If you could only grow ONE thing...

unrecordings

Farway wrote: »

Given OP disasters I'd not be growing a blight prone subject like tomatoes, wait a few months, then see them die with blight would be just too much IMO

Definitely horses for courses I think - my tomato crop was the best yet this year. However I can never get radishes to work and my chard is very poor - both of which are supposed to be the easiest things in the world to grow

joannaber

I would try either runner or dwarf beans, but start them of indoors and transplant when big enough.

Davesnave

Trees, and then more trees.

orangecrush

Thank you everyone!!
I think we're going to do... *drumroll*

1. More potatoes - but a tried and tested variety
2. Rhubarb
3. Beans (because I've never tried them before... who knows, they may be me-proof)
4. And the cheating apple tree!

Rhubarb and the tree as an investment, potatoes so I don't feel like a complete failure and beans because experiments are fun.



Thank you all so much for playing my thought game and giving me inspiration!

unrecordings

For the potatoes, act soon - the best varieties tend to go out of stock quite quickly

Rhubarb - if you've the space, put in a couple of varieties to spread the load (I've four plants/three varieties: Glaskins, Timperley and whatever was here before we moved in - but for some reason Victoria has always pegged it within a season, despite a few attempts)

Runner Beans - Enorma for me - prolific & non stringy in my experience

Apples - I got a couple of Poundland bareroots, Bramley & Cox Orange Pippin, You got to make sure they pair up so that they fertilise each other. Our bareroots went in the ground about a week or two before the beast from the east - both survived, The Cox is fruiting this year.

unrecordings

Davesnave wrote: »

Trees, and then more trees.

Agreed
In the aftermath of the whole street trees thing here in Sheffield I've a couple of dozen oak seedlings potted up & ready to deploy

Next year I've a small number of Chinese Mahogany to go outside, some potted, but one will be let loose

in_my_wellies

I've cheated a bit

One vegetable - runner beans, start off inside, plant out, never failed me yet
One fruit - autumn raspberries, cut down to 10cm after fruiting is finished and feed in the spring, freeze well
One herb - mint
One tree - Bramley apple

I always grow tomatoes but in the greenhouse they are a lot of work as they need regular watering, etc
I'd forage for blackberries too

Apodemus

If it really is just one thing, i’d say Rocket. It grows well as a perennial. Even here in the north of Scotland it has survived five winters. My only problem was that when I planted it I assumed it was only going to be there for a short season, so it is in my veg bed and gets in the way of a decent “dig-out and replace the soil” exercise. It has big fleshy roots all the way through the raised bed. I also planted two full rows as I was thinking it would crop like romaine, whereas I now know that two “bushes” would suffice for our use - it’s best eaten when the growth is young and we can’t keep up with its growth rate, even though I am now down to five plants.

I’ve moved some into the top of an old wall, along with my Mediterranean herbs (sage, rosemary, thyme, lemon thyme), where it is doing ok, but not as well as in a deep bed.

theoretica

Blueberries - if you delay picking them long after they look ripe they get sweeter (or get eaten by birds, but the birds ignore mine). Do you have acid soil and more than one plant?

Red currant is another one I would add to your list.

Davesnave

Apodemus wrote: »

If it really is just one thing, i’d say Rocket.

For similar reasons, I grow Mizuna. Though it's not perennial, it produces well in a polytunnel bed in winter and adds a bit of pazzaz to lettuce etc.


The leaf in the variety I have is very divided and not what one receives from some sources, so now I allow a few to go to seed in spring and keep this strain going.