Planning a garden...what veggie crops are important to you?

[Blueridge]

I'm thinking about buying more types of seeds for this year's little garden, and hopefully expanding with several more square foot beds. Maybe I'm inspired by the prepper shows I've been seeing lol, but I am wondering what plants would be the wisest to plant in smaller spaces. Which veggies would yield the best harvest for fresh eating and preserving. And heaven forbid, if the economic sky falls one day, what would keep my family fed if we had to depend on it to afford to eat well. I would love to know which plants and seeds you feel are vital to your successful gardening season!

[Carrie12345]

Tomatoes are my biggest priority. Sadly, they did horrible last year.

Cucumbers and green beans are my second priority.

If I could find room for potatoes and master greens, I'd be happy with just that.

 

We do keep trying to improve our strawberry situation, but they just hate me.

We have LOTS of wild blueberries, which helps.

[Truscifi]

In terms of veggies, tomatoes because they are the most expensive to buy, followed by cukes, peppers, and peas because they are the easiest to put up. We have enough yield from our peppers in particular that we usually have enough both to make pickled peppers and to dice and freeze enough for the rest of the year (though admittedly there are fewer months peppers don't grow here than months they do grow). We use a lot of peppers though, both sweet and hot. I have read that if you are trying to get the most nutritional bang for your buck beets and turnips are some of the best crops you can plant. You can use the greens and the roots, and the greens can be cut as the root grows and will keep growing back. I think they are both cool weather crops though - at least here in FL they are planted in the fall.

 

Really though it depends on what your family will eat.

[Prairie~Phlox]

What Carrie said plus kale and peppers, but I also grow radishes, a few potatoes and lots of herbs.

[KrissiK]

Cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, green onions, green beans.... Those are my staple crops. We do experiment a little with other stuff, but those I count on year after year.

[myfunnybunch]

Our priorities are things that I enjoy growing, and things that we eat a lot of.

 

I put a priority on greens and peas in the spring. In the summer I stop growing greens because we get them weekly in our CSA, and I place a priority on peppers, tomatoes, beans for drying, cucumbers, and pumpkins and squash. I grow other veggies too, but they're put into the spaces that aren't filled by the priority vegetables.

 

I plant fall and winter greens so that they will be ready when our CSA stops.

 

Cat

[G5052]

Greens in the spring and fall.  Potatoes.  Last year we got a small second crop from the potatoes we missed the first time.  I just used up the last of our potatoes in early February, and they were so much better than store potatoes. Tomatoes, peppers, beans, and herbs are lovely too.

 

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

Tomatoes are my biggest priority. Sadly, they did horrible last year.

 

We do keep trying to improve our strawberry situation, but they just hate me.

 

Here too. It was a disappointing season overall :( I think the rain just made it a horrible environment for some things. I'm so jealous about the blueberries! We don't have enough space or sun for that, and we have too many birds and squirrels.

 

I don't know too much about preserving but I think you can preserve or pickle just about anything. Someone else will have to chime in there! But lots of things can also be frozen successfully as well.

 

For self-sufficiency purposes, I think I'd focus on things that can be harvested repeatedly and keep well. Here in zone 6A, greens can be harvested from April to November--longer if you grow in a container you can either bring inside or if you build a cold frame you can set over them. Our greens survived (though they didn't thrive) until the end of December here! Carrots and beets can be grow in successive sessions so you have them throughout the summer and into the fall, and they store fairly well. Often, they can be left in the ground until you need them, even into the winter. Potatoes, of course, store well if you're careful. Sweet potatoes store well and taste best after they've cured and been stored for a number of weeks. And some kinds of tomatoes can be harvested continually through the summer--our yellow grape tomatoes started ripening in late June and kept going into November!

 

If you're leaning toward a self-sufficiency mindset, it's also important to know what grows when, how long it will take, and what you can plant after it. If you plan well (and depending on where you live, of course), you can have radishes, greens, peas, and some other early things as early as April, harvest the usual stuff throughout the summer, and have things like potatoes, parsnips, cabbage, winter squash, etc. into November and December. My pie pumpkins lasted us through the winter after I baked and froze them. 

 

Now, if we're just talking about what things we personally consider indispensable, I'd vote for tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, bell peppers, greens, sugar snap peas, and sugar pie pumpkins. I can't imagine my garden without any of those, ever. 

