Cost effective veg to grow?

[TronaldDump]

I've finally got round to turning over a veg patch in the garden and am trying to plan what to grow next year. I've always found potatoes and carrots not worth growing as they're so cheap in the shops. I think courgettes and tomatoes will be worth growing. Can anyone else suggest things which are easy to grow and which might be harder to come by or more expensive next year?

Already planning my veg garden for next year, this time with more of a prepping hat on.

I'm switching things up a bit this year.

Potatoes are really good value and good for prepping purposes. One sprouting potato which you'd otherwise throw away will produce about 10 potatoes. This year I'm moving ours from the raised beds and having a dedicated potato patch because they're so big.

Sweetcorn is also going in the ground and this year I will spend more time pollenating it. We had lovely big cobs last year but they took a while.

I was criticised for suggesting broccoli to someone the other day but broccoli is very easy to grow and we were inundated last year. You just have to net it to make sure the cabbage whites don't get to it since then you're going to be left with nothing.

Spinach is very very easy to grow. Ours came again and again and again and we now add it to most meals. The same with courgettes. I have so many boxes of chopped courgettes in the freezer. I bet they last us through until the spring. They are so easy and you can practically watch them grow.

Herbs are also easy and expensive to buy.

Leeks, garlic and spring onions seem to like my soil too.

Carrots are a waste of time and very difficult IMO. Frustrating when they're so chap anyway. Likewise not had great success with parsnips.

Tomatoes are the fruit of the devil and will bring the dreaded blight so I'm either not bothering this year or else possibly doing them in a different part of the garden away from the potatoes.

My additions this year are raspberry canes, blackcurrant and redcurrant canes, more strawberries and more rhubarb. Basically the expensive fruit/berries. We can't get enough rhubarb in this house and it comes back every year so it's great value.

About to start a kitchen garden spread in my bullet journal in readiness and the new ground beds are going in in a few weeks' time once the soil is a bit softer.

Interesting to here User18... I've never grown carrots and am trying them for the first time this year.
Agree about spinach - I just love adding baby leaves to sandwiches.
Trying a few experiments in harvesting seeds from shop bought veg and seeing if I have any joy from shallot and onion ends and celery ends.

here? I meant hear.

Carrots need light sandy soil and just the right amount of water. One looked great on top but then were teeny tiny when we dug them up (one variety) or hairy (another variety). Plus they have to be sown and then thinned and its heart breaking throwing away all those little seedlings.

Spring onions and leeks will grow from ends because you eat the leaves but I don't think normal onions or shallots will because you eat the bulb.

Garlic because each clove if planted will form a new bulb when planted in compost.

Yes, I have spring onions on the go with lettuce ends coming back as lettuce heads.
I'm certainly getting green shoots from the couple of shallots I have on the go but it remains to be seen whether I get anything more useful than pseudo chives.
Currently investigating hugelkultur as a way to have better growing medium. In short, winter fantasy gardening until it warms up.
I used to grow veg throughout the year but stopped bothering.
When getting into improving preps, it occurred to me that while my karate ninja skills are never going to be much, I can run a good garden so why not get back into it?

Why not indeed? At least it will give you an idea of the work involved.

Hugelkultur looks interesting Shhh. Might have to get a bed going for next year. Our bed are quite ridge and furrow at the moment, so should be easy to convert.

Planning what to grow:

Mange tout, yes, we got so many off one square meter. A supermarket bag amount every other day. Did three sowings and had a very long season.

Aztec broccoli, most definitely. This was an experiment last year but has become a firm favourite in the kitchen. No noticeable pests .

Mooli and other big radish. Autumn sown ones are standing well but not as big as first sowing.

Swiss chard, also still going strong, will need fresh plants. Needs cover when little as our sparrows loved it.

White and yellow beetroot, same as chard. But it does not send all your food purple and so is great for cutting into matchsticks and putting in stir frys.

Only two courgettes. Nobody needs seven plants

French beans for eating fresh, freezing and drying. They have been very edible when taken from the freezer.

Turnips, they are good. Other root veg have not been so successful.

Jerusalem artichokes. Basically I just like things you can harvest I January. Ours are not too knobbly but are still a pain to prepare. In future give first wash at the allotment.

I feel, as always, that growing your own should be accompanied by research on also storing your own. Even with the most cooperative of neighbours, you're going to have gluts at particular times of year. (If you're successful. )

I only have a small garden space to grow in, so I want as much as I can get from that small space.

I don't do squashes/pumpkins as they take too much room - although I have grown them in DMILs and in the past on an allotment we had and they have been great! And cheap to grow as the seed is expensive but the results are plentiful.

I do grow courgettes - well worth it if your family likes them.

I grow tomatoes. I have a hanging basket (a large one) that takes 3 bush cherry tomato plants and gives a decent yield, and I grow 2 cordon types (the kind that grow tall) in a large square pot on the patio.

I have also had a chilli plant in a pot which was great and gave quite a lot for such a small plant. But I find I can't get peppers to grow well.

I do salad leaves (mixed salad leaves packs) and radishes in window-box type pots on the window-ledge or a shelf unit on the patio (that is great for lower growing things and herbs in pots as well).

Brocolli or calabrese is quite a good plant for a small space as - while it does take a reasonable amount of room - you get the main head (like a supermarket) but also lots and lots of side shoots coming on after that over a period of time.

I grow broad beans in the beds and follow those with the calabrese or some leeks.

And I grow some French beans in both the window-box pots (dwarf type) and in a large round pot (18" diameter or larger, climbing types) which are both quite productive options.

I use the "almost dead space" against the fence to grow peas - some years are better than others but they can be good. Sugar snaps or mangetout types can give more crops, as you harvest the crop earlier before they mature so the plant will try to keep giving more to get some to maturity and make seed.

You'll also get more if your soil is fertile - so any (non-diseased) plant material that you are pulling up, veg peelings from the kitchen, and even tea bags and coffee grounds after drinking - all are great to add to a compost heap and then add the resulting compost to the soil before or when planting your seeds/plants. And use liquid tomato food regularly during the growing season, especially for plants in pots, to get more crops from them.

Radishes and spring onions and leeks etc can all take up small spaces in between crops, or to make the lines between different things. Beetroot can make a line slightly larger, and you can eat the leaves in salads as well as any roots that grow.

Purple sprouting broccoli is good. Masses to harvest but not a glut and expensive in shops

Leeks and spring onions you can grow forever. I've been using the same ones for 6 months now! Just keep at least an inch or so on the root end, keep in a glass of water (refreshing the water every couple days) and it'll keep growing.
I also grow some chillies, herbs and grow some potatoes from skins.
You just need to make sure you have good thick peels with a few eyes on them, plant them 5 inches into the soil with the eyes facing upwards, then just leave them alone (if outside) or water every 3-5 days if indoors/under cover. No need to Waterlog them just make sure they don't go dry...

Garlic is an easy one to grow. Keep a single clove in a dark place, ie paper bag at the back of a cupboard (but not in a tub) when it grows green and starts to sprout (may take 1-2 weeks) put it 4 inches down in some soil. Water weekly.

Aldi has seed potatoes, fruit trees, compost right now. You get what you pay for but with a bit of TLC it'll come good. My best fruiting Apple tree (in a container) was an unloved uncared for £5 special. I have had it over 15 years and it gives me apples every autumn.

Wild garlic season is about to start too, if you are near a few good patches

And St. George's mushrooms!