Great “Easy Lucrative Garden Crops” Hunt: What costly foods can you grow with ease?

Austin_Allegro

Bean sprouts are dead easy. Just soak some mung beans overnight, put them in a yoghurt pot with some holes poked in for drainage. .Water them morning and night and you'll have sprouts ready to eat in 4-5 days. Even a lazy useless gardener like me can manage that!

littlefox_2

Prudent wrote: »

Thanks so much for all this info skydivemacca. I was wondering about trying carrots and spring onions - my little collection of bags and pots is certainly expanding! Are there any varieties of carrots that do well in pots? I have some border space left for the spring onions.

Yes all the little round carrots do well inpot such as "Paris"

littlefox_2

arkonite_babe wrote: »

I bought 4 crowns of asparagus at £1.49 each in B&M bargains last weekend. if these grow then that's loads saved as asparagus is at least £4 a small bunch in my local supermarket

May have to wait though as asparagus cannot really be cropped until its third year as early cropping will weaken the plants

THRIFTY

the easiest plant ever to grow is beet spinach - its less fragile than spinach, and you just pick off the tops as you need them, a true "cut and come again" - just dont remove all the leaves at once. if you grow it in a sheltered spot/greenhouse if you have one, it'll grow from march to october. tastes good too!:j

i've been growing my own for a while now, and anyone who says the supermarket is cheaper may be right, but for freshness, taste and enviro friendliness you just cant beat your own veggies and fruit! we grow:

carrots, beetroot, parsnips, 3 types of lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, beet spinach, courgettes, grapes (red and white), runner beans, broad beans, french beans, spring onions, apples, pears, cherries, greengages, victoria plums, strawberries, basil, thyme, coriander, mint.
I've grown peas and spuds in the past, and while the taste is amazing, you need a fair bit of space to get a crop big enough to warrant the effort.

THRIFTY

people worry about carrot fly which attacks the root, but they dont fly over 30" high, so put your pot above this if they create problems

VickiB

Tomatoes. If you don't want to bother too much with them, use a deepish pot or a DEEP grow-bag. Plant a trailing variety (then you don't need to stake them) and one that doesn't need to be trimmed or messed about with (most toms need to be pricked out and have the side shoots taken away).. Easy to grow from seed. Don't be shocked when you only get 12 seeds in the packet - most should germinate and after that they just need feeding and watering.

hopefulshell07

So far I grow myself:

Potatoes in Potato Bags and in the ground.
Raspberries and Blackcuurants in the ground and in planters


And in Grow Bags and Planters:

Carrots, Runner Beans
Cabbage, Onion Sets
Aubergines, Chili Plants
Peppers, Peas
Rosemary, Thyme
Lemon Thyme
Tomatoes, Lettuce
Cucumber, Radish
Beetroot, Spring Onions
Dwarf Beans, Chives

And mostly the seed came from the cheaper stores like Lidl and Wilko's when on sale and from the seed companies when on offer for just postage. I get my pots from Freecycle and offer plants and excess seeds on there too! I do buy compost but that will be my only expense this year as I have everything else I need.

CarlaKoala_2

Just to say that if you do end up with a glut, friends run away if you approach them with more bags of beans and your freezer is fit to bust - SELL THE EXCESS.
I went to my local WI market - called now country markets - and asked if I could sell my excess strawberries last year. No probs them said - paid 5p for membership - FOR LIFE, read their instructions on how to present the food - need a minor outlay of freezer bags and approved stickers - and they sell them for you and market rates. Won't make me a fortune but has paid for all my seeds for this year and local people have very local and pretty much organic food.

descartesmum

After watching commercials in the states I wanted a Topsy Turvy. It's like a hanging basket and you can plant 1-2 tomato plants in it. I ordered 2 via amazon.co.uk for £7.99 each. It looks easy to use. Now I have to wait for the seeds to to grow.

I also have 3 blueberry bushes which have produced these past 2 years and I see flowers coming this year. Also a cranberry bush.

I smuggled seeds in from the states, well, I can't find white sweet corn here nor the red. I also brought over cinnamon basil and tomato seeds (Heirloom). I'm hoping that I do get ears this year.

I'm trying broccoli for the first time. I did grow red onions last year and they were a sucess.

Just try to hold yourself back and try to grow things that you know you will eat. I planted fennel and had not a clue when to pull it up. I see that I have more growing this year.

Good luck.

pilgrim59

brownfrog wrote: »

Bit OT here, but how do you use this? I grew it last year as it was suggested as a substitute for spinach, and I found it realy quite horrid - really strong and sort of earthy-tasting. Is there a point beyond which it's too much and should just end up in the compost bin?

Eat it young ... lightly steamed, stir fried or use the leaf part in salad. I use the mature leaves more like cabbage than spinach, and steam the stems separately as they need longer.

It makes good compost though