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

[Florence Fennel]

In my opinion it would be salad leaves too, especially cut and come again as you can harvest exactly what you want, when you want it. Having said that, I don't grow my own to save money, I grow for the sheer pleasure of growing.

[Snadger]

For me its got to be French beans in all there miriad of shapes sizes and colours, calabrese becuase I'm trying to wean OH away from shop bought broccoli and carrots because if I can manage to grow them I could be eating them for the majority of the year!

[Bigmallly]

For me it's got to be fruit, can't wait to pick the first strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, plum.......need I go on.

[Snadger]

For me it's got to be fruit, can't wait to pick the first strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, plum.......need I go on.

Mmm..................forgot about fruit! I'll just have to add that to my list..............in fact EVERYTHING is on my list!

[Bigmallly]

Mmm..................forgot about fruit! I'll just have to add that to my list..............in fact EVERYTHING is on my list!

Was gonna add Peach but thought I would leave that to you seeing as I won't be getting any........

[arpoet]

Runner beans... they are always a price to buy in the shops and never as good as home grown. They freeze well when picked young and frozen quickly, you can barter with your glut and save your own seed so next years crop dont cost you a penny.
Roger

[Potstubsdustbins]

Having read and agreed with all the posts in front of me I can reveal I have ........................not voted.

Why? Well to be honest I find it hard to put just a monetary value on GYO, there are just to many other considerations.

I freeze about 40lbs of runner beans every year but not to save money. I just like runner beans.

I grow garden peas knowing I could better use the space for more 'value' crops but hey can you beat the taste of a freshly picked pea.

And if I could go to any supermarket in the country at any time in the year and buy a tomato that taste's the same as one straight of the vine then that would be a first.

No there is a lot more to GYO than just money but if I were to list all the reasons this post would be pages long.

Colin

[GardenFaery]

Can't believe Radishes not listed so had to vote 'other' - non of this softly softly through the greenhouse for radishes, stick em straight in the ground, easiest crop to thin, and beenficial to grow next to lots of other veg crops, but can be grown close together and don't take up much space? Surely a no-brainer?...

[binley100]

unless you can't grow them of course ...........

I agree with potty... you can't put a value on your own grown crops. Taste wise they have a far superior value to any shop bought veg.

[GardenFaery]

Who can't grow radishes? shrugs and looks around baffled lol :O

[Newton]

I've been harvesting salad leaves since April. I hope to continue right through to next April. And most of the seeds were free with GYO Magazine.

I also enjoy a good glut! Runner Beans, courgettes and strawberries.........beetroot too!

[Vince G]

Good quality greenhouse toms, peppers, aubergines and melons are also really cheap to grow and so much better than the overpriced supermarket versions. Also salad leaves.

I think potatoes. Last year we had 3 × 20ft rows of maris pipers, and they lasted us 6 months. For a £3 bag of seed, we got 2 sacksful. Would never have considered maincrops in the garden but now we have the lottie, I've done them again this year. There's also a row of mixed 1st/2nd/salad earlies this year which are ridiculously overpriced in the supermarket. We have a great local nursery that will sell you 1 seed pot by weight if you want, so we got a mixture.

http://www.victoria-nurseries.co.uk/

PS: click on Plant Centre - is it just me or do those ducks look guilty.......like they've just been caught about to do something......or is it just my mind?!

[Feral007]

Tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, lettuce. That's the salad stuff. Then silverbeet ahhhh chard to you. Courgettes (zuchinni's to me). Loads and loads of spring onions, then any other herb that I can chuck into a salad. I haven't met a herb yet that I don't like. And I discovered radishes, yep chuck em in the ground and wonder what all the green stuff is shortly after. I'm just trying to get the leeks happening as I'm not obsessed with leeks as well. And the pumpkins, because we need so many for roasting, boiling, making soup of. You can never have enough punkiins! So yeah, I had trouble because it wouldn't let me pick my top 20!

[Jamesy_uk]

For me I would have to say Beans, French mainly but also Runner and Broads (first time this year).

At I think it is cheapest in season at £1.50 a pack for a 200g serving of most bean types that means I just have to get back 400g of beans to cover my costs and the rest is profit. Given that last year 16 French bean plants I think gave me in the region of 10kg with very little care and a duff summer that worked out quite well.

[redser]

Salad leaves/lettuce and strawberries because they are basically free. If my toms crop well I'm hoping they would make the list. Added bonus of course is you get to eat more of this great stuff than you otherwise would if you were looking at supermarket prices and leaving them on the shelf.