Big, beefy tomatoes
The taste and nutritional value of a homegrown tomato picked at peak ripeness is far superior to supermarket fare.
Photo by George Weigel
If you’re going to take a shot at growing your own dinner this year, a good place to start is by picking the crops that offer the best return on your investment.
Experienced gardeners quickly learn that some types of homegrown vegetables work out better than others. Choices such as onions and peppers, for example, perform reliably well with few setbacks throughout most of the country, while crops such as broccoli and spinach often run into bug threats.
Try these 10 vegetables that offer the best bang for the buck:
Tomatoes. They’re not the easiest crops to grow in areas that are prone to blight diseases and high heat, but the payoff is huge. The taste and nutritional value of a homegrown tomato picked at peak ripeness is light-years ahead of supermarket fare. The cost of store-bought tomatoes coupled with the likely yield—even when disease short-circuits production—makes the tomato a gardener’s best investment. Tomato plants are easy to start from seed, and the fruits are versatile for canning and freezing, as well as fresh eating. Stake plants to save space.
Peppers. Both hot and sweet bell peppers are easy to grow and have few in-the-garden problems. They thrive in warm weather. Yields are good, store prices make the effort worth it, and peppers are nearly as versatile as tomatoes in the kitchen.
Cucumbers. Overcome the main problem of disease-spreading cucumber beetles, and you’ll swim in fresh cucumbers for months. Turn cukes into pickles or relish and the value goes even higher. Cucumbers are cheap and easy to start from seed planted directly in the garden. Avoid pesticides, and spread out the harvest by planting new seeds every few weeks throughout summer. If wilt kills the older plants, young ones will then take over.
Asparagus. One of the few perennial veggies, asparagus is planted by roots and can produce weeks of nutritious shoots each year for decades. Give asparagus its own patch, so spreading shoots don’t migrate into other crops. Weeds are the main challenge, although plants occasionally are attacked by insects.
Onions, leeks, shallots and garlic. These flavorful plants are among the cheapest, easiest-to-grow crops—just keep them watered.
Lettuce. Leaf types are easiest to grow and keep churning out fresh spring salads until heat turns them bitter. All lettuce is cheap to grow from direct-planted seed. The main adventure is keeping the bunnies from beating you to harvest.
Squash. Excess-harvest jokes about zucchini are legendary, but almost all summer squashes are tireless producers—that is, until either mildew or squash vine borers take them down. But by then, even a short-circuited production will have paid you back royally for the minor cost of seed. Both squash problems are stoppable, or use the same trick as with cucumbers—seed several times so you’ll have a backup supply in the wings.
Rhubarb. Like asparagus, rhubarb is a perennial vegetable. You’ll get years of rhubarb pies and jelly from the stalks your expanding plants will put out each season. Other than rotting in wet clay (a no-no for any vegetable garden), rhubarb is a low-care and long-lasting option. And it’s a bold, tropical-looking plant with its large leaves and reddish stalks, even if you don’t eat it. Note that only the stalks are edible. The leaves are high in oxalic acid and should be cut off when harvesting.
Beans. Bush beans are another inexpensive, seed-grown crop that usually yields several pickings before the pods peter out. Because they’re among the quickest from seed to harvest, beans can go in several times from spring through summer. Pole beans twine up supports and continue yielding for weeks or even months—longer than most bush beans.
Snow peas. Timing is everything with snow peas. Plant seeds from early fall through end of winter as a winter to early-spring crop. Grow the vines up a fence or similar support to save space, and they’ll give you weeks of pod-picking before heat shuts down production.