Must Grow Vegetables

Vegetable gardening is an ongoing process, and sometimes the timing can be a little overwhelming, with the next season sneaking up on us too quickly or the crazy weather patterns blurring our judgment.

Don’t use planting times as a hard and fast rule. Judge it by the warmth of the soil and what other plants are doing, i.e. I wait until I see tomatoes self seeding from last years strays before I plant out my carefully nurtured seedlings. In truth, each season is different and garden planting dates have been even harder to peg down than the traditional wisdom would lead one to believe.

I do find that planning your coming growing season is a great start and at the end of winter is and an ideal time to do this. Start by sorting through your seeds and decide what varieties worked and thrived, and which ones you would like to give another go. Those not needed and too old throw into a jar or container and use these for green manure.

Then I decide what varieties I need new supplies of and which new ones I would like to try out. This is the hard part: when faced with all the beautiful catalogues and choices everything sounds so tempting. What to order or if you’re starting from scratch how do you decide what to grow? There are a lot of things to take into consideration

You might have access to farm fresh produce locally, you might want to save the space in your garden for the vegetables you truly love and that aren’t always available and you might

be limited by space.Your first consideration should always be to plant what you like to eat. Don't waste garden space producing wonderful crops of eggplants, if no one in the family will touch them.Think about those that you constantly purchases from the grocery store. These are your must grow vegetables.

Your next priority might be the vegetables that you can’t get in your area; I like to grow kale, its hard to buy here and l love eating it. Asian vegetables, these are always better picked fresh, and at the supermarkets are often limp and harder to buy.

Then I will give more exotic things a try, ginger has proved to be a success for me, and this year I’m going to try turmeric. I also tend to give less priority to things that are available locally and reasonably priced, i.e. Potatoes I don’t have lots of space and can get nice organic potatoes all year round. On the other hand, garlic can get a bit pricy so is always worth the effort.

Taste is another priority Onions and carrots are much superior freshly grown, and I don’t need to advocate the tastiness of the home-grown tomato.

Its important not to be discouraged, if you fail miserable or try to grow something that is not ideally suited to our area give it a go for a few growing seasons. Give them time to adapt to our local growing conditions, selecting the plant that looks the healthiest to collect seeds for next year’s crop.

My Must Grow Vegetables

Onions

I can't cook without onions so these are top of the list, I also much prefer fresh white salad onions, and the smaller Italian red onions. Spring onions are dead easy to grow and last a lot longer in the soil growing happily than they so in the crisper.

Garlic

Same goes for garlic although I always underestimate the amount of garlic we actually use each week and I would never be able to grow enough for all year round so I dry & store all that I grow and buy the organic garlic in season.

Carrots

These closely follow onions and garlic, as a kitchen staple. When you have tasted a crisp and fresh purple carrot, or serve up a dish of multi coloured roasted carrots you will understand why.

Peas

Nothing beats fresh peas in the pod, at our house they rarely make it out of the garden.
Lettuce

It really should be a crime to buy the supermarket prepackaged bags when lettuce is so easy to grow. I sow more than I need to give me a reliable daily picking and give the excess to the guinea pigs. Keep a regular supply growing by sowing a couple of cell trays each month.

Broad Beans

Freshly shelled broad beans are a delight. As they get older and bigger, the skin becomes tough and bitter and they have to be "double peeled". Peeling the fine skin around each bean is a task a good cook learns to love; the process is as important as the result I grow copious amounts to freeze and keep me going thorough the year.

Asian Greens

Although I have not perfected the art of growing all the greens I love being able to pick them freshly. The crispness is far superior and often I pick just a few leaves of each for an Asian salad or stir fry. They are best left to self seed, and come up by their own.

Zucchini

If there was a vegetable that was perfect for our climate it would be zucchini. They hardly need any encouraging, are very prolific and its easy to get overwhelmed by them so I pick them while they are still small and are sweet and crisp. And pickle the rest.

Capsicum

Another well suited variety. Incredibly versatile, capsicum are delicious raw in salads, stir-fried, stewed, stuffed or in soups and casseroles or dried they can be ground to make chili pepper powders. Start early and you can be picking peppers from the start of summer to the end of autumn outdoors or year round grown as houseplants.

Kale Silverbeet & Spinach

Our household could not be without these, the finish to many dishes involves a quick trip out to the patch. Spanakopita pie is a family favorite and so I grow enough to fill a big baking dish. They grow very easily, kale and silverbeet self seed happily and so need no encouragement.

Beetroot

Beetroot can never be brought fresh without it being too big and fibrous or limp. There are the deep purple reds, but also pink, yellow and white I grow them all. Beetroot is delicious baked, boiled or raw and it makes a really great soup. Beetroot can be eaten raw. You just need to peel it and it's ready to use.

Beans

Freshly shelled broad beans are a delight. They freeze well are a great food source dried to use in soups or for making fried rissoles or dips

Taste is really the only word to describe the benefits of growing these last two vegetables .how can you grow food without these two?

Strawberries

Not watery and bitter like store brought varieties and not shipped over ridiculous distances. The flavour is both sweet and intensely rich and lingers on the palate like a fine wine. An extremely fragrant and beautiful addition to any garden even if the birds get to the majority of the crop.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are juicier grown at home - some of the juiciest varieties can't be shipped without damage. Tinned tomatoes are reasonable good and so I tend to concentrate on the eating sun drying and sauce/relish varieties. Find your favourite and best varieties and grow them in abundance. You can never have too many tomatoes.

If I had the room I would add, corm pumpkins and watermelons to this list. Then there are the herbs I couldn’t be without and the fruit I have started to add to every corner for all round supply. My list could go on and on, that’s why I find it important to put it all in perspective before time gets ahead of me. Find some time in the warmth and think about your list. Please share some of your favourites with me.