Gardeners often ask what vegetable plants I plant at this time of the year.
The following are vege plants that will give you crop after crop of quality vegetables all through the year: Beans, (many different varieties) beetroot, lettuce (different varieties), radishes (can be strong tasting at times), silverbeet (lots of colours) and everybody’s favourite, tomatoes.
There are many types of beans to choose from – broad beans, climbing beans, dwarf beans, bush and butter beans. These are the gardener’s choice. There is a huge variety of heights ranging from 30cm to 2m tall.
Now, beetroot can be purchased like the others by seed or by the small plants, however I think the cheapest way to grow them is from your own seed. Lettuce, can be purchased several ways (seed or plants) to suit your requirements and can be broad or small leaf, variegated or with coloured leaves.
Radishes can be a little strong, however this just may suit your salad requirements and they are very easy to grow due to their quick turnaround. Kids love raising them.
Silverbeet are slightly different – a range of different colours can be grown, which adds colour to your meal and can be consumed when very small leaves appear.
Tomatoes – there are so many to choose from.
Worldwide, there are probably over 100 varieties, many different uses, either for salads or cooking.
There are the tall varieties that grow naturally at home, or there are the smaller heirloom varieties, some with stripes and others with different colourings, from a pale white through reds to the very dark as in the Black Russian.
Tomatoes come in many different sizes for every food occasion, round through to oval and then onto some very large varieties like beefsteak that can weigh in excess of a kilo.
Favourites among growers are the different-sized cherry type variety to the slightly larger, Tommy Toe, Roma, Black Russian, Grosse Lisse and Ida Gold, which are a yellow gold variety, sweet and flavorful.
It would be unkind of me to leave out one of my favorites, the Tree Tomato, (Tamarillo) which actually grows into a small tree-like structure and fruits prolifically in just a short time.
The fruit starts off green then morphs into burgundy stripes and then onto red, a delicious fruit, though you do need some space in your garden.
There are very few pests to trouble this plant as the skin is similar to a passion fruit, thick and hard.
Well, I hope you try some of these plants – experiment, they are quick to grow and delicious.
Don’t forget you can use your tomato or (lettuce when they go to seed) to grow another crop.
Till next time.
