Goals: Grow food

A fortnight of spectacle and then a head of seed the birds will take.

Edible flowers and leaves, and a magnet that pulls aphids off your vegetables.

Regrows from the root end of a shop-bought bunch — the cheapest crop there is.

Plant single cloves in October and lift whole bulbs in March.

Grown from sets or seedlings; needs depth, sun and patience.

A hill millet that tolerates waterlogging better than any other grain.

Grown for seed rather than leaf; magenta heads over the whole monsoon.

A Himalayan pseudo-grain that flowers white and feeds every bee for miles.

Big-leaved and happy in a wet corner; corms below, edible leaves above.

One corm fills a large pot and returns a much bigger one in a year.