What are the best value crops to grow on the plot?

[Nikki Arnold]

We all like to think that growing our own saves us a few quid so, this month we're asking what crops you think provide the best value for money on the plot? Whether it's the vegetable that saves you ££s at the supermarket or, the crop that produces the most yield for the lowest outlay – we want to know what you think is the top fruit or vegetable to grow for your purse-strings!




*please note your answers may be edited and printed in the August issue of Grow Your Own magazine 2012

[Queen Leia]

I like growing sweetcorn and definitely think it is the best value crop to grow. Home grown sweetcorn is sweeter and delicious compared to supermarket sweetcorn. Besides it is cheap too.

[veggiechicken]

Tomatoes without a doubt. Can anything beat the taste of a freshly picked, sun-ripened tomato, plucked straight off the vine? If any shop could replicate that they'd be onto a winner - they can't but I can!!!

[Capsid]

Please bear in mind that this is a poll for best value crops, not taste.

[veggiechicken]

Please bear in mind that this is a poll for best value crops, not taste.

If you buy something from a supermarket that has no taste, its not good value. I stick with what I said!!

[Andromeda]

All my crops save me money, but salad leaves are the obvious saver. Buying different salad leaves at the supermarket is a phenomenal waste of money - having to buy a bag and it's gone off in a couple of days. By growing my own I have salads all spring and summer; my seeds cost about a pound for a good size bag, I use home made compost and I've not fed a salad leaf tray yet! Total cost? ~£2/year (and that includes general wear and tear and watering). That said, I haven't bought a pot/tray/etc for salad leaves yet either...mushroom trays with a few holes poked in the bottom are ideal (I'm buying the mushrooms anyway so I might as well recycle the trays!).

[alldigging]

rhubarb!

It is really dear this year!

[flowertot]

I definatell agree with salad leaves. Before I started growing my own I used to buy bags of leaves and inevitably ended up throwing half the bag away. I'd say I typically spent about £3 a week on salad leaves before, now that amount keeps me in lettuce all summer long.

[zazen999]

I saved 3 beetroots 3 years ago and let them flower and saved the seeds. I used the seeds to
a - grow more beetroot
b - swap for other seeds

In the main, I think the initial outlay for the original seeds - about £2.50 - gave me about 100 beetroots [and at current prices, this is worth £50 at 50p per beetroot] plus about the same amount in swapped seeds and the same amount again in the second year's beetroot. I have only just finished swapping with these seeds. If you multiply that by the crops and money saved from swapped seeds; it would easily hit £250 of money saved so that's a return of investment of about 10,000%. [9,900%]

Not bad eh?

I expect that will apply to most crops - esp when you save seeds from them and swap them.

[VirginVegGrower]

Asparagus for me as I love it and my asparagus bill, even when it's in season is considerable. Next tomatoes as we eat them by the tonne, for cooking, salads, etc. They are a daily must have in this house.

[Andromeda]

I saved 3 beetroots 3 years ago and let them flower and saved the seeds. I used the seeds to
a - grow more beetroot
b - swap for other seeds

In the main, I think the initial outlay for the original seeds - about £2.50 - gave me about 100 beetroots [and at current prices, this is worth £50 at 50p per beetroot] plus about the same amount in swapped seeds and the same amount again in the second year's beetroot. I have only just finished swapping with these seeds. If you multiply that by the crops and money saved from swapped seeds; it would easily hit £250 of money saved so that's a return of investment of about 10,000%. [9,900%]

Not bad eh?

I expect that will apply to most crops - esp when you save seeds from them and swap them.

This is me with cabbage, cauliflower and tomatoes. Vast quantities of all three are eaten in my house and when when you consider the costs of each of these items I've saved hundreds of pounds - that's without selling on my excess to people who will eat them (rather than them going to waste).

I also save seeds so I don't even have that cost now for my favourites.

[dominic10]

Courgettes and squashes for me - I can freeze any excess courgettes and the squash last well into the winter months.

[mothhawk]

For me, with just a tiny garden, it's new potatoes, runner beans, and cabbage, my 3 favourite veg.

It's all subjective, isn't it? If you like it and grow it, and then eat it within an hour or so of picking, it has got to be better value than anything you can buy at the shops.

Perennials such as strawbs and asparagus give ongoing 'value' as you only have to acquire them once, likewise any veg that you can save your own seeds from, as Zaz says, give more value year on year as the initial outlay decreases proportionately as the years increase.

[Bren In Pots]

I'm going with Salad leaves for me they're an all year round crop.
I grow it in my beds during spring and summer then at the end of August I sow Arctic king and they go into greenhouse as soon as they toms come out to be used as cut and come again leaves during the winter.

[alex-adam]

For me its the vegetables not easily found in our shops, Globe Artichokes, Jerusalems, Swiss Chard, unusual beans, rhubarb (so expensive to buy) plus of course herbs of many sorts.
a-a