20 veges for economic growth
Stretch your budget without cutting back on your 5 + A Day with Lynda Hallinan’s guide to the best crops to plant and sow for healthy returns.
Lynda Hallinan on the best edibles to grow to save money.
Hands up if, like me, you were surprised at how much money you saved while all the shops were shut for the Covid-19 lockdown. Hands up again if – also like me – that was in spite of skyrocketing grocery bills. When food was all we could buy, we all seemed to buy more of it, but now that we’re back to a strange sort of new normal, we all seem to be growing more of it too.
My local garden centre is struggling to keep anything on its seedling aisle shelves, partly because the Level 4 ban on propagation is still impacting supply, and partly because gardeners are in catch-up mode, having missed the entire autumn planting season.
Seed sales remain well up – Kings Seeds report being three times busier than usual, even after the lockdown boom – and I’m continually being asked for vegetable growing advice by beginner gardeners online.
History shows that during times of economic uncertainty, we turn back to growing our own food. There are many reasons for this, both practical and emotional. Growing food makes us feel more in control, it offers food security for our families, and enriches both our mental wellbeing and diet.
But does it help make ends meet? That’s debatable. If you can keep your setup costs low – dig over a patch of turf, rather than building raised beds, and grow your own plants from seed – then the answer is definitely yes.
August is the ideal month to start planning for the season ahead. Spend the last few weeks of winter getting your soil sorted. Dig in green crops, clear weeds and start a compost heap.
Then write a wishlist of what you’d like to put in. Sort out which seeds you already have – or can swap with friends – and try not to impulse shop for seedlings, as your choices will be dictated by what’s available at the time, as opposed to what you (a) want to grow and (b) actually want to eat.
Choosing tried-and-true varieties to sow and being realistic – about the time you have to spend in the garden, your local climate’s limitations and the amount you need to grow (so as to avoid waste) – also helps make vege gardening more cost-effective.
1 Grow your own SALAD GREENS for a fraction of the cost of pre-prepared salads.
When we went into lockdown in March, I sowed an emergency salad garden in large pots on our outdoor table (out of reach of our free-range chickens). Those tubs of coriander, Italian parsley, wild rocket and kale have kept us in salad greens ever since.
While I understand their convenience, I’m no fan of bagged salads, as nature never intended cut greens to survive inside a plastic bag for 7-10 days. It’s so much cheaper, and almost as convenient, to scatter a packet of Italian mesclun (Kings Seeds) over a bucket of potting mix.
Keep moist and warm until germination and prepare to snip with scissors from 3-4 weeks.
2 Not all LETTUCE is created equal. Old-fashioned ‘Iceberg’ can’t compete with ‘Cos’.
If I had my way, ‘Iceberg’ would be the only lettuce I’d eat, as wraps, cups, shredded in burgers or in wedges drizzled with retro mustard, vinegar and condensed milk mayo.
Unfortunately, as Mick Jagger would say, you can’t always get what you want – and in my Hunua garden, the only season in which ‘Iceberg’ lettuce is easy to grow is spring. In winter it freezes and rots; in summer it is attacked by aphids and fungal diseases. ‘Cos’ lettuce, meanwhile, has proven to be foolproof year-round, so ‘Cos’ is what I grow.
I’m also impressed with the Salanova range (from garden centres in six-packs). These Dutch hybrids, in oak-leaf, butterhead and frilly forms, have three times as many leaves as standard lettuces. Cut individual leaves or the whole head; it will resprout.
3 From a single packet of seed, you can enjoy an unlimited supply of ASPARAGUS SPEARS.
When it comes to choosing which crops to grow, you should be entirely guided by your own tastebuds. To paraphase the late NZ Gardener writer Virgil Evetts, if the thought of eating what you’re planting doesn’t make you salivate, then you’re doing it wrong.
Another guiding rule is to grow crops that suit your climate, yet are expensive to buy. (My mouth waters for sun-ripened apricots but I’m deluding myself to think that, here in the north, I can grow apricots as good as the ‘Clutha Gold’ fruit I buy by mail-order each summer from Central Otago.)
But fresh asparagus ticks all the boxes – and it grows happily in most parts of New Zealand including coastal gardens. If you have enough space to set aside a dedicated asparagus bed, you’ll never regret it. Once established and if kept well fed, this spring culinary delight keeps cropping for decades.
Start asparagus from dormant crowns (available now in garden centres) or stretch your budget by sowing seed (Kings Seeds offer purple and green varieties). Crowns must be bedded in for two years before you start picking, and seedlings for three. Plant in 30cm deep trenches loaded up with old manure, sheep pellets, compost or organic fertiliser such as Yates’ Dynamic Lifter.
Think carefully about where you plant asparagus. It needs full sun and isn’t very attractive at any time of the year. It also forms a huge fleshy rootball that doesn’t take kindly to being uprooted or relocated.
4 BOK CHOY offers triple the value as a microgreen, salad leaf and soup/stir-fry cabbage.
And did I mention that it also grows three times as fast as a standard Savoy cabbage? Unlike traditional brassicas, which won’t mature by winter unless well-established in late summer and early autumn, so-called Asian greens like bok choy/pak choi and wong bok aren’t fazed by chilly winter soils. Sow direct or in trays and start cutting from two weeks (micros), three weeks (baby leaves) or two months (mature head).
5 BROAD BEANS are easier to grow than peas and any surplus can be snap-frozen.
What more does the broad bean have to do to earn our affection? One of few edible crops that can be sown direct in frosty soil, they fix nitrogen, provide early nectar for bees and bumblebees, and offer a habitat for overwintering beneficial insects. Unlike peas, which are hard to grow in familyfeeding quantities, broad beans are prolific podders and, if you cook them with frozen minted peas, no-one will be any the wiser.
6 Get two years of nutritious greens from a single sowing of hardy SILVERBEET.
Given the fashion for gourmet greens, it’s easy to overlook the old standards such as ‘Fordhook Giant’ silverbeet and ‘Perpetual’ spinach, yet both are stalwarts for steaming and stir-frying. The beauty of biennial silverbeet is that even after winter, when tastier things are back on the menu, it just bides its time until you need it again.
Silverbeet flowers and sets seed in its second year, but if you snap off the main stalk, it’ll send up a secondary crop of new offshoots. The older the plants get, the more likely they’ll succumb to ugly fungal leaf spots (Cercospora) but this is cosmetic and doesn’t diminish their culinary value.
7 DWARF BEANS produce big crops.
Although bags of imported green beans are available in supermarkets year-round, if you grow (and freeze) your own, you needn’t buy any. Dwarf ‘Top Crop’ (all seed ranges) is an excellent producer and can be repeat sown at fortnightly intervals over summer for a constant, copious supply. Slice, blanch briefly and freeze the surplus for winter use.
8 With clever and careful cutting, a single punnet of BROCCOLI seedlings can ultimately yield up to 30 heads, or a continuous supply of side stems.
I’ve always found it odd how much the price of broccoli fluctuates each season given that – white cabbage butterfly caterpillars notwithstanding – it doesn’t seem to notice whether it’s winter or summer in backyard vege patches. Broccoli is a doddle to grow compared to cauliflower and it repeat-crops if you leave a decent length of stem attached above the rosette of leaves when harvesting the mature head.
