When planning an edible garden it is a good idea to plant a variety of nutrient sources. Starchy vegetables are a good basic but many peoples go it are crops like potato but there are a range of undervalued, and very low maintenance crops, which will thrive in our wonderful subtropical climate. Crops like Cassava (Maniholt esculenta – edible only after proper cooking), finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and one of our person favourites, purple amaranth (Amaranthus cruentus). Purple amaranth grows easily from seed year-round in our garden. Cuttings from mature plants also root easily. This plant is ideal for low nitrogen soils (in fact the use of nitrogen fertilizers on this plant is strongly recommended against as it can lead to the accumulation of poisonous nitrates!). We grow ours in the poorer soils of the garden where it absolutely thrives with no supplemental watering. It does like a sunny spot though where it grows into a beautiful purple bush to about 1.5m tall and about 70cm wide. The plants are a good source of starch, energy and dietary fibre. The seeds in particular are high in energy, protein and iron and the leaves are rich in iron and vitamin C. In Ghana the seeds are commonly ground into flour and made into bread. The young leaves are used as a cooked vegetable. Once you have amaranth, you will likely have it forever as it self-seeds well, so take care where you plant it.