Grow 6
6 easy crops for our Scottish climate.
Wherever we grow food, from a windowsill at home or somewhere in our local community, it can be fun, good for nature, our climate and us. Grow 6 takes 6 simple crops, with tips gleaned from Scottish growers that can grow well anywhere and everywhere, whatever the weather! Develop your skills and knowledge, build food-growing confidence, and find inspiration to keep growing.
N.B These simple top tips are best used in conjunction with horticultural expertise referenced in resources below.
You can learn and practice by yourself at home, or, better still, with others in your community, sharing the delights of growing together and exchanging seeds, knowledge, and resources. If you have a ‘top tip’ or particular variety you know grows well here, in Scotland, do let us know. The Grow 6 crop cards start with spring-summer crops, then switch at the end of summer for autumn-winter growing. Looking to grow with others in your local area? Try the links below, or look for land to grow together, and contact us.
Good Luck!
What to grow?
Tatties
Why not? The trusty Scottish staple with so many types and tastes to choose from. If you try growing one thing make it the tattie!
Tomatoes
For new growers bush tomatoes are by far the best tomatoes to grow with our unpredictable summers. Small fruits ripen faster in the late summer months and bush types don’t require support or much maintenance.
Greens
Mixed leaf lettuce, lettuce, spinach, chard, kale, rockets and lambs lettuce can all be grown in our Scottish climate.
Berries
Classic Scottish fruit, bursting with flavour and vitamins, some form of berry should be included in every growing space. Strawberries can be grown in containers, from pots to hanging baskets; raspberries, currants, and gooseberries do best in fertile open ground.
Herbs
In a small garden or big pot, if you like to cook, perennial (grow for several years) herbs are perhaps the best plant you can grow to eat and support wildlife- woody herbs such as sage, marjoram and thyme produce flowers the bees go wild for.
Peas
The perfect vegetable to grow, pick and eat straight from the plant and the more you pick they more they produce! There are lots of types to choose from podded or mangetout/sugarsnap (where you eat the whole pod), tall or dwarf, and for edible and something beautiful too the purple podded ones are lovely.
Resources
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- Seeds of Scotland For open pollinated seed adapted to Scottish growing conditions.
- Garden Organic Expert, in-depth advice on how to grow organic food with nature.
- Charles Dowding’s wonderfullyaccessible online materials demonstrating and demystifying ‘No-Dig’ and ‘live socials’, inspiring folk to grow food.