Rhubarb is one of our favourite things to grow in the veg patch for various reason. It looks great in the garden with its attractive leaves and striking colours,it’s one of the earliest things that you’ll harvest each year, you can pretty much plant in anywhere as it tolerates full sun or partial shade, and you don’t have to worry about it much, just give it a nice mulch and it’ll do really well. Also, Rhubarb and ginger jam is one of the most delicious things you can eat. And if that’s not a good enough reason to grow your own rhubarb, then we don’t know what is!
But it’s one that you need to give a bit of time to… plant it this year, and then don’t harvest anything until next year. Just put the rhubarb crown in the ground, add mulch and allow it to do its thing. It’ll die back over the winter. At this point you can add some compost to the crown and then wait. It’ll thrive in the cold and you’ll soon be able to harvest it in the spring (if it’s really, really cold you can just pop a bucket over it to keep it protected from frost or snow).
When you do harvest it next year, make sure you harvest everything even if it’s not very big as that helps the plant.