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Weighing up which vegetables to grow

Choosing which vegetables to grow can be a bit of a minefield unless you have a fortune to spend (and lose) and a huge plot to grow them in.

The best advice I can give is – start small and simple! My vegetable journey started when I was about eight, growing a tomato plant on my bedroom windowsill. This was quickly followed by planting a potato in a large pot in the back yard, then growing radishes from seed. All very straightforward.

Home-grown fruit and veg
Home-grown fruit and veg

What you grow, and why you grow it, is going to be dictated by five things:

  1. The amount of time you have
  2. The space available to you
  3. Your level of experience and knowledge
  4. How much money you want to save
  5. The climate (and microclimate) where you live.

Let’s take these points one at a time. I’d like to point out I routinely ignore any sensible advice when the plant/seed-buying frenzy takes me.

Vegetables
Potato Jazzy growing in tiny 8l bags – a space-saving solution

1. Time is precious – don’t waste it

If you work full time and have an active social life, then taking on a run-down allotment isn’t the best idea. Try some easy salad crops and potatoes in bags before committing to something you may end up hating. A sure-fire way to fail is by taking on too much. However, if you have time on your hands, feel free to experiment.

Tomatoes
Conservatory packed with tomatoes in June

2. Space can constrain but also makes you innovate

I don’t have room for a proper veg garden, so tend to stick to unusual or high-value crops I can’t find in the supermarket. I have a long, thin conservatory, so I make the best use of that by growing tomatoes and chillies.

Vegetables
Watermelon Mini Love – that was as good as it got!

3. Experience and knowledge isn’t everything

I may have a lot of gardening experience and knowledge, but that does not equal common sense. I bite off more than I can chew every year, always to the detriment of something. You’ll be doing a much better job if you recognise your own limits.

Rosella, Reisetomate, Maskotka, Yellow Pear and Apero tomatoes garden in pictures
Rosella, Reisetomate, Maskotka, Yellow Pear and Apero tomatoes

4. Focus on expensive vegetables in supermarkets

Growing the expensive stuff in the shops or crops that are difficult to produce commercially will save you a fortune. Think of crops with a short shelf life, or that bruise easily or are hard to pick on a large scale. Thin-skinned flavourful tomatoes, tomatillos and courgettes spring to mind. You’ll find thousands of varieties with much more colour, flavour and shape.

Runner beans
A glut of Moonlight runner beans

5. Know your climate, weather, and microclimate

I thought I could never grow tomatoes outdoors in NE England but last year I did with Tumbling Tom Red! We are all experiencing the effects of climate change. To be on the safe side, I still opt for parthenocarpic courgettes, which will still set in poor weather, as do runner beans with white flowers. However, summers now are a complete gamble and it’s wise to opt for varieties that can cope with a variety of conditions.

Sadly, there’s no room for sentimentality when it comes to gardening. You need to make informed decisions about what’s best for you to grow, never mind what the horticultural industry tells you is THE thing to have this season.

Obviously, I fail to do this all the time. Witness the gallery below -all failures. The aubergines were infested with red spider mites, the chillies were munched by caterpillars and the tomatillos failed to ripen. On the other hand, the monster crop of Green Zebra tomatoes was absolutely hated by my family!

  • Vegetables
  • Vegetables
  • Vegetables
  • Vegetables

Some unusual veg to recommend:

  • Aubergine Genie – click here.
  • The Kelsae onion – click here.

Vegetables home page updated July 2022