If you’re right at the beginning of your journey and you’re getting started with growing, you probably have a couple of questions:
What will work in my growing space? Is my soil suitable?
Where can I buy the best seeds, and where can I find the equipment I need?
But first, let’s start at the very beginning: what grows well in UK gardens? In other words: what is possible?
Vegetables you can grow outside in the UK
Potatoes
Carrots
Parsnips
Cabbages
Swiss chard
Spinach
Broccoli
Cauliflower
Swede
Turnips
Onions
Garlic
Courgettes
Lettuce, chicory, and other salad leaves
Radishes
Brussels sprouts
Kale
Mushrooms
Spring onions
Tomatoes
Chillis
Cucumbers
Artichokes
Jerusalem artichokes
Broad beans
French beans and pole beans
Sweetcorn
Celery
Celeriac
Beetroot
Pumpkins and winter squash
Kohlrabi
Peas and mangetout
Pak choi and bok choi
Mustard greens (e.g. tatsoi)
Vegetables that do better in greenhouses or polytunnels
You may still be able to grow these successfully outside if you live further south or have a very warm, sheltered spot:
Peppers (the plants will grow fine outside, but the fruits need extra heat to ripen)
Aubergines
Sweet potatoes
Fruit you can grow outside in the UK
Apple trees
Pear trees
Plum trees
Strawberry plants
Raspberry bushes
Blackberry bushes
Gooseberry bushes
Cherry trees
Blueberry bushes
Redcurrant bushes
Blackcurrant bushes
Lemon trees
Fig trees
Grape vines
Medlar and quince trees
Rhubarb
Fruit that does better in a polytunnel or greenhouse
As before, if you live further south or have a very warm and sheltered spot, you may still be able to grow some of these outside:
Melons
Peach, apricot and nectarine trees
Apricot trees
Orange trees
Kiwi fruit
Pomegranate trees
Herbs and flowers
All cut flowers can be grown outside, as can nearly all herbs (in fact many would struggle in the heat of an under cover environment – with the exception of basil, which loves as much heat as you can throw at it!). You can grow as much dill, parsley, rosemary, thyme, sage, lavender, lemon balm chives and bay as you like (and that is not an exhaustive list).
If you’d like to try growing ginger or turmeric root, they prefer to grow under cover but can also be grown in pots on a sunny windowsill.
Anything else…?
If you grow something that isn’t on these lists, please drop it into the comment section below. If you don’t live in the UK, tell us what your climate is like. Perhaps it is similar enough that we can give your crops a go!
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