Crops for your home garden

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Wondering what to grow or sow next in your home garden? Have a spot in your vegetable patch, or some space in your allotments? Here are some popular crops that you can grow at home.

Tomatoes

You need rich soil and a good sunny spot to grow tomatoes in your home garden. The best time to sow your tomato seeds are February, March, and April. While tomatoes are known for their traditional red colours, they can actually grow in a variety of colours, including, yellow, orange, green, dark purple, pink, and striped! Tomatoes generally have two ways of growing – Cordon (indeterminate) or Bush (determinate). Bush type tomatoes can be planted in pots or hanging baskets. Cordon type tomatoes grow tall and are supported by a cane or stake, or CoirProducts coir growpoles make excellent plant supports. There are over 10,000 varieties of tomatoes worldwide. For home growing in the UK, the following are the easiest to grow:

Salad leaves

Salad leaves are cut-and-come-again crops, meaning they re-grow more each time you cut them. Salad leaves are ideal to grow in CoirProducts growbags, as the growbags help with strong root development and have excellent drainage. Sow outdoors from mid-spring through to late summer, and they can be harvested from May to November. Well-draining soil and sunlight are the resources that these salads need. Below are some of the popular items that you can grow easily in your home gardens:

Lettuce – a staple in every salad, and there are so many varieties
Chicory – adds a bitter hint to your salads
Endive – another bitter lettuce flavor
Sorrel – a sharp flavoured leaf enriched with vitamins
Spinach – amazing in both hot and cold dishes
Mizuna – peppery, cabbage flavour great for stir-fry
Mibuna – light mustard flavour good for steaming and frying
Rocket – strong peppery flavour, often added to pizza, sandwiches and pasta

Peas

Peas are easy to grow from seeds sown during spring and throughout early summer. Water the plants when they start to flower, and a few weeks after when the plants establish flowers. Add a thick mulch around the base of the plants to help prevent the soil drying out. Apart from dwarf cultivars, most peas need support to scramble up. For taller varieties, choose supports that are thin enough for the tendrils to wind around. Coir growpoles are ideal for this, as they retain moisture and are eco-friendly.

Potatoes

A single potato seed can produce many potatoes, so home-grown potatoes often do well. Seedling trays, or small pots are best for sowing seeds, we recommend CoirProducts 8cm pots when just starting out. Sow late March to early April. Allow them to sprout for 4 to 6 weeks. Plant potato shoots in straight trenches, around 12cm deep and 60cm apart. CoirProducts growbags are also suitable to grow potatoes at home. An open sunny position gives the best yield, potatoes yield better if the soil is kept moist. Harvest your potatoes in late June to early July.

Below are the best potato varieties to grow at home:

Daisy Gold – brilliant for boiling and baking
Kennebec – perfect in curries, stews, and soups
Red Gold – good for frying, roasting, and mashing
Red Pontiac – another great one for boiling and baking
Rio Grande – these potatoes make excellent chips
Magic Molly – purple in colour, they are a great addition to BBQs
Masquerade – an art-like potato which makes excellent roasties
Purple Majesty – another incredible purple potato which tastes great when fried
Swedish Peanut Fingerling – pan-fried or roasted bring out the flavour in these potatoes
Yukon Gold – excellent for mashing and roasting

Runner beans

These beans are easy to grow when you have the right support. Simply fill a pot – a 23cm Coir Pot will do the trick – with your chosen potting mix and make a 5cm deep hole. Drop runner bean seeds and fill up the hole and water the seeds. Runner beans will germinate in about a week and grow faster than you think. Runner beans need support as they grow, so support these with coir growpoles – we recommend the CoirProducts 100cm growpole, as this will allow you runner beans to continue growing upwards, rather than flopping to the side.

Chilli peppers

Chillies are very simple to grow at home, and don’t require any fancy gardening equipment. A single plant can give you up to a hundred chillies. Chillies can be grown on sunny windowsills, in a greenhouse, or on the ground. Start sowing your chilli pepper seeds during February, March, and April. Chilli seeds need plenty of warmth to germinate. Fill a seed tray with a moist potting mix of your choice, sow a few seeds and cover them. The seeds can be covered with CoirProducts mulch mats, and keep them in a warm place. Germination usually takes 7-10 days. Then plant your seedlings in individual pots – such as CoirProducts coir pots. Harvest your chillies from July to October. The more you pick, the more your plant will grow. Some of the most popular chilli varieties to grow at home include:

Hungarian Hot Wax – a relatively mild chilli
Loco – medium heat
Fuego – medium heat
Hot Thai – a spicy chili, definitely adds some heat to your dish
Apache – another hot chilli
Prairie Fire – the more ripe these chillies are, the spicier they get – Very Hot!

Not only do crops bring a variety of colourful plants to your garden, but they can make your meals so much tastier. Growing your own crops and being able to enjoy them can bring so much satisfaction to you.