Best value veg

[KG Steve]

Hi All
In KG this month - and also at Harrogate Flower Show in a few weeks time, we will be talking about our top five veg in terms of value on the plot. In other words which are worth growing in terms of money-saving but also for beginners, which are easy to grow and give a good return in terms of space.

What veg would be in your top five in terms of being easy to grow and good value? We'll publish some of the responses in KG November issue and also let visitors to the flower show have your views, too when Emma and I do our talks.

I think mine would be: French beans, tomatoes, potatoes, salad leaves and lettuce, courgettes. If you include fruit then strawberries, blueberries and raspberries.

The ones I wouldn't necessarily recommend to beginners are carrots, Brussels sprouts, Florence fennel and sweet potatoes.

How about you?

[peter]

Raspberries every time, when supermarkets charge £2.99 for 200g and I can pick 3kg every other day for almost a month.

[Nature's Babe]

Thinking of nutrition and popularity -
1 green leafy veg of choice, chard, sprouting broccoli or kale,for winter, lettuce red / green for summer salads
2 for protein Tall peas robinson or victoriana or beans of choice, runner or climbing french bean, pick regularly while tender,the more you pick the more they keep on producing, if you let the seeds swell production will slow to a halt. this utilises vertical space well giving higher production.
3 Peppers chilli and sweet for high vit content spice and colour
4 golden beetroot, two crops in one, masses of leaves, delicious as wilted greens and beetroot that tastes like beetroot - but no staining, for salads roasts and stirfries
5 early bush tomatoes of choice to personal preference.easier for a beginner.

5 Fruit -
1 rhubarb, easy and very early
2 strawberries simply delicious fresh
3 A triple apple tree - for a staggered crop
4 autumn raspberries to follow the strawberries.
5 If you have space, to climb a pergola, a kiwi male/female, attractive heart shape leaf provides shade in summer and really late fruit that ripens just before christmas. or an early dessert grape for a south wall. If space is limited try cape gooseberries, easy in largish pots, the fruit will keep for weeks in their little papery cases.

You cant crop them this year or next, but asparagus is so easy to grow from seed and at £1.99 excellent value once it starts cropping it crops for twelve years or more it is so expensive to buy. In my book it's a great way to invest a couple of quid for many future years harvesting.

[glallotments]

If you mean value in financial sense then:
For fruit
Berry fruit is really expensive to buy and so is really good value for money,
Raspberries, gooseberries red currants, blackcurrants are good croppers and it is rare that you can buy more than small packs and then they are expensive.
Strawberries are another worth growing crop as those bought can never compare in taste.
Blueberries are expensive to buy too but tend to produce a less heavy crop.

For vegetables
French and runner beans are good croppers and expensive to buy as are mangetout.
Courgettes are also prolific and of good value
Salad leaves and lettuce produce well too especially if sown successively

[Colin Miles]

Thinking in practical terms for beginners - 'easy' to grow, value for money and space-wise and consistency I would say Runner Beans, Lettuce, Courgettes, Strawberries - and possibly Onion sets though value-wise debatable.

Potatoes in pots are not that easy and they take up too much space in the ground. Asparagus - definitely not easy - mine have died. To some extent depends on where you are - climate. Carrots, Parsnips, Peas, Cabbage, French Beans, etc., all can have their problems for beginners - but they may be lucky. I've given up on Raspberries here but my son-in-law has done very well in his postage-stamp garden. My Rhubarb has also died and Tomatoes outdoors can be difficult to ripen, not to mention blight, and in growbags need a lot of care and attention. Brassicas have so many problems with slugs and caterpillars.

[adam-alexander]

My top five: Globe artichoke, Swiss Chard /Spinach beet, French beans, Jerusalem artichoke and courgettes.

