What to grow in your Veggie Patch?

It has been a big day sharing all of my veggie patch knowledge. In case you skipped straight to this one, you can go back and read more on this topic or forge ahead, up to you.

READ MORE > Veggie Patch: why you should have your own veggie patch and how to do it.
> How to build a Veggie Garden

What to grow in your Veggie Patch?

Veggies, obviously! But also herbs and fruit. This is more about guiding you in the right direction and giving you tips on how to chose from the monstrously huge list of options out there.

First off, try to chose things that your family will eat. No use planting a crop of broccoli or a big chilli plant for instance, if no one likes it. If you can plant foods that you will eat you will be more likely to tend to your garden, you will save money on groceries and there will be no wastage. If you have friends and family who also grow their own produce, check out what they have first so that you can arrange to swap excess with each other. When you are growing your own produce, the whole point (or at least a very big one) is to try and be sustainable, which includes having less waste. There are a lot of varieties of produce that you can leave on the plant to keep it fresh and only pick it when you are ready to use it.

HOT TIP: If you do end up with excess you could blanch and freeze it, dehydrate it, preserve it, share it, eat it, or you can try to plant carefully so you don’t have excess.

Try and do a mix of things that will grow and produce quickly and others that may take a while. There is nothing more disheartening than putting all of that effort in to just have to sit back and wait months on end to see any signs of edible food. You can also plant the same seedlings a few weeks apart to be sure you have a constant supply.

Once you make your wish list, do a little research into what sort of plants like to grow together, and what you can plant to help deter bugs – this is referred to by the green thumbs as companion planting. Also consider how much space each type of veg will take up so you don’t over crowd your plants. All of this takes a fair bit of research but you will be thankful that you did it.

Don’t overlook all of your herbs and fruits as well. And flowers – these can help keep pests away and encourage bees which help with your pollination, and they look pretty.

Everything doesn’t have to go in the veggie patch – share the joy around your yard. Some plants may like different positioning for the sun and wind and away from other plants, and pots are great for deck areas.

If you go for ground runners like pumpkins and melons be sure to plan this in to your space. The same with large leafy plants such as cauliflower and cabbage which can very quickly cover over nearby plants. These sorts of plantings need a bit of consideration for placement so if you are starting out simple and with baby steps, then you may want to wait off on these space gobblers. We have an unused space along one of our fences that is perfect for small pumpkins and will be using the leafy produce as part of a display in the front garden as they are actually very pretty and ornamental.

There is so much to choose from and you need to have some self control and realise that you cannot do everything at once. You do not want to over burden your soil, some plants aren’t friends and different plants like different seasons.

You will also need to decide how you are going to source your plants. You can buy them already started, as seedlings from your regular home and hardware store (though don’t expect these to last long), from a local nursery or permaculture business, local farmers markets often have a plant stall or if you can it is great to be able to grow your produce from seeds (heirloom are best and will last longer!).

It is early spring here so the garden is really taking off, here is what we have growing at the moment:

*We have a few things growing in pipes and tins up on the fence including Strawberries and Garlic
*We have a great spot along one fence where we can build some tee-pee trellis’s for our tomatoes that are growing alongside our eggplants (the gorgeous little heirloom Italian stripey ones ‘rosa bianca’) as well as basil, chillies and rosemary. This will be the future backdrop to our pizza oven!! (oh my goodness – yes!!)
*Sunflowers are starting to pop through which will be beautiful and bright and I am hoping to harvest some seeds from these.
*I fondly remember having Sweet Peas straight from the garden as a kid so I couldn’t deny my girls of that experience.
*Corn is a fast grower and is very satisfying to grow. We have a few varieties of this ready to go but be mindful that you can only grow one variety at a time.
*We enjoy our Kale, especially dehydrated into chips, and we chose the Cavolo Nero which is slightly less bitter than the curly one you most commonly see at the supermarket.
*Thyme, Coriander, Mint, Flat Leaf Parsley, and Chives which were a must because every time we look at the veggie books the girls go crazy over the pretty pom pom flowers on top.
*Fennel, this is not only delicious but smells beautiful in the garden
*We selected a delicious bulls blood beet which you can eat the leaves of as well.
*I think that a basic four seasons mix of lettuce is a must, and it will be able to keep our salads going on rotation
*We have a small variety of pumpkin named Golden Nugget that we can run along the ground beside our veggie patch
* Rainbow Chard /Silverbeet is always a popular choice
*We eat a lot of Asian greens so it made sense to grow our own, at the moment we have Shanghai Paak Tsoi.
*Broccoli is a veggie we eat a lot of so this just made sense.
*We have a selection of miniature or dwarf citrus growing in humungous pots including Lemon, Lime, and Cumquats.
*We finally bought a new coffee tree to replace our original one we had to leave behind when we moved overseas. Starting from scratch with this one so it will probably be about 18 months before we have fruit on it.
*Kaffir Lime is so much easier to grow than to freeze little boxes of it. And you can use the ugly little limes in your G&T!
*A few edible flowers have found their way in there as well like Nasturtiums and Violas

I have a huge list of other things we want to grow but obviously you can’t have everything at once and many of them need to wait for the cooler weather.

HOT TIP: My advice on what to start with would be a few different herbs because they are quite easy to grow, lettuce because it is quick and bountiful, and tomatoes because they are easy and so tasty fresh from the garden.

What is your favourite edible to grow? What tips and advice can you give on choosing what to grow?