
my easy ones are
carrots
courgettes
potatoes
raspberries (can we include perennials?)
runner beans
:tongue2:
Why are tomatoes hard?, they are one of the first things they teach children to grow.
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I do not think that toms are hard to grow but indoor ones do need daily attention and complain if they are neglected. there is a bit of friendly competition at our site and a lot of the old lads are very eager to point out to others if there is a problem with the crop, they always refer back to the war days of growing stuff so not to use food coupons.
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I grew pounds and pounds of toms last year, and all were green and tough. Simply wasnt enough sun to ripen them up. >:(
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Why are tomatoes hard?, they are one of the first things they teach children to grow.
They are on my list of "maybe" for newcomers too:
Outdoor they are very late to crop (so not that worthwhile per unit area) and susceptible to blight - which can wipe out the whole crop (which is disheartening for a newbie)
Same with Main Crop potatoes - they have great crop-per-area, but if blight wipes the whole lot out it can put you off! And main crop spuds as cheap-as-chips (Sorry!) in the Supermarket.
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i would say these 5 are easy for me
early potatoes
swiss chard
lettuce and mixed leaf
radish
tomatoes
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Interesting that carrots crop up so often. Mine always get done by the dreaded fly - but there's a nemotode out now for that so hopefully I'll get some this year - the children hate the supermarket ones so that's a good one to get right. But up until now would definitely not be on my 'easy to grow' list.
Tomatoes (if you have a greenhouse - otherwise blight is a problem)
Spuds - just mound em up
Cucurbits - take your pick, as long as they don't get cold and stay damp they're easy
Runner/French climbing beans - ditto
Radish
Not necessarily what I would grow but the easiest IMO
Hardest:
Cauliflowers
Celery
Carrots
Asparagus
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i would say these 5 are easy for me
early potatoes
swiss chard
lettuce and mixed leaf
radish
tomatoes
I would agree with that list, but would substitute runner beans for the tomatoes.
Runner beans will give you a crop even if they are not particularly happy, whereas tomatoes, although easy to get started, do require some knowledge and care to get them to produce well (and in time!), and of course blight is always a big risk when growing them outdoors.
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growing runner beans for the first time this year so thats why there not on my list :)
maybe next years list then
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Easy - Spuds, dwarf french beans, beetroot, garlic, toms, parsnips, carrots, lettuce,swede
Hard - cabbages (all the netting), onions (from seed), cauli, sprouts, peas (netting)
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Easy - Spuds, dwarf french beans, beetroot, garlic, toms, parsnips, carrots, lettuce,swede
It's easy because you're cheating!!! (You were only supposed to recommend your top 5!) :nowink:
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Oops :blush:
I knew that really, I just thought I'd show off :tongue2: :lol:
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Thanks for the input guys :) Runner beans were always going to be in my plot this year just because their my fav. Onoins leeks and garlic have been planted. I will also include beetroot and spinich and will buy a couple of rubarb plants tomorrow. I just wish I had a larger plot :(