Globe Artichokes are impossibly expensive when you can find them, Jerusalems and Chard never seen in the shops. FB and Courgetts are so much better from plant to plate within the hour.

a-a

[Tony Hague]

Ok, first off regarding value - I don't believe that gardening really saves a lot of money, and for me it's not the point. For me the best value things are those where freshness is so important, and picking at the peak of ripeness. Taking into account ease of growing and space, a top 5:

1: Tomatoes - for the range of varieties, and much improved flavour.
2: Sweetcorn (Lark is good) - have the water at the boil, once picked run, don't walk, to the kitchen.
3: Peas - best eaten within the hour, including tall mangetout (Carouby de Mausanne is a favourrite) space efficient and expensive to buy.
4: Climbing French beans - again space efficient, better fresh, productive over a good period. I find Cobra good.
5: Herbs ! Easy to grow, and a real saving over supermarket ones. Rosemary, Sage, Thyme being perennial require little effort. They are decorative enough to have a place in the ornamental garden. Greek Oregano grows like a weed, Parsley is easy too.

Things I wouldn't rank highly:
Potatoes (lots of space, shop ones are OK), Fennel (almost impossibly difficult to grow), Brassica (space consuming, loved by so many pests that environmesh is almost mandatory)

[Nature's Babe]

Most suggestions have been for next year, but for for autumn planting perhaps peas and pea shoots, broad beans, spring cabbage, spinach -( less likely to bolt in cooler weather,) and hardy winter lettuce.

[oldherbaceous]

Good morning Captain Carrot,

My top five would be,

Early potatoes, they crop quickly, allowing another crop to follow for late summer.

Courgettes, but only a couple of plants or you will be overwhelmed by them if you grow too many plants.

Runner beans, the variety Moonlight seems to making a very good name for itself this year, easy setting flowers and crops over a long period.

Beetroot, fresh grown they take a lot of beating.

Leeks, they crop over a long season.

But do feed your ground before you start planting anything, or you will have one failure after another.



Hope Lady Lettuce is keeping well.

[Colin Miles]

Captain Carrot did say

we will be talking about our top five veg in terms of value on the plot. In other words which are worth growing in terms of money-saving but also for beginners, which are easy to grow and give a good return in terms of space.

and with respect some of the replies are basically off-topic. And if we continue to have hard winters then overwintering veg of any kind will be very difficult. And some consideration should be given to the different climatic conditions. In Hertfordshire you can expect around 25- 30 ins of rain, in Wales and other western extremeties 2 or 3 times or more that amount. If you are near the coast or in a large city then frosts are less of problem than further inland.

Although I included courgettes in my list they certainly haven't performed as expected. I have 3 highly cossetted plants but they have so far given less than 10 fruits - there are now maybe half-a-dozen waiting to be picked. And last year was not much better - all down to climatic conditions.

Experienced allotmenteers know what to expect and will cope with failure. Beginners - and we were all beginners at some stage - need encouragement and sound advice - I certainly welcomed it.

[Nature's Babe]

With respect Colin a lot depends on where, and weather, Last winter we had weeks of heavy snow well before Christmas, but my peas survived under plastic cloches and the broad beans survived well under a tent of environmesh, both gave us very early and welcome crops in a warm and early spring. I can see that it might not work in more northern climes though.
Even tomatoes which in the past have grown well outside in UK summers have been a disappointment for many people including experienced growers this year, the weather suited the cucumbers though, win some lose some!
For beginners yes there will be some disapointments but there is also the converse of that, not being aware of possible problems they have a bash anyway and may also be surprised by spectacular successes and beginners luck. I well remember taking on my first allotment and blithely sowing a row or two of winter lettuce which were the envy of some of the older gardeners there and my joy when the asparagus seed took off like rockets. Yes there were mistakes too, but that's all part of the fun.
I agree guidance can be helpful, those on allotments can usually more easily access some experienced advice, and in some areas there are new mentor schemes which will be helpful for new growers in their own back gardens or new allotments.

[MikA]

Hi Captain Carrot,

A few questions for you to help define the answer to your question.

1) What is "the plot" you are talking about?
Do you mean an allotment plot or are you also considering small mixed gardens with areas or containers for vegetables and/or greenhouses?