[FaithManor]

Green beans, roma and grape tomatoes, sweet bell peppers, broccoli, asparagus,  cauliflower, carrots, celery, butter lettuce, cucumbers, candy onions, sweet corn (just a few rows because the boys really like to have it for a treat in the winter), and snow peas.

 

A lot of these choices have to do with what my family loves to eat and will eat a lot of during the winter/spring. I make my own chilli, salsa, and pasta sauce with the roma tomatoes. Green beans, broccoli, asparagus, and cauliflower freeze well. I dehydrate the peppers - A LOT of them because we use green and red pepper in everything just about since the kids and I love it so much, and in season, I make stuffed peppers which makes them all very happy - carrots, celery, some of the onions and others I try to store using the stored ones up first, and if we grow any squash (only half my family will eat squash), I store that in the basement as long as I can. Oh, the snow peas are frozen for soups (the only way my family really likes peas), and the sweet corn is blanched and then frozen right on the cob and put into gallon size freezer baggies.

 

Pintos, kidney, and navy beans take up a lot of room when growing. Those vines will take over the world if you aren't careful, LOL! So we haven't done anything with them. I can buy a 25 bag of organic pintos pretty darn cheap from local Mennonite farmers, and since we eat a lot of Mexican style dishes and love our pintos that way, I can them all in pint jars. I usually get about 15 lbs. of kidneys and can them for chili. We use very few navy beans so I don't bother.

 

We also do some fruits - strawberries, blueberries (picked wild locally or at the u-pick farm because it takes about 10 years to get a full size blueberry bush), and cantaloupe. I use a melon baller and freeze the cantaloupe for fruit salads, dehydrate the strawberries and blueberries for snacks in the winter, and then buy three bushels of apples to turn into sauce and apple chips. 1/3 becomes applesauce since this is mostly for a winter treat...2/3 into chips for the kids to snack on which is a BIG hit. Pears are a very big pain to deal with so I rarely dehydrate them, though dh really likes it when I make the effort. Usually I don't have enough time. Oh, and I do can peaches in white grape juice.

 

If you have small spaces, I would tend to lean towards green beans (bush style), peppers, broccoli, cauliflower if your family likes it, and salad greens to eat fresh. Tomatoes are always good if you use pasta sauce or tomato based soups. But, they really spread so try growing them in pots. A couple of  nice size pots with a grape tomato plant and trellis to lash the plant to for support will provide you with a lot of tomatoes for salads, tacos, etc. in the winter if you buy a cheap dehydrator (you can get one for less than $30.00 at Harbor Freight) or use your oven. You don't even have to rehydrate them for salads...they'll get chewy from the salad dressing. Or, you can put them in a sweet basil and olive oil mix. That's a little piece of heaven!

 

With a small space, the reality is you won't be able to support your family that way. Most people have no idea the sheer amount of preserved produce it takes to eat vegetables and fruits from harvest to harvest without purchase or at least minimal purchase. A nice supplement...yes, but that's it.

 

Let me illustrate using our last year's harvest and preservation:

 

I canned the following:

 

60 lbs of chicken breast (bought it when it was on sale and didn't have room in the freezer) - pint jars and use one for a meal...that's 60 meals of meat. If one had a small family (I have teens so they think I'm stingy when I break out only one jar, but with beans and what not, it's fine).

40 lbs of venison - again a lb. to a jar.

 

84 pint jars of pinto beans

21 pints kidney beans

14 pints navy beans

56 pints peaches

104 pints green beans

21 quarts pasta sauce'

56 pints salsa

14 pints of California mix ( a zesty combo that my husband likes made with cauliflower, carrots, onions, and peppers)

21 quarts tomatoes for chili or other dish

21 pints pickled asparagus

 

I froze:

 

3 gallon baggies of green beans

3 gallon baggies of cauliflower

4 gallon baggies broccoli

48 ears of corn

1 gallon of melon balls

1 gallon strawberries

14 pints applesauce

1 gallon baggie of asparagus

 

Dehydrated:

 

several lbs. of carrots after dicing finely

at least 25 red peppers (I love dehydrating because the produce takes up very little space and looks beautiful on my pantry shelves)

not quite 2 full bushels of apples

6 quarts strawberries

6 quarts blueberries

8 good size stalks celery

 

 

If one serves 3 meals per day without snacks, and tries for that all important 5-7 servings of veggies and fruits per day, then for a family of 4 based on 9 months of preserved foods and 3 months of eating in season (I am Midwest so that means asparagus, peas, and salad greens from early May adding cherries later in the month and strawberries in June) with no really big harvesting until mid-August, that is 270-275 days of eating at a minimum of 20 servings per day.

