Easy Crops
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Course 1 · Chapter 8 · Easy Crops: Salad Leaves, Radishes, Potatoes, Beans and Courgettes
Chapter 7 dealt with pests and diseases. Now for the rewarding part: five crops that forgive beginners' mistakes, give a quick return and suit a cool climate. Start with a few of these rather than a long list, and use the skills from Chapters 4 to 6 to grow them well.
Why These Five
Each is quick or reliable, needs little equipment and is hard to get badly wrong. Dates below are approximate for a cool, temperate climate and vary with your local frost dates (check).
| Crop | Sow or plant | Ready in | Key points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salad leaves | Sow outdoors from early spring to late summer; indoors or under cover for winter leaves (check) | About 3 to 8 weeks | Sow a short row every 2 to 3 weeks; harvest outer leaves and the plant regrows; keep moist; shade in hot spells so they do not bolt |
| Radishes | Sow outdoors from early spring to early autumn | About 4 to 6 weeks | Sow thinly where they are to grow; water regularly, since dry spells make them woody or hot; pull promptly (check) |
| Potatoes | Plant seed potatoes in spring, about 10 to 15 cm deep (check) | Earlies about 10 to 12 weeks; maincrops 15 to 20 weeks (check) | Chit (sprout) the tubers first; earth up as shoots grow; watch for blight (Chapter 7); grow well in large containers |
| Beans (runner, climbing French, broad) | Runner and French: sow after the last frost, indoors earlier; broad: sow in autumn or early spring (check) | Roughly 10 to 14 weeks (check) | Climbers need tall supports; pick often to keep plants cropping; they like well-fed soil and plenty of water when flowering |
| Courgettes | Sow indoors in mid spring; plant out after frost danger (Chapter 5) | About 8 to 10 weeks from sowing (check) | Need sun, rich soil and space; harvest small and often; one or two plants feed a household |
Growing Each Crop
Salad leaves
Cut-and-come-again mixes give repeated cuttings from one sowing. Grow in a container, a window box or a spare corner. Succession sowing keeps the supply steady (Chapter 9).
Radishes
The fastest crop on the plot. Sow them between slower rows, such as parsnips, to use space that would otherwise be empty, and to mark the row.
Potatoes
Earthing up (drawing soil around the stems) stops tubers turning green, which makes them unfit to eat. Dig up a plant to test whether the tubers have reached size.
Beans
Beans fix nitrogen with the help of soil bacteria, so leave the roots in the ground when the plants are finished; they enrich the soil for the next crop (check).
Courgettes
Water at the base, not over the leaves, to limit mildew (Chapter 7). If the crop outpaces you, a marrow will form; picking regularly stops this.
Not Yet Verified, and Sources
- Source. Written from general knowledge of gardening; no specific source was read. Nothing is quoted from a text.
- Marked (check). Sowing windows, times to harvest, planting depth for potatoes, the details of each crop's care, and the nitrogen benefit of bean roots. Verify against your seed packets and local advice.
Exercises
You want fresh salad from spring to autumn from one short row. Describe a sowing and harvesting routine that avoids both a glut and a gap, including how you would pick the leaves.
You have one large container and a sunny patio. Explain how you would grow early potatoes in it from seed potato to harvest, including what you would do about light and about disease.
A friend's courgette plants have lots of leaves, a few huge marrows and white powder on the leaves. Name what went wrong in each case and what they should do now and next time.
Quick Reference
- Salad: sow little and often; pick outer leaves
- Radishes: thin sowing, steady water, pull on time
- Potatoes: chit, plant, earth up; never eat green tubers
- Beans: after the last frost, strong supports, pick often
- Courgettes: sun, space, water at the base, harvest small