Top 10 Crops for Beginners

Have a read of our choice of the best crops for beginner growers – if you need a little bit of inspiration on the plot, this blog should help you decide which edibles you will succeed with. If you are a newbie on the allotment, the last thing you want is a failure of your plants, as this can discourage you from trying again. Here, we provide a list of fruit and veg that you shouldn’t find too difficult to cultivate.

1. Radishes

Because radishes are quick to mature they can be used as a ‘catch crop’ being sown between rows of slower-growing vegetables such as peas and potatoes. They can even be used as row markers of slow-germinating crops, such as parsnip and onion – the radishes germinate quickly, marking out the row where the other crops have been sown and can be pulled before interfering with the main crop.

2. Salad leaves

These greens are exceptionally easy and quick to grow from seed – the fastest can be picked within just three weeks of sowing. They may be raised in the open ground, used to make attractive edgings to borders or decorative potagers, or grown in containers, where they will take up very little room. Most are cultivated for cut-and-come-again use, so you can pick what you want, when you want.

3. Strawberries

It’s hard to beat the flavour of this juicy crop. Fortunately, they are one of the easiest and most reliable fruits to grow. In smaller gardens, it may be easier to raise your crop in large containers. During the spring and summer, container-grown plants must be watered regularly and given a dose of liquid fertiliser every week once flowers start to appear. Stop once the first fruits turn pink in colour.

4. Potatoes

Relatively undemanding and easy to grow, this is a reliable favourite. Potatoes begin in the depths of mid-winter when young tubers known as seed potatoes are left to sprout before planting in the spring. The harvesting season starts with the ‘first earlies’ in May and continues well into autumn with the ‘maincrops’. In-between, the ‘second earlies’ will give a steady supply of tubers right through summer.

5. Raspberries

These juicy fruits can thrive in partially-shaded areas where few fruit or vegetables would grow, but full sun is always best. Such is their hardiness that they will produce a bumper crop of their sweet, mildly acidic fruits even in disappointing summers. They’re a great choice for cooler, northern climates – as they flower late in the spring there is little danger of them being damaged by late frosts.

6. Garlic

This is great for beginner gardeners, as it requires little maintenance, is relatively trouble free and takes up hardly any outdoor space. Bulbs from supermarkets can be used for planting purposes but as they are often produced abroad, they may not grow well in the UK. It’s therefore much better to buy garlic bulbs from a specialist supplier who will know which varieties are best for your region.

7. Tomatoes

The tomato is a much-loved plot fixture – the plants are easy to get going, quick to reach maturity and once they start producing their flavoursome fruits there’s no stopping them! There is a variety to fit every space – compact cherry tomatoes for hanging baskets by the front door, or vigorous-growing vine toms for both greenhouse and outdoor cultivation in pots, grow bags or in the ground.

8. Beetroot

Each ‘seed’ you will find in a packet of beetroot is in fact a pod that contains a number of actual seeds. That means each one is likely to produce two or more germinated seedlings. Beetroot is undemanding once the seeds have successfully germinated and the resulting seedlings have been thinned to their final spacings.

9. Mint

Mint can be rather greedy, so put a mint plant in its own five-litre pot, keep it well-watered and pick it regularly. It will soon grow into a large bushy plant that will provide a constant supply of leaves from April-November, year after year. Once it is established, take your mint out of the pot each spring after it has died back in winter, and divide the plant, repotting new ones with fresh compost.

10. Onions

Whether started off from seed or sets (immature bulbs grown especially for planting) you’ll be producing a valuable staple that’s as flexible in its use as it is potent in its flavour. Even when ideal soil conditions aren’t met, many gardeners find success with onions started from sets, which are more forgiving than seeds and better able to cope with poorer, lumpier soils.

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