 

In order to really feed a family, one needs a minimum usually of an acre of gardening to preserve. It does help if you can store root vegetables through the late fall and early winter so that you can eat on those first. Onions, potatoes, carrots, turnips, squashes, melons...melons needing to be consumed first. That really helps. We have not yet managed to get the right environment going in our basement to have much success storing past December. It has to do with the right temperature and humidity and with cement block walls, that isn't easy. A good ole fashioned dirt root cellar would be ideal.

Then of course the issue of protein and grains. It takes a HUGE amount of land to produce a small amount of grain. Oats would probably be the easiest to begin with and of course, historically, bulk grains which store so well were used to fill the diet out from harvest to harvest. Again, you'd likely need an acre of either wheat or oats to do that.

 

But, what you can do is just focus on using your small plots wisely and storing what you can. There is a real sense of satisfaction that goes with getting in the cupboard or freezer and making a dish that has some homegrown elements in it and definitely, you can supplement your grocery bill especially when produce gets more expensive in the winter.

 

Baker Creek seeds are some of my favorite - organic, heirloom (so not GMO and tasty varieties that one doesn't find in most stores), and reliable. Some of my best germination rates have been with Baker Creek seeds. Seeds of Change is another reputable source. If your budget is tight, you can get seeds from your local farm supply store. Our TSC even carries reasonably priced packets of organic green beans, carrots, radishes, salad greens, broccoli, cucumbers, and peppers.

 

Due to the fickle nature of the May weather here in Michigan, my dad usually starts a lot of his plants indoors and then transplants on Memorial weekend.

 

Faith

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

Suddenly I feel so inadequate :lol:

[Mbelle]

For summer vegetables we plant tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, summer squash (not crookneck), butternut squash (they last for months in our repurposed wine fridge), beans, and many peppers including bell.  Peppers are so easy to  slice and freeze.  I also like to plant these things and then a month later plant more that way you don't have everything coming in at once.  I also really enjoy a fresh herb garden.  Using fresh herbs takes my average cooking up a notch.  

 

In the cool weather salad greens are easy.  We just scatter the seed and it grows.  We also grow other kinds of greens and root vegetables.  The cool weather gardens are easier.  

 

We must have an electric fence or the deer help themselves.

[Ali in OR]

Life is too busy for us to do a huge garden, so we only do the things that are worthwhile to us:

 

-tomatoes--grape, cherry, roma, maybe one beefsteak

-berries--grow easily here and can save us a lot of money, especially raspberries

-herbs--expensive in store. Definitely plant basil to go with the tomatoes!

 

Sometimes we do onions, but they're cheap and plentiful in the grocery store. We may try a pepper or two but it isn't really hot enough here for them to do well. Some years carrots are great, some years low yield (but they always taste good). Potatoes are easy, but also cheap in the store. Corn takes too much space--we can get nice local stuff late August through September. Broccoli and spinach haven't done well for us. Beans do well but we don't eat a ton of those. Snow peas are nice but better if you remember to pick them when still young and tender.

[FaithManor]

Suddenly I feel so inadequate :lol:

Just so you know, I don't have to grow it. Do not even help with that except occasionally venturing into the garden to grab a fresh tomato or some fresh greens beans or salad greens. The reason for this is that I kill all things green. I'm not kidding; plants commit suicide when they see me coming because they know it will be a slow, painful, torturous botanical death. I also believe that if planet earth were ever invaded by little green aliens, I could single handedly save the human race because I am so good a killing green things.

 

My dad and mom do the bulk of the work because they love the gardening work. The boys help with weeding and harvesting, and dh finds it relaxing to also go to mom and dad's and work in the garden in the evenings. I have the blitz of harvest work, though for certain mom is a busy one as well. Recently, my father who is in a period of life where he is mellowing considerably and for whatever reason much more attentive to my mother than ever before, has been helping her in the evenings with the canning and dehydrating. Since it's just the two of them, they actually do very well putting up enough to eat seriously "from the pantry".

