Monty Don has declared rocket as 'probably the easiest of all plants to grow' in any garden, and it is delicious too. The Gardeners' World expert says you do not need to be a horticultural genius to grow tasty vegetables in your garden.
Rocket: The Easiest Plant to Grow
With summer officially here, it is time to enjoy tasty, nutritious salads. Instead of spending nearly £2 on a bag of rocket at the supermarket, Monty Don says you can grow your own 'for free.' Rocket is a fast-growing 'cut-and-come-again' crop, meaning you can enjoy repeated harvests.
Growing rocket from seed could hardly be simpler, Monty explains: 'If you sow them direct you can leave them where they are. If you sow them in a seed tray you can prick them out and then plant them out about four or five weeks later at whatever spacing you want.'
Most salad crops are equally simple to grow. Monty adds: 'If you want something to eat from your garden, that is certainly one of the easiest things you can do, and from that any kind of salad or lettuce grows very easily from seed.'
Easy Propagation Tips
Growing salad from seed is straightforward, but Monty says taking cuttings is not as difficult as many believe. 'Cuttings are sometimes seen as something that can be a little bit tricky, but by and large they're not.' Taking cuttings from a plant you like serves as an 'insurance policy' in case of disaster.
Monty recently took salvia cuttings, noting they root easily and provide protection. 'You keep the cuttings protected over winter and it means that if you lose the parent plant, you've got healthy young plants to replace them the next year.'
Aeoniums are among the easiest plants to propagate from cuttings. Monty advises: 'Simply cut a straight piece of stem with a rosette on the top of it, and then put it to one side and leave it for a week or so to callus over. Then put that into some perlite or even some pure sand, water it, and it will almost inevitably produce roots and a healthy young plant.'
Division: Another Simple Method
Monty also recommends division to multiply plants for free. Hardy geraniums have fibrous roots and can simply be pulled apart. 'You can take a large plant and divide it into as many as half a dozen or even 10 baby plants that you grow on, and that will give you really good coverage in a year or so.'
Hostas are another easy-to-multiply plant. Instead of pulling them apart, you cut them with a sharp spade or even a bread knife. 'Cut them into quarters or even slice them like a cake, plant them out and you'll have lots of new hosta plants.'
