Unusual Vegetables for Your Garden

A selection of unusual vegetables that you could grow in your garden. I’ve given you lists broken down by vegetable type and then picked out a few to talk about.

As we head for the end of National Vegetarian Week 2019, I thought this might be a much-needed push to try something a bit different. Whether you have a garden in which to grow these vegetables or you need to source an outlet that sells them, it makes a change.

Being me, there are vegetables you can grow in pots on a balcony as well as those that are more suitable for growing on allotments and vegetable gardens. And as for that 4 acre walled kitchen garden we many of us aspire to…well of course you’d have room to grow them!

If you really have no space other than a window box filled with herbs and pot geraniums, then you should be able to buy these unusual vegetables. You may need to be inventive, remembering that they are likely to be available seasonally rather than year-round. Try your local farmers market; decent deli; ‘ethnic’ food shops; the pricey end of the supermarket vegetable display, organic fruit & veg deliveries; open gardens where they’re selling produce.
And yes, some of you will be familiar with some of these veggies, but hopefully they’ll be at least one to surprise you!

Unusual Vegetables – Legumes

Asparagus Peas
Chickpeas
Haricots
Lentils
Yellow podded mange tout

Lentils

And before you say, “But I can buy these anywhere!” I’m talking about eating fresh lentils, not dried ones. The taste is totally different, much more flavoursome.

Lentils, Lens culinaris, are probably the oldest pulse, or leguminous crop known. Remains have been found in archaeological sites in Greece going back some 13,000 years and in prehistoric Britain.

They need a warm dry late summer / autumn to fully ripen. If we’re having wet weather, then cover them with a cloche. Lentils are climbing vegetables, so grow on a frame, or up an obelisk in potager style kitchen garden.

You don’t get many lentils in a pod, but even if you grew the plants in a large pot, you’d get enough for a tasty family meal or 3. Worth it to tell the kids they’re eating what the Romans ate! And because they’re leguminous plants, if you’re growing them in the ground, they’ll add nitrogen to it. Important on an allotment where you’re practising crop rotation.

The first commercial crop grown in the UK went on sale in 2017.

Asparagus Peas

These bushy little legumes have pods that really do taste of asparagus! Also known as Asparagus bean, Tetragonolobus purpurea, has winged seedpods that are very decorative as are there deep red flowers.

The seedpods should be picked when about 2 inches long, lightly steamed and eaten whole. I have grown these successfully over the years in southern England and have seen them growing in Cumbria too, thanks to the Gulf Stream. They are frost tender and do need a long season of warmth to ripen. However, their small size makes them ideal for container growing, although give them some support to clamber up. And those pretty flowers mean you’ll enjoy every stage of their growth.

Unusual Vegetables – Leafy Veg

Amaranth
Good King Henry
Land Cress
Pak Choi
Purslane
Sea Kale

Good King Henry

Chenopodium bonus-henricus, Blitum bonus-henricus, Poor man’s asparagus, Lincolnshire spinach, English mercury…All the names are a giveaway that this spinach substitute has been around for hundreds of years.

Good King Henry is a leafy perennial vegetable, so add it to your list of easy maintenance edible plants. Pretty much pest and disease free, it has the further advantage of tolerating shade. It will form a large clump over the years. I find the taste is more like kale than spinach, with a bitterness to it. If that’s not to your liking, cook it with lemony sorrel, or young nettle leaves to balance.

A native of southern Europe it has naturalised in Britain. Whether it came over with the Romans or earlier settlers is not clear. But it has been added to salads, stews and the Medieval peasants ‘pottage’, only losing favour in the nineteenth century.

Unusual Vegetables – Tubers and Roots

Endive
Florence Fennel
Jerusalem Artichoke
Kohl rabi
Skirret

Kohl Rabi

A miniature purple turnip! Kohl rabi, Brassica oleracea, is actually a leafy vegetable, but as its grown for its edible spherical root it fits into this category. Useful as its both small and fast growing. It should be ready to harvest 6 – 8 weeks after sowing the seeds! It will need plenty of water so be prepared. Try sinking a plastic bottle into the soil near your kohl rabi plants to use as a reservoir.

Jerusalem Artichoke

Helianthus tuberosus is a cousin to that popular annual the sunflower and also has blooms that follow the sun’s path across the sky. Jerusalem Artichoke is as good as potatoes for clearing uncultivated ground which makes it popular with those taking on new allotments. Happy in shady spots as well as sunny and fully hardy makes it a easy to grow across the UK.

The edible tuber is sweet, somewhere between an ordinary potato and a sweet potato. It does sometimes give an excess of gas to those who are prone to that, so try small amounts first.
But even if you’re not going to eat all of it, this is worth growing as a windbreak to protect more delicate crops. You can pick the flowers as well!

Unusual Fruiting Vegetables

Acoma
Romanesco
Spaghetti marrow
Tomatillo
Tromboncino

Tromboncino

Also known as Tromba d’Albegna, Italian trombone squash, Cucurbita moschata is a member of the squash family. Strictly speaking it’s a fruit, not a vegetable, but is used in savoury dishes so we’ll allow its inclusion.

Long curved fruits make it an attractive addition to any vegetable garden. If picked and used as a summer squash, the flesh is sweeter than courgettes. Tromboncino also keeps for use as a winter squash. The seeds are in the bulbous end, like in a butternut squash, to which its related.

As a climbing, vining vegetable, you can grow tromboncino on wires against a fence. Keep the young plants protected from frost, as you would with all squash grown in the UK. The male flowers are edible (after pollination!).

And to Finish…

Of course, the list of unusual vegetables doesn’t finish here. I could name and have grown many others, for example blue potatoes. And I will share the gardening tips, trials and successes, vegetable garden design ideas in other blogs.

But for now, regardless of whether you’re a vegetarian, and indeed whether you’ve come across this article in National Vegetarian Week 2019 or at another time – enjoy experimenting! If you’d like help designing a kitchen garden with unusual vegetables, or gardening lessons on how to grow and cook then, do get in touch with us at Plews. And if you’d like some personal help, we offer a mix of practical sessions and theory in our bespoke Gardening Lessons and Courses. There’s a blog link below plus a pdf download with more info

For further gardening advice and inspiration, ideas for bee friendly gardens and more, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below and our monthly Tipsheet You could come and find us on Instagram – @plewsgd Pinterest and Facebook too.

And on that note, you can have a peek at my new garden in the (new) Instagram account @spitfiresandslowworms and for those of you who prefer Facebook – Spitfires and Slow Worms