Grow the foods you enjoy
While it’s simple to follow trends you see on Instagram, it’s crucial to devote time and effort into cultivating fruits, vegetables, and herbs that you’ll love eating and placing on your table.
A perfect climate for producing a plenty of veggies for your cooking. Even if you’re still working on your green thumb, these 10 crops are simple to cultivate! Additionally, if you just have a tiny outside area, you may grow all of these vegetables in pots on your balcony or patio.
Tomatoes
Put tomatoes in a bright, protected area as they require a lot of warmth and sunlight. To grow tomatoes, just use a pot or grow bag; they are perfect for balconies, courtyards, and other tiny gardens. Just be careful to trellis your tomato plants as they develop!
Lettuce
Large, green lettuce heads are highly tolerant of inexperience. They thrive in lower temperatures and some shade and grow quickly (usually in about a month). If you select a lettuce type with loose leaves, you may pick the outer leaves every two weeks and let the remaining lettuce grow continuously.
Carrots
Carrots from your own garden will provide some colour to your meal. Don’t put seeds too closely together and make sure the soil is well-drained (terracotta pots can assist with this). In 12 to 16 weeks, carrots should be ready for harvest.
Potatoes
Put any long-forgotten potatoes that are growing in a compost bag so they can grow more. Remove around half of the compost by making a few drainage slits in the bottom of the bag (set it aside to top up the bag as shoots grow). In each bag, plant a couple of potatoes, keep the compost moist, and store outside where it won’t freeze.
Chillies
My chilli plants continue to produce fruit despite my carelessness, every year. By the end of the summer, you should have your first harvest of fresh chillies if you plant seeds in the spring (again, simply use seeds left over from cooking fresh chillies). Trim them back after the winter so they won’t grow back the next year.
The best herbs for beginners
Choose the herbs you use the most in your cooking if you only want to start with one or two because most herbs are rather simple to maintain. As well as mint, rosemary, and sage, the herbs basil and coriander are also suitable. Look at the basil growing instructions.
You may add additional flavours as your confidence improves, which will inspire you to broaden your culinary horizons as well! Herbs like thyme and oregano are robust enough to withstand the winter, while lemon thyme is tasty and simple to grow.
Choosing what vegetables to grow at home
Having trouble deciding which vegetables to start with? It’s straightforward: the veggies you eat the most should be the focus of your early kitchen garden plans.
You can discover that you have much too much of one crop before you get into the habit of eating what you raise, and then all of a sudden you’re eating radishes for every meal.
Grow the vegetables you like to eat the most, and you won’t have as much trouble with a little surplus (besides, you can typically find friends, relatives, or neighbours who are willing to accept a few more)! Planning for two or three crops that will arrive one after the other is an excellent idea, as I indicated previously.
