paul made a great thread about 'plant and forget' crops for an easy gardening life:
Automatic Backyard Food Pump . Lots of ideas also mentioned in William Bronson's thread for plants that are
food in the ground when you need them.
These are plants that will multiply year on year with no special attention - self seeders and spreading plants. Excluding woody perennials such as trees and shrubs which usually take several years to crop and ones which can supply a good proportion of dietary needs rather than herbs and medicinal plants.
So we have started making a table organising plants by how good they are at multiplying with no attention and feeding us year round. Some of the figures are guestimates, and the yeild and ease of growing may be very different in different locations.
Please make suggestions below for other plants to include, with scoring and best reference threads, and we can add them to the table!
| plant | annual increase by weight | hassle factor (0 (good) - 10 (bad)) | calorific value | nutrient density | harvest spring | harvest summer | harvest autumn | harvest winter | hardiness (USDA) |
|---|
| Camassia | x5 | 6 (traditionally roasted for a very long time, can be confused with poisonous death camas) | excellent | good | yes | yes | yes | yes | 3-7 |
| skirret | x10 | 3 | excellent | fair | yes | yes (leaves) | yes | yes | 4-9 |
| Sweet potatoes | x15 | 3 | excellent | fair | no | yes (leaves) | yes | yes | |
| Sunroot | x20? | 4 (need to introduce gradually to diet) | excellent | fair | yes | sort of (greens) | late | yes | 4-8 | |
| irish potatoes | x6 -10 | 4 (can be susceptible to disease) | excellent | fair | only in warm climates | yes | yes | only in warm climates | 6 and higher? |
| parsnip | N/A (self seeding biennial | 5 (leaf sap can cause skin blisters) | excellent | fair | early | no | yes | yes | 4-8 |
| hardy yam | x5? | 6 (difficult to harvest, large vine maybe aerial tubers) | excellent | fair | yes | ? | yes | yes | 4-11 |
| Garlic | x2-8 | 1 | good | excellent | yes (roots, leaves) | yes (scapes, bulbs) | yes (bulbs, leaves) | ? | 3-? |
| Ramps | x2 | 2 | good | excellent | yes (roots, leaves) | flowers | roots | roots | 4-9 |
| kale | x10 | 0 | fair | excellent | maybe | yes | yes | yes | 6 and higher |
| nettles | x4 | 4 (stings!) | fair | excellent | yes | yes (if cut back) | yes (if cut back) | no | 3-10 |
| walking onion | x4 | 1 | fair | good | yes | yes | yes | yes | ? |
| Milkweed | ? | 3 (sticky sap, needs a quick boiling) | fair | good | yes | yes | early | no | 3-10 |
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