 

But, I am not kidding, if it was up to me to grow the food, we would have starved to death a very, very long time ago.

 

Once the last boy leaves for college, I think my ability to do this will be greatly reduced because instead of spending the bulk of my time at home, I'll be back in the workplace contributing heavily to our retirement funds. I'm going to try to do the best I can, but I doubt my ability to handle so much canning and dehydrating while working full time and probably by then, being a somewhat attentive grandma. Maybe we'll get a much larger freezer. The dehydrating isn't too bad, and freezing is easy. I could then can only the tomatoes for pasta sauce, salsa, and chili.

[Lady Marmalade]

My garden growing is based on what I can get from local farmerss, and what I want to grow myself.   I garden here at home in an urban setting, and also at a local community plot- which has issues with deer and other critters.  If I could only grow one or two things, it would be fresh herbs and tomatoes.  Hands down.

 

Tomatoes.  Great for fresh eating, I also use them in abundance in salsa and for canned tomatoes.  In my experience, if you want them for canning, do not grow them in buckets or pots.  Cherry tomatoes do great in pots, but they restrict the full size plants, and you just won't get as good of a harvest.

 

Peppers, hot and sweet.  Used in the above-mentioned salsa, and frozen for future use, and of course for fresh eating when they're ripe and wonderful.

 

Green Beans.  Easy to freeze or can if you have a pressure canner.  I couldn't possibly buy what we eat of these from a farmer, so growing them myself is a must.

 

Swiss Chard is the best green to grow- it is cut and come again all season long.  We eat the baby greens in early summer in salads, and then we have mature greens until the freeze claims them in late fall.   I also like kale for this reason, but the mild flavor of chard is preferable for the kids.

 

I plan my gardens around what I cannot get in abundance for a reasonable price from a local farmer.   I love growing my own cucumbers, but I can buy fresh slicing cukes at 3 or 4 for $1.00 at their peak locally.  Pickling cukes I can get by the bushel for a great price- to get that many picklers at once from my garden, I'd have to allocate way too much garden space to cucumbers.

 

Winter squash would be a great choice to grow, as butternuts and blue hubbards will keep all winter.  I don't grow them yet, as I have a local farm I buy them by the bushel from in the fall when they are dying to get rid of them before the freeze.

 

I don't grow corn because the allocation of space for enough to put by is crazy in an urban setting.  But I do buy a few dozen extra ears every year to freeze for corn chowder all winter long.

 

I grow lettuces in my home garden, because there's nothing like walking out your back door to get salad for dinner.  Add a few fresh herbs, and no one minds if the salad is only greens again.

 

We have found great places nearby for PYO strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples and pie cherries.  We can also PYO tomatoes and jalapenos if we have a bad growing year.  We did that this year, as I didn't manage to get enough to can tomatoes with.  It was great to have that option! 

 

 

[MSNative]

2 pieces of duh advice that I always truly to remember when planning my garden:

1. Plant what your family likes.

2. Prioritize the expensive items.

 

Several PP said the same thing but I need things spelled out really basic and easy. I add to it my rule - add half of what you are dreaming of adding. I always go overboard and end up with toooooo many seeds or plants for my space. Plus, my garden is way too big for my time so by august it is literally a hot mess.

 

What I grow:

Lettuce, spinach and greens - fast harvest, low work, expensive at store so a good return on investment

Green beans- same as above

Herbs, primarily basil, parsley, cilantro, rosemary and green onions (yes, I know the onions aren't an herb but I use them like one)

Asparagus - takes a couple of years to get a harvest but it's low work, good yield.

Eggplant

Delicata squash

Unusual tomatoes and peppers- I love these two veggies but I can get great, reasonably priced regular varieties at farmers markets or the local section of our grocery. I grow the somewhat more unusual heirloom varieties that cost more at the market.

Zucchini and yellow squash- I grow these simply to make me feel like a successful gardener even when other things fail.

 

Things that haven't worked:

Fruits-I have apple trees and a pear tree, a peach tree and a nectarine tree. Planted them (dwarf varieties) a few years ago. Yield - 2pears. Sigh.

 

Strawberries, raspberries and blueberries - same thing. Lots of plants, small yield for me. High yield for garden pests. Thornless blackberries on the other hand are the bomb. They grow like crazy and I can actually get fruit before everything else in the world does.

