VSR - Value for Space Rating

[muck lover]

Agree with above. The choice is so personal what rates highly for one grower won’t rank at all for another.
I’ve been cherishing a fig plant in a pot and got a total of six figs this year. No regrets! Worth it to me!
I find climbing French beans, carrots, tomatoes and currants and autumn raspberries productive and easy.

[Penellype]

An example of a low-scoring crop for me is cauliflower. While I love cauliflowers, they are difficult, temperamental, huge and take up space for a long time. When they are finally ready there is a picking window of about a day when they are at their best. I grow them, but only from nursery grown plants that mature quickly after planting (Maybach).

[veggiechicken]

I do like a good discussion Keep it up!

The source of the VSR was Joy Larkcom's "Vegetables for Small Gardens" which was aimed at people with only a small space to devote to vegetables and who wanted to maximise every inch of it. Its not for farmers or allotmenteers.

This earlier book seems to have been incorporated in her massive (384 pages) -"Grow your own vegetables". There's a table of veg - Page 188 - if you have the book. Each veg has its own description with more detail about why they were given the * rating. If you like pretty pictures, the book is not for you.

CCA veg, of any sort, have an extra * over the same thing grown conventionally.
True spinach has ** but,as a CCA its ***.
Chilli peppers and tomatoes are **

[Jay-ell]

So it will fit in with someone who has one small (sfg) bed and possibly a few pots and spud bags and wants to be able to harvest something every day in the season.

But as I said It can be handy for people like me who have a lot of long term crops and only some space here and there to get that constant cropping.

For example in the Jungle there's 7 beds which for next year are planned to have
Broad Beans, Early Spuds/Leeks, Brassicas, Peas, Squash, Oca and Sweetcorn/Broad Beans.

The New Territories also have 7 beds
Pumpkins, Climbing beans, Winter Alliums/Brassicas, Maincrop Spuds, Roots, Misc

(amazing isn't it - I've actually got a plan. Probably not stick to it though)

This gives me the one misc bed and probably some space in the brassica bed, space after the peas and the broadies and space underneath the climbing beans.

I've seeds for most of the plants in the list to go into the misc and cover crops next year but if I was planning the crops from scratch lists like these are useful (although not gospel)

[Yasai]

Im on a mission to eat leafy veg, mostly green, every day... preferably from the garden. To that end, I’m planning on upping my kale game next year and using all of my ground space for kale, chard, mustard greens and the like. I’ve found kale and chard to be very low maintenance, high yield and unavailable at the supermarket.

[kitty12345]

Me too, trying to eat more leafy veg. I am quite liking swiss chard so far as it is really pretty, heat tolerant this summer and keeps well in the fridge if you harvest too much. Lots of different types of kale are available, although I only have one at the moment. Not dared to eat it yet... not sure why! But the fact that it keeps well in the garden and doesn't have to be harvested at a specific time is a real plus.

NZ spinach was another good one that did well in winter, and I am going to sow the seeds very soon.

Pak choy has never been very successful for me...

[Lumpy]

OK I have a question.....................don't all faint at once.

What is the books idea of 'small space'

On GW a presenter once refered to half an acre as a 'small' space. I spluttered my sarnie all over the tele.
SFG books consider 3x3ft e.g 9 squares whilst others appear to rely on the idea of pot only growing as constituting 'small space'

[veggiechicken]

A "small space" is whatever space one has, if its not a plot etc.
It can be a few pots, a raised bed, whatever. The idea is just to get the most from whatever you have, whatever the size.

[Lumpy]

So, essentially SFG with a bit of a twist?

[Snoop Puss]

I've got Larkham's Grow your own Vegetables. It's a book I refer to a lot for info about particular types of vegetables. When I first got it, I found the opening stuff about principles and techniques useful too. But one thing that I quickly disregarded was the VSR. It didn't really tally with what I was interested in growing or, more particularly, eating. But, I'm lucky in that space isn't an issue. If you do have only a very limited space, it's probably quite useful as a starting point for planning.

[veggiechicken]

Space isn't really an issue here, either, but I have little corners of the garden where I try to grow more intensively - like the "Allpotment" and the GH in winter.
At the back of my mind, I'm always asking the questions "Is it worth giving up the space for?" and "Does it earn its keep" which is why cabbages, caulis and swede are falling off my grow list. I know not everyone will agree with me (they never do) but I'd rather put my energy into something that has a chance of being productive and I enjoy.

[mothhawk]

I think everyone who only has a small space to grow soon works out what they value growing the most and which, out of the veg they enjoy, give the best returns for space occupied.

My small space is four feet by fifteen feet. I grow a few early spuds, maybe 5 seed potatoes as any more occupies the space for too long, 2 or 3 kale plants as they are quite neat in their growing habits and don't overflow into other space, runner beans, usually 12 - 14 canes in a double row, although I have been known to put a row of canes in the flower bed too. Some spring cabbage, and a courgette or two.

The bottom 3 feet has autumn raspberry canes. Honeysuckle, a climbing rose, and sweet peas grow up the fence.

I have mint in a big tub, and herbs are scattered in with the flowers and along the edge of the veg.

I've given up on tomatoes as they don't get enough sun for long enough. Some years I grow parsnips.

Beetroot and carrots which I love just won't grow well, and I hate all things lettuce.

[mothhawk]

...Much more fruit per sq foot of garden than sweet peppers (which in my experience don't ripen outdoors).

I would agree about sweet peppers - except for this exceptional hot summer. I grew a potful of seeds from a supermarket pepper, in order to grow on two on a sunny windowsill. The remainder I shoved into a space in the veg patch in May - grow or die I told them, about six squashed together just as they were from the 5" pot. So far I've had 3 ripe peppers and two more still on the plants.

Ditto with some winter squash, seeds of which were tossed into the ground in this year's mix and chuck experiment. I've never had them survive beyond seedlings before, but this year I have 4 almost ripe large squash. Wish I knew what variety they were. They could be baby bear, but they are a lot heavier than the half kilo it says on the packet. One branch went up the fence and the other up the bean canes, so it didn't take up too much space.

[rary]

I will be making a raised bed in the greenhouse 15inches high 8ft long 3ft wide, lined with polythene sitting on a concrete floor, what would you recommend growing in it over the winter months, it will be kept frost free but not warm, and a grow light can be used over it, I will be sowing some rocket, radish and lettuce, but not sure what else to grow to give VSR, taking in some of the comments it has to be something that is worth growing for taste and freshness in winter, and the simply the pleasure of having something I have grown

[veggiechicken]

When will you have the bed ready, rary?
You could be sowing carrots, beets and turnips now but it may be too late in a month or so.