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The easiest vegetables to grow in pots: start with greens and herbs

A tomato plant takes three months to give its first fruit. A container of Swiss chard gives leaves in six weeks and keeps giving for a year. Grow leafy greens and herbs first.

Why greens and herbs come first

• Speed: most are ready four to eight weeks after you plant seedlings.
• A long harvest: chard, kale and parsley can be picked for months.
• Part shade: most grow with three to six hours of direct sun, so they use the spots that tomatoes cannot.
• Shallow roots: 15 to 25 cm of mix is enough.
• Value: a bunch of spinach or a packet of herbs costs R20 to R35 and wilts within days.

Keep your full-sun spots for fruiting crops.

Swiss chard

Swiss chard, sold as "spinach" in most South African shops, is the most useful small-space crop.

• Plant three in a 20-litre container.
• Four hours of sun is enough.
• Pick the outer leaves from about six weeks.
• Give it regular water and feeding. Yellow leaves mean hunger.

Two containers planted a month apart give a steady supply.

Kale, cabbage and pak choi

Kale is tough and frost-hardy. Plant two in a 20-litre container and pick leaf by leaf from the bottom up. Cabbage takes a lot of space and time for one head. Chinese cabbage and pak choi are faster, at six to eight weeks, and suit containers better.

Morogo and other traditional greens

Amaranth and other traditional greens thrive in the summer heat, when lettuce and spinach struggle.

• Amaranth (imbuya, thepe): fast and heat-loving. Pick young tops and leaves from four weeks, and let a few plants seed for next year.
• Cowpea leaves: grow cowpeas for both leaves and beans.
• Pumpkin leaves: the young leaves and shoot tips are cooked as greens.

Eat a wild green only if you, or someone who knows it well, can identify it for certain. Never pick from roadsides or from ground that may have been sprayed.

Lettuce

Lettuce is a cool-season crop with shallow roots.

• Grow loose-leaf types, which produce for weeks.
• Plant about 20 cm apart.
• In summer it bolts and turns bitter. Grow it in autumn, winter and spring, or under shade cloth.
• Keep it evenly moist.
• Sow a few seeds every three to four weeks.

Spring onions

These are the easiest crop of all. Buy a bunch with roots, use the green tops, and stand the white bases in a glass of water for a week. Then plant them 5 cm apart in a pot. Cut the tops as you need them, and they regrow several times.

Herbs

• Parsley: part sun. It picks for a year.
• Coriander (dhania): a cool-season herb that bolts fast in heat. Sow a little every three weeks from autumn to spring.
• Basil: full sun and warm weather. Pinch out the tips to keep it bushy.
• Mint: always in its own pot, because it takes over.
• Chives: cut like spring onions.
• Thyme, rosemary and oregano: full sun and a dry, gritty mix. Water them less.

Cut and come again

How you harvest decides how much you get.

• Pick the outer, older leaves, two or three from each plant, and leave the centre untouched.
• Cut with scissors. Do not tear.
• Never take more than about a third of a plant's leaves at once.
• Pick often. Regular picking keeps plants young and leafy.
• Feed after heavy picking.
• Remove flower stems as soon as they appear, unless you want seed.

In mixed containers, put the taller plants on the south side, so that they do not shade the shorter ones.

This guide is based on Chapter 6 of Growing Vegetables in Small Spaces.