Today 
Alys Fowler, Head Gardener at the Gardeners' World garden, Berryfields, has picked out her top ten vegetables for beginners to grow. These plants require minimum maintenance, suffer from few pests and diseases and will produce a decent yield with little skill or effort required.
Top ten vegetables for beginners
Beetroot 'Boltardy'
'Boltardy' is a popular and reliable globe-shaped beetroot. It has good resistance to bolting, making it a perfect choice for beginner growers. It produces medium-sized roots, with smooth skin and deep red flesh.
Cut-and-come-again salad leaves
For an easy-to-grow, fresh salad, try growing cut-and-come-again salad leaves. Leafy greens and lettuces can be harvested for their young leaves instead of mature hearts. Because they are harvested when young, they don't need much space to grow, so you won't need to thin them out. They also grow over a long period, so you can harvest the leaves in winter and early spring.
Bush tomato 'Gartenperle'
Bush tomatoes are easier to grow than cordon varieties, as they don't need supporting and their side shoots do not require pricking out. Bush tomatoes grow well in a hanging basket or pot, both in a greenhouse and outdoors.
Early potatoes 'Anya' or 'Red Duke of York'
Potatoes may be grown in a container or in the ground. Early potatoes can be harvested in July, before the hot, humid weather increases the threat of potato blight. Wait for the flowers to die down and poke around the base of the haulms, then dig out the golf-ball-sized tubers with a blunt-ended fork.
Peas 'Half Pint'
'Half Pint' peas are smaller than regular pea plants, so don't require staking. They can even be grown in a container. The young tips can be trimmed and added to salads for a delicious spring treat, and are followed by flowers and pods.
Radish 'Scarlet Globe' or 'French Breakfast'
Radish seeds are fairly large, so they can be sown at the correct spacing, without the need to thin them out. They are ready to harvest within a few weeks, and just require a little hand-weeding and watering in dry weather.
Miners' lettuce/winter purslane
Miners' lettuce is so easy to grow it has naturalised in some areas of the UK. It provides a steady salad crop from October until March, and tastes similar to spinach.
Oriental salad mix
Oriental salad leaf mixes can be grown as cut-and-come-again leaves. They require little attention and will provide you with a variety of flavours, colours and textures to enjoy in stir fries and salads. They may be grown in containers or in the ground.
Chilli 'Cayenne'
Chillies grow well in containers on a window sill or in a warm, sunny position outside. They have similar growing requirements to bush tomatoes and will continue to crop until the first frosts in autumn.
Courgette 'Defender' F1
Courgettes are renowned for producing an abundant crop from just a few plants. 'Defender' F1 is a British variety, ideal for small spaces, and is resistant to cucumber mosaic virus.
More from the Chelsea Flower Show
- Read Chelsea Flower Show judge, James Alexander-Sinclair's blog.
- Chelsea Flower Show gold medalist, Jekka McVicar blogs from the show.
