Plant Once, Pick Again And Again! Discover The Easy Crops That Keep Your Kitchen Supplied With Fresh, Home-Grown Flavour
Some edible plants are worth growing for twice the benefits! Of course, they give you fresh harvests for the kitchen. But, with the right varieties, they are also a good looking plant for your garden.
Yes! Instead of growing a crop, picking the whole thing and starting again, you simply harvest a little at a time. The plant then keeps producing fresh new growth, so you get repeat pickings from the same space.
A few leaves for a salad, a handful of herbs for dinner, or a quick snip of chard for the pan can all come straight from the garden without stripping the plant bare.
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They are particularly useful where space is limited. Raised beds, patio pots, troughs and small vegetable patches can all become more productive when you choose crops that regrow after picking. Better still, many of them look good enough to grow among flowers, so the kitchen garden becomes decorative as well as delicious.
Here are three crops that work hard, taste great and look far too attractive to hide away.
Swiss Chard
Swiss Chard is such a decorative, edible crops. Glossy leaves and brightly coloured stems in red, yellow, pink, orange and white. Pick the outer leaves regularly and the plant keeps producing. It looks superb in mixed borders, raised beds or large containers, adding colour long before it reaches the kitchen.
Cut-And-Come-Again Lettuce
Loose-leaf lettuce is quick, easy and ideal for repeated picking. Harvest the outer leaves while leaving the heart to keep growing, and you can enjoy fresh salad over several weeks. Choose red, bronze and frilly-leaved varieties for extra style, especially in patio troughs, window boxes or neat edging along veg beds.
Herbs
Chives, mint and oregano are brilliant repeat-pick herbs, giving fresh flavour for months without needing much space. Chives bring neat upright leaves and pretty pom-pom flowers, mint adds lush, scented foliage, and oregano forms attractive mounds that bees love in flower. Snip little and often to encourage fresh, tasty growth. You can shop a collection with all three of these herbs here.
How To Grow And Harvest Cut-And-Come-Again Crops
The golden rule is simple – never take too much at once. Pick the outer leaves first, or snip small amounts from several plants, rather than cutting everything back hard. This leaves enough healthy growth behind for the plant to recover quickly.
Keep plants watered, especially in pots and raised beds, as leafy crops can run to seed if they dry out. A regular liquid feed will help keep fresh growth coming, particularly when plants are picked often.
Harvest in the morning where possible, when leaves are crisp and full of moisture. Use clean scissors or fingertips, avoid tearing stems, and remove any tired or yellowing leaves as you go.
Little and often is the secret. Treat these crops well, keep picking regularly, and they will repay you with fresh flavour for weeks, sometimes months, from one small patch of garden.
