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Garden help
Vegetables
How to grow each one, step by step: when to plant, how to look after it, what goes wrong and when to pick. The steps go by soil and weather, not by month, so they work wherever you garden.
Fruiting crops
Grown for their fruit: mostly warm-season, killed by frost.
Tomatoes
Solanum lycopersicum
Capsicums
Capsicum annuum
Chillies
Capsicum annuum
Eggplants
Solanum melongena
Sweet corn
Zea mays
Okra
Abelmoschus esculentus
Strawberries
Fragaria × ananassa
Pumpkin family
Sprawling or climbing vines that want warmth, room and steady water.
Cucumbers
Cucumis sativus
Zucchini
Cucurbita pepo
Pumpkins
Cucurbita maxima, C. moschata and C. pepo
Rockmelons
Cucumis melo
Watermelons
Citrullus lanatus
Beans and peas
Pods and seeds, and they leave the soil better than they found it.
Bush beans
Phaseolus vulgaris
Climbing beans
Phaseolus vulgaris
Runner beans
Phaseolus coccineus
Peas
Pisum sativum
Broad beans
Vicia faba
Leafy greens
Quick crops picked a few leaves at a time.
Lettuce
Lactuca sativa
Rocket
Eruca vesicaria
Spinach
Spinacia oleracea
Silverbeet
Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris
Pak choy
Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis
Celery
Apium graveolens var. dulce
Cabbage family
Cool-season crops that need firm soil and steady feeding.
Kale
Brassica oleracea (Acephala Group)
Cabbage
Brassica oleracea (Capitata Group)
Broccoli
Brassica oleracea (Italica Group)
Cauliflower
Brassica oleracea (Botrytis Group)
Brussels sprouts
Brassica oleracea (Gemmifera Group)
Roots and tubers
Grown for what forms underground: loose, stone-free soil matters most.
Sweet potatoes
Ipomoea batatas
Potatoes
Solanum tuberosum
Celeriac
Apium graveolens var. rapaceum
Swedes
Brassica napus (Napobrassica Group)
Turnips
Brassica rapa subsp. rapa
Carrots
Daucus carota subsp. sativus
Beetroot
Beta vulgaris
Radishes
Raphanus sativus
Parsnips
Pastinaca sativa
Onion family
Long, slow crops that hate weeds and wet feet.
Onions
Allium cepa
Spring onions
Allium fistulosum
Leeks
Allium ampeloprasum (Porrum Group)
Garlic
Allium sativum
Herbs
Picked little and often, for the kitchen.