 

I'm sure the fruit thing is my issue. The plants set fruit but I can get it before others do.

 

My favorite part about gardening - sharing the extras with neighbors. I tried canning once and it was less than spectacular. I do freeze a lot but I still end up with extras to share. I love being able to go around to my neighbors and share. Has bought me a ton for good will that I use when my boys get unruly, the chickens escape, the lawn doesn't get mowed for two weeks, etc.

[happypamama]

Peppers because they're expensive to buy, and they freeze pretty well.

Tomatoes because we like to snack on them, and they'll freeze well too. Or maybe I'll actually get out my canner one of these days.

Cucumbers because we like to snack on them too.

 

And then we'll see what else. I want to grow pumpkins too.

[Mommee & Baba]

My focus is herbs, tomatoes, sugar snap peas, green beans, greens, cukes, peppers, & I'll fill in with items my kids want to grow.

 

Last year our tomatoes did terrible. First year since we started gardening that it was a bad season for us with tomatoes.

 

This year I'll be canning my tomatoes instead of freezing them. I found that freezing them...they get stuck at the bottom of the freezer and don't get used!!

[Amy in NH]

Peas

Carrots

Bush Beans

Cucumbers

Tomatoes

Red Peppers

Jalapeno Peppers

Radishes

Lettuce
Spinach

Zucchini  Squash

Winter Squash

Pumpkins

 

We mix flowers into our vegetable beds, and also have a separate herb box, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and some wild plum and apple trees.

 

[Lady Marmalade]

Things that haven't worked:

Fruits-I have apple trees and a pear tree, a peach tree and a nectarine tree. Planted them (dwarf varieties) a few years ago. Yield - 2pears. Sigh.

 

Strawberries, raspberries and blueberries - same thing. Lots of plants, small yield for me. High yield for garden pests. Thornless blackberries on the other hand are the bomb. They grow like crazy and I can actually get fruit before everything else in the world does.

 

I'm sure the fruit thing is my issue. The plants set fruit but I can get it before others do.

 

My favorite part about gardening - sharing the extras with neighbors. I tried canning once and it was less than spectacular. I do freeze a lot but I still end up with extras to share. I love being able to go around to my neighbors and share. Has bought me a ton for good will that I use when my boys get unruly, the chickens escape, the lawn doesn't get mowed for two weeks, etc.

 

Your fruit trees probably need a pollinator tree.  I'm not familiar with peaches or nectarines, but I do know that apples and pears will not produce fruit (or will produce very little) if there is only one.  You need to get them some mates, and you will see a complete turnaround in production.

 

For the berries, I would suggest some kind of bird netting to cover them when the fruit is entering the ripening stage.

 

[Wabi Sabi]

I've found that these crops give me the most bang for my buck:

 

lettuces

kale

strawberries

cucumbers

tomatoes

fresh herbs

peppers

green beans

 

For me things like pumpkin, squash, broccoli, zucchini, etc. just aren't an efficient use of my limited space. Last year I grew pumpkins in one raised bed for my kids. We got a few pumpkins out of it. A second bed was large enough for two zucchini plants but nothing else. On the other hand, a third raised bed of the same size was large enough for multiple crops of lettuces and other greens, a couple tomato plants, several herbs, cucumbers and peppers. This summer I plan on focusing my efforts on growing the faster growing, more compact crops and just buying a few pumpkins and squash at the farmer's market.

[MSNative]

Your fruit trees probably need a pollinator tree. I'm not familiar with peaches or nectarines, but I do know that apples and pears will not produce fruit (or will produce very little) if there is only one. You need to get them some mates, and you will see a complete turnaround in production.

 

For the berries, I would suggest some kind of bird netting to cover them when the fruit is entering the ripening stage.

 

You are so sweet to offer advice but I am just hopeless. I have multiple trees and they all set fruit. The squirrels, raccoons, etc just get the dang stuff before I do. I also use netting. You are right. It def helps. My problem is it gets all hung up on the thorns and I squash the fruit while trying to detangle it. I need to set taller stakes.

Thanks for taking the time to share your suggestions. I'm hopeful this year I'll get out there and get some fruit before the local fauna do. :)

[momto10blessings]

We have to have tomatoes, peppers, bush beans, snap peas and Cucs every year. Those are the things that do the best with minimum work in our garden. Everything else is extra.