2) What is your definition of "value"?

a) Is it purely monetary - I.e. the monetary value of the produce harvested is more than you would pay at the same time of year for similar in the supermarkets. Note this does not consider varietal differences between the two, a tomato is a tomato.
For this definition you should also apportion all the ancillary costs such as seed, compost, fertilisers etc.

b) Do you go by non-monetary factors such as flavour, freshness, choice of varieties?
If you choose this criteria - for most vegetables a monetary value will be impossible to define as it will be difficult to find something to compare against.

3) Are you restricting yourself purely to vegetables or including fruit? What about cut flowers?


A couple of observations about beginners for you which all beginners should consider before choosing what to grow.

-) How much space do you have?

-) Do you have access to knowledgeable help?

-) How many people are you going to be growing for?
Growing for a large family requires more of everything than for 2 retired adults.

-) Are you deliberately going to grow for a glut to store and see you through the year to times when the fresh produce is not available, or just grow fresh in-season produce?
To create a big enough glut would require space and the cost of preservation and storage would need to be considered.

-) How much time and effort can you put into the plot?


For a beginner, the answer to these questions will guide what crops to grow. (Thinking about it they probably apply to everybody)

MikA

[glallotments]

Not forgetting - what is it that you like to eat?

[Colin Miles]

Fresh veg from a garden, large or small, will be good value to eat - if you like that particular veg and it hasn't gone manky, or been riddled with carrot root fly or blight, or pooed on and eaten to death by countless caterpillars, or drowned by heavy rain, or killed by late Spring or heavy Winter frosts or suffering from blossom end rot because you didn't water your toms properly in their growbags.

I certainly read the question as related to space, performance (yield, reliability) and easy to grow - relating to beginners. As I said before, climate is important - very important - as is the soil type and variety - immunity to disease, etc. Clay is very different from sandy soils. So for beginners the need is for veg which stand a chance of performing reasonably well whatever the weather will throw at them - and different soil types.

I also think that the particular variety you grow is important. Even if you think that growing a small number of tomatoes in a growbag in your back garden is good value for money, I would never advocate something like Moneymaker.And looking back at my records over the years in various places I would also add Mangetout to my list - providing it was Oregon Sugar Pod.

Once a beginner is hooked then he can go on and grow all manner of things for all manner of reasons - if he is so inclined. No sense in trying to learn to run before you walk.

[Geoff]

I live 5 miles from an expensive vegetable shop or 15 miles from cheaper ones so value is a slightly different concept for me. Easy to grow for beginners is also tricky, depends so much on conditions and facilities, difficult to remember what you found easy or difficult once you get into the routine of growing.
There have certainly been what I think of as weird choices in some of the other postings but generally I agree with the majority.
Runner Beans (or 'Cobra' Climbing Beans if you prefer the flavour) - nothing can compare in yield per unit area though they do need some fertility and a structure to climb up.
Early Potatoes - put in some effort with protection and harvest New Potatoes in May while they are still very expensive and have the bonus of an infinitely superior taste. You can get £20 worth for £2 invested.
Salad Leaves - if you eat reasonable amounts of salad and usually purchase pre-packed supermarket pillows there is no comparison in price and flavour.
Courgettes - are just so easy and so prolific they give real encouragement to anybody growing them however expert.
Peas - deciding on the fifth one was more difficult but I plumped for Peas. Frozen ones are excellent and reasonably cheap but fresh do have sufficient edge to justify their inclusion. It does mean I have excluded all the Brassicas I love, Brussells nearly made it.
However, almost any soft fruit could come ahead of these providing you can use it. We eat fruit every lunchtime and I always have a pudding with the evening meal but I talk to many people who don't so they might not be an automatic choice. Personal preference would decide but in something like cropping order I grow Rhubarb, Gooseberries, Strawberries, Black Currants, Red Currants, Loganberries, Blueberries and Autumn Raspberries. I think I would least like to without the Black Currants and Raspberries. If you can have one top fruit as a luxury and have the climate try a Greengage Plum - you won't get them in the shops but they are simply the best.