What are your best and easiest fruit,vegs and herbs to grow?

[ThatBloodyWoman]

Trying to plan what to put in this year and looking for ideas.....
Whats easy? Whats well worth it? Whats pretty reliable?

Strawberries- so easy that they end up taking over my garden and quite often I get more than one crop a year.

Swiss chard is very easy to grow from seed and if you let one bolt then it will self-seed and you'll have free Swiss chard forever.

Courgettes, beans and peas. Rosemary for herbs.apples for fruit but you might have to wait a while!

Can you sow swiss chard seeds directky in the ground Eau ? Sounds interesting!

Wonky, I have put a couple of apple trees in this Winter! I would have imagined peas to be difficult,but I'll definitely think about them now.

Carrots, peas, broad beans, basil and parsley. Never had a problem with any of them.

Peas are easy if you can get the seedlings past the slugs, same goes for pumpkins.
Jerusalem artichokes are easy but only if you don't mind having them forever.
My herbs are all in pots and do quite well, sage, thyme and rosemary are definitely the hardiest, although mint does well too (& inspired mojitos in summer) Lemon Balm is easy to grow but becomes a bit of a weed if you are not careful and I find it hard to use.

Yes, I have always sown direct. I have horrible clay soil so I mix in a bit of compost to help them get started.

I grow a lot of herbs too; sage, fennel and oregano can be added to the 'easy' list.

All these suggestions are getting me excited!
I'm definitely trying swiss chard,and giving peas a go.
I've got some jerusalem artichoke on order -I've never tried them (heard they give you bad wind though....)
I'm kind of thinking of one bed being for potatoes and perennials this year (something else and perennials next year..) so I'll probably put the jerusalem artichokes in there.
Anyone got any experience of pak choi -both in growing and use?

Yep the J.Artichokes do give you terrible wind but they are extremely yummy. I've been told if you introduce them in small amounts your gut gets used to them and it's not so bad but we forget and just end up eating them and opening a window
We have made them into a lovely nutty mash, fried with garlic or my chef brother put together a wonderful coleslaw with them raw.

autumn fruiting raspberries

oh, and beetroot

I've gone to town with the fruit bushes and put in raspberries,gooseberries,blackcurrant and blueberries.There will be strawberries too.
It'll be interesting to see what will do well.
I have some beetroot seeds,and onion sets,and I've ordered wild garlic.
Is it worth putting a rhubarb crown in?

Tomatoes are easy, ditto chillies.
Broccoli/calabrese
Radishes - super day and seed to reach in ~4 weeks

Super easy, not super day

rhubarb and gooseberries.
I was going to suggest raspberries and currants too.

I have 2 blueberries in pots (lime soil here)

I grow lots of fruit because it is simple to eat and expensive to buy.

We use pak choi a lots in stir fries and I also cook several Indonesian dishes that it is good for.

I have never grown it, but this year I have a greenhouse, so I am going to be a bit braver. Anyone else grown it?

I'm going to do pak choi this year - it's pretty hardy and doesn't like too high a temperature so I suspect greenhouse may not be required?

Ooh tumbling toms in a small pot are so easy and delicious. Mini potatoes in bags are loads of fun and delicious. Spinach in a grow bag < as long as it is stopped from bolting> and my favourite aubergine! I grow an absolute beauty in a small pot which I lovingly cared for daily until it grew into a thing of beauty. I went to work, came home and discovered ds had chopped it into slices. I ate every bit. It felt the right thing to do

I can also recommend rosemary and mint. I'm never without either < but keep mint in a pot they can be tricky>

Definitely tomatoes and I'd say pumpkins/courgettes too