Grouping and life of crops

[gadgetman]

I hear grouping is best for plants, but the names are confusing me - ie brassicas?

Can anyone sum the groups up in simpleton terms?

I'm new to veg plots and gardening (lived in a flat until 2 years ago), although 2nd year of growing chillies - so far another successful year *crosses fingers*

Also which plants/crops will come back again next year, and which are once only? Can the once only's (onions and potatos etc) seed next years crop or is it buy seeds only?

Many thanks.

[taff]

Brassicas - anything cabbage/kale related including sprouts
curcurbits - anything sprawly with fruits that need lots of water to swell, cucumbers/squash/pumpkin
root vegetables - anything that grows below ground and you pull up and eat - carrots/parsnips/celeriac etc
aliums - onions/garlic/shallots/spring onions etc
anything else - spinach/lettuce/radish....

basically, it's all about rotating stuff grown so that you don't encourage diseases to take hold in your soil, and to not deplete the soil by growing the same thing in the same place. Also by rotating, you're giving yourself the chance to provide good growing conditions for next years plants this year, by thinking ahead ot what they're going to need.
You can use some of your potatoes for next years crop if you like, and save seed from your onions if you let some flower. You can also save bean seeds, pumpkin/squash/courgette/sweetcorn/ seeds, garlic bulbs.
There's not much you can't save the seed from, but you could end up with some interesting crosses.
Plants that come up again and again are generally, artichoke and asparagus, strawberries [fruit bushes and trees], but asparagus are the only ones you leave alone for 20 years, the other ones you either split, or grow new plants from runners.

[SarzWix]

I think the brassica group is quite confusing, because it includes some leafy veg and some veg that grow below ground;

cabbage
cauliflower
kale
broccoli
calabrese
sprouts
pak choi
mustard greens
kohl rabi
turnips
swede

[gadgetman]

Thanks.

So far I'm looking at growing (some plants, some from seed):

Tomatos (plants)
Cucumber (plants)
Sweetcorn (plants)- curcurbit?
Carrots (seed)
Parsnips (seed)
Spring Onions (seed)

That'll start me off in the veg world for this year.