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

Muffin99

A good friend of mine grew this - it gets BIG!

rosie383

I have just had the garden re-done with all lovely topsoil and it is ready for planting. I wonder if it is too late to plant potatoes, onions, etc? I have potatoes that are old and sprouting in my veg rack, as I was away from home for quite a lot of the past 2 months.....can I plant them, or do I have to buy seed potatoes?
I am a real novice, but not afraid of some hard work.
Also, my Mum just gave me some packets of seeds which have a use-by date of last year. Is it worth just planting them and see? Flower seeds, that is.
One more quick question: we want grass in an area of about 16msq of the garden. It seems that if I sew my own grass, it may take months before we can fully use it, but ready to lay turf is very expensive......any ideas what is best? I think it would be difficult to keep little ones off the grass for very long.

Primrose

Rosie, if you can find some onion sets in a garden centre, it's worth trying to plant them to get a late crop and you can certainly try digging a trench for your old sprouting potatoes. I've often thrown some of these into my compost heap and got a crop. As for other seeds, many seeds will grow if they're a year old so sow them as it's a pity to waste them.
Yes, you will have to wait several months if you use grass seed before you can really walk on play on it as the roots take time to get established and during that time, unless you have sprayed the soil first with a weedkiller you will get every weed on earth growing through now the season's warming up, and even if you used good quality seed you could still end up with a poor quality lawn as a result. . Even turf will need some work as it will need time to get settled and you will have to water it very regulalry for the first few weeks to prevent the roots drying out. If you've got small children I'd been tempted to try and afford the turf. At least then you'll have a play area they can walk on before summer has completely disappeared.

rosie383

Thanks for the advice Primrose. I will try to persuade my other half to shell out for some turf. We really want to be able to use it this summer.
I will have a look for some onion sets, and I think I will take my toddler out now, and start planting the spuds and seeds. Some of them can go straight in the garden, and all of them were free from one source or another, so if they grow, it's a bonus.
I really can't wait to start, as there has been only a wee bit of topsoil over a pile of old rubble in a sloping , badly-shaped garden, and I came back home after being away to visit my sick mum for a few weeks, to find that my hubby had got 'someone in' to terrace the garden, and lay down 3 ton of lovely topsoil, and new paving. It looks twice the size!!!!!!!

Primrose

Happy growing Rosie. If you've got some lettuce seeds, sprinkle them direct in the soil too. It will save you a fortune in buying salads and it's now warm enough to sow them outdoors. I've got a little patch of them coming through.

brownfrog

brownfrog wrote: »

Thanks for this - I got a huge clump of lemon balm from Freecycle and was wondering what it could be used for.

Just thought people might be interested - I gave this a shot, pouring hot water over a tablespoon of leaves as directed in some online instructions. It was actually quite nice. A bit weird at first, sort of like drinking slightly lemony lettuce (which sounds disgusting, but actually much more palatable than it sounds - anyone who's eaten wood sorrel will recognise it as a similar taste), but much nicer than expected.

rosie383

Thanks Primrose. i have a packet of lettuce seeds, that I thought it was too late to plant. It's a nice day, and I'm at home all day waiting for deliveries, so it's out in the garden for me then :-)

Lotus-eater

brownfrog wrote: »

Just thought people might be interested - I gave this a shot, pouring hot water over a tablespoon of leaves as directed in some online instructions. It was actually quite nice. A bit weird at first, sort of like drinking slightly lemony lettuce (which sounds disgusting, but actually much more palatable than it sounds - anyone who's eaten wood sorrel will recognise it as a similar taste), but much nicer than expected.

We used to do this all the time, till I managed to kill all the lemonbalm in the garden, not a mean feat considering the previous house owners had filled the garden with it. Never believe someone if they tell you something is impossible to kill (unless it's horsetail, couch grass, ground elder or bindweed.. or japanese knotweed........ you get the idea).
I also do it with mint, makes really nice refreshing tea.

Primrose

Brownfrog - was interested in your lemon balm 'infusion'. I haven't got any lemon balm in the garden but do have several clumps of sorrel. As that has a lemony flavour (we used it in mixed salads) do you think this would make a similarly successful hot drink?

brownfrog

L-E: mixing it with mint sounds like a good idea. I'll give that a go (if the mint ever comes back - that also seems to be on the 'yes it is possible to kill it' list).

Primrose: it's possible to buy sorrel tea, so it is used as a drink. There's a recipe for sorrel and mint tea here (halfway down the second column): http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bJI6WBs348cC&pg=PA104&lpg=PA104&dq=sorrel+tea+fresh+leaves&source=bl&ots=6D6sPpB6gU&sig=5ZJ54sIvHqk7-biNIDXr2d_jRxE&hl=en

Take heed of the warning about the kidneys though. It's a diuretic as well, so even though it might be refreshing, it's probably not going to be very thirst-quenching. Sorrel contains about 30% oxalic acid, and it's recommended that you shouldn't exceed 5g, so that's about 15g of leaves. I would think a 1/4 cup wouldn't even be 1g, though.