Kitchen Garden Forum

I was wondering today which vegetable or fruit I would recommend for a child or adult to first try growing if they'd never grown any of their own food before when I was wandering round the garden and looked at my two red currant bushes.

I thought this would have to be my nomination as a plant which never disappoints.. Every year, whatever the weather and however much a mess I make of pruning them they never fail to give me an an enormous crop and they never seem to be bothered by blight or other diseases. I just wish they didn't taste so sharp and that one year I would succeed in consuming everything they produce.
Judging by the crop of flowers on this year's bushes I'm going to have an embarrassing surplus again.

Always salad crops, up quick so there is a result quickly be it a radish or lettuce. The cut & come mixes even more so.

For a child I would go for radish or similar for an adult female I would go for scented flowers for a male I would plump for a vegetable

For the surprise factor, any root crops that are under the soil, i know i still get a buzz every time i lift one of these and there is a good crop.....

I would say that my earliest memory of growing anything would be, at primary school, when we were each given a jam jar with a ring of damp blotting paper inside it and we placed a couple of beans inside, between the glass and the blotting paper. The teacher put them on the window sill, each child had his/her name written on the jar, and we watched the beans first put out roots and then shoots. It was the most magical experience and I still vividly remember it all. You could simultaneously plant the same variety of beans in a pot and see which came up first. I'm sure that would inspire future gardeners. In fact, I'm very tempted to try this experiment all over again.

That must have been a primary school standard, I remember that as well.

Snap Diane! We must be of a similar age group
The thought occurred to me that I might be a lot more successful in germinating my ordinary climbing beans this way but does anybody still use blotting paper these days, apart for signing international treaties for photo opportunities? It seems to belong in the same generation as the use of carbon paper and Tippex I suppose several rolled sheets of newspaper would have the same effect.!

Brilliant - yes, newspaper would work equally well I would think.

When my granddaughter was in the last year of junior school I used to pick her up after school on a Wednesday then we would go to the plot for a few hours ,she was very interested in everything including barrowing manure into the plot , she never mentioned one of her lessons at school was growing flowers and vegetables I believe the teacher could not understand how a young girl new so much about the subject in fact she very often asked my granddaughter for information on somethings they were discussing needless to say when the exams came around she was top of the class , four years later she is not interested one little bit if you mention going to the plot she will run a mile away from me

She'll come back to it Robo....we all do.

First she has to discover boys, pop music and all the other teenage attractions. Like many people who then settle down and acquire a house and garden that is when the sleeping interest will suddenly start happening again.

My Grandson grew assorted flowers and cress last year at his primary

And ponies....