Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Oct 06, 2025

Modern vegetable garden ideas: what to grow and when

Modern vegetable garden ideas: what to grow and when

Starting a modern vegetable garden in containers or raised beds? Here are the 10 things you need to grow

There are some good reasons to start a modern vegetable garden. Homegrown tastes better and is good for your wellbeing. It brings a sense of calm from planting and picking your own fresh produce and it’s the healthier option too, as you can grow things organically. And whether you want salad leaves with extra crunch, flavour packed tomatoes or fresh chillies to add a kick to your cooking, growing your own is easier than you think.

If space is tight, the trick is to grow small amounts of different crops that offer big rewards. Avoid anything high maintenance and instead opt for easy produce such as cut and come again salad leaves, chillies, dwarf varieties of French beans, leafy greens and compact tomatoes. However small your space you can squeeze in pots that will keep you going for months. Read on for our round-up of 10 of the best vegetables to get started on.

1 Perpetual spinach


If you have a small growing space and life is busy this is the crop for you. Try ‘Popeye’ or ‘Medania’, and eat the leaves raw for a hit of vitamins and minerals. Expect to harvest seven to eight weeks after sowing. Pick smaller leaves for the salad bowl and just remember to keep on harvesting and your plants will keep on giving. The perfect cut and come again crop, this will be prolific throughout summer and autumn and into the following year giving you a steady supply year round.



2 Dwarf French beans

A simple crop to grow that doesn’t take up much space, you’ll get dwarf beans right through summer until October. Try a cut and come again variety such as ‘Speedy’ and the plant will keep on replenishing. Available in dark purple and yellow varieties as well as green, dwarf French beans love a container and grow to a dinky 40-60cm in height. They don’t need a bamboo wigwam either as they’re self-supporting. Even better they’re stringless so less prep for you in the kitchen.



3 Tomatoes


Choose a reliable variety such as ribbed ‘Costoluto Fiorentino’, a medium-sized, Italian tomato that grows well here in a sheltered south facing spot and looks good too. Sow indoors in March, then transfer to larger pots on a well-lit windowsill, gradually acclimatising them to outdoor conditions before planting out in early summer. If space is limited choose a compact variety of cherry tomatoes such as Tumbling Tom Red’ or ‘Balconi Red that will cascade out of a window box.



4 Spring onions


The ultimate small space crop, a couple of sowings are all you need as the homegrown varieties tend to have more of a kick so you tend to use less. Easy to grow and low maintenance too, they won’t mind if you forget to water them. They’re fast growing so as soon as they’re pencil sized you can start harvesting them for salads, usually in around eight weeks. Remember to keep sowing them regularly for a constant supply. Choose ‘White Lisbon’ or red stemmed ‘Apache’.



5 Pak choi

Quick and easy to grow in even the smallest of spaces, pak choi will thrive in a container if you don’t have space for a full-on vegetable plot. Either plant seeds or buy young plants from a nursery. It can be grown as a cut and come again crop, or left to develop into a mature plant. The young tender leaves work well in salads – look out for the yellow and red leaved varieties. They also work well in stir fries and steamed. The leaves should be perky, and the stalks plump and firm to the touch.



6 Kohlrabi


In shades of jade green and dusky purple, kohlrabi makes a stunning addition to the garden. Speedy, easy to grow and versatile, it should be top of your list as the sweet, nutty taste is delicious and it’s the star of the summer salad bowl. It prefers a sunny spot and is a quick grower which makes it suitable for sowing every three to four weeks to keep a regular supply coming from late spring right through to autumn. You can start to harvest the bulbs as soon as they become golf-ball sized.



7 Garlic


If you’re short on space garlic is ideal for growing in containers. So simple to grow, all you need do is push cloves into a pot of soil. Once planted it requires very little attention. For best results buy garlic ‘sets’. To prepare garlic for storage hang the bulbs, together with their foliage, in bundles. After a few weeks trim the stalks and roots, and rub off the outer layer around the bulb. Store in a dry well-ventilated place and you’ll have a lovely supply of fresh garlic for months to come.



8 Mizuna


The spicy Japanese leafy green mizuna has serrated green or purple leaves that intensify in colour as they near harvesting. The mild-flavoured leaves taste a little mustardy. It’s a ‘cut and come again’ salad, and a good choice if you want to grow fresh leaves in winter. “It’s one of my favourites for spring, autumn and winter salads,” says Sarah Raven. “I grow it almost all year round.” Sow in spring then again in August to October and you will get two to three months’ worth of leaves.



9 Fennel


Give it some sun to bask in and fennel is rampant. The feathery foliage and spectacular yellow flowers make a pretty addition to the garden, and the stalks and bulbs taste really good too. “I love it,” says Monty Don, “both to eat but especially to look at. I grow it for its foliage and given good soil, it makes a handsome plant.” It’s easy to grow from seed straight into the soil outside from June to August. Eat within 24 hours of picking once the bulbs have reached the size of a tennis ball.



10 Chillies


Grow a few chillies in a sunny window box and each plant will produce a dozen or so fruits. Hungarian Hot Wax is one of the most prolific chillies, producing for three to four months of the year. Sow the seeds indoors in March and pot up when they are around 10cm tall and the first flowers appear. They need full sun and a sheltered spot so transfer them outside only when it’s warm enough. “Stuff with cream cheese, thyme and pine nuts then griddle and serve with a glass of wine,” says Sarah Raven.



How should I arrange my vegetable garden?


Plan carefully, thinking about your favourites. Then factor in how much time you want to lavish on your plants. You may want to rule out any high maintenance choices. Make a list of the vegetables you would like to grow then factor in the size of your garden. If space is tight remember that most vegetables grow well in containers. Once you’ve decided what you want to grow it’s time to work out how to fit it into your space. Now for the technical part: there are three groups of vegetable types: legumes (such as beans and peas), brassicas (kohlrabi, mizuna, cabbages), and roots (chard, spinach, garlic), and the rule is that no member of any group should follow another in the same group on the same piece of ground. But you don’t need to worry about this if you’re opting for pots.

What vegetables go well together in a garden?


Look at companion planting charts that show which vegetables are happy to be planted alongside each other. The groupings are based on complementary characteristics such as growth habits and nutrient requirements. Tomatoes, for example, like being planted with peppers, spinach and onions, while beans prefer being near peas and chard.

What are the best vegetables to plant right now?


Just because the weather is turning cooler doesn’t mean you can’t grow your own. Opt for leafy greens, as some can still be sown in time for winter cropping. Choose leafy varieties of vegetable such as chard, perpetual spinach, oriental greens such as mizuna, and salad leaves like lambs lettuce. Sow under cover to speed up the process and give them a head start, then plant out. Remember to keep picking the leaves to keep them coming.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×