The 2014 vegetable growing list

Following the golden rules of "grown what you enjoy eating" and "if short of space/time, prioritise what is expensive or difficult to find in the shops", these are the vegetables and fruit that I'm growing or planning to grow this year. And those which didn't make the short list.

YES:

Lettuce and salad leaves

Rocket

Sorrel

Herbs (parsley, thyme, rosemary, basil)

Chives 

Spring onions

Spinach

Beetroot: yellow and pink-striped

Radish

Courgette (but only one plant)

Cucumber

Romanesco

Purple sprouting broccoli

Climbing French beans, but next time I'll plant them in a wigwam among the flower beds, and leave the raised beds for smaller plants that need closer weeding.

Tomatoes (7) and chillies (2)

 

ON THE WISHLIST (as soon as I save the cash, they're going in - I already found them a spot):

Raspberries 

Blueberries

A quince tree 

NO:

Too much space and easy to buy: cauliflowers (with the exception of romanesco), cabbages, onions, potatoes. Strawberries (expensive fruit, but you need masses of plants to get more than a handful of fruit).

Because we never eat it: runner beans, broad beans, kale.

ON PROBATION:

To see if they grow well: Garlic: you can eat it fresh and it's nicer than the dry garlic from the shop, apparently. And Leek: they won't grow big but apparently they are very tasty harvested small.

Peas. Because they take space for months and are easy to buy. And we don't eat them enough to appreciate the mythical flavour difference between fresh and frozen. I have some in the ground already, but once these are gone I don't think I'll bother again. Might try growing pea shoots with the leftover seed, perhaps.

Parsnips and swedes. Because I had the seed and felt sorry for it and I was in a sowing frenzy and not thinking straight. I may put parsnips in the Yes list if they grow well because the bunnies like them. I might grow them as foliage in between the flower beds.

Pak choi: this is an experiment, I'm growing it for the first time. If it grows well and we eat it, I'll keep it on the list. The purple leaves look amazing in the seed packet.

(By the way, the photo is only a section of my vegetable patch, about half, the whole list above wouldn't fit in just this bit!)

Esta es la lista de frutas y verduras en las que me voy a concentrar este año - son cosas que a) nos gusta cocinar, y b) son caras o dificiles de encontrar en la tienda:

Lechugas de varios tipos, rucula, perejil, hierbas aromaticas (tomillo, romero, menta, albahaca), cebollinos y cebolleta, espinacas, remolacha amarilla y rosa, rabanitos, calabacin (pero solo una planta), pepino, coliflor pero solo la variedad romanesco (la de los "pinchos" verdes), brecol pero solo el que da floretes peqeños, puerros, tomates y judias (pero solo las que dan vainas estrechas. Ademas, la proxima vez las voy a plantar entre las flores, y dejar las jardineras de la huerta para plantas mas pequeñas que necesitan mas atencion).

Y tengo sitio reservado para plantar: frambuesas, grosellas y un membrillo. Fresas no, porque para un bol de fruta se necesitan muchas plantas y no tengo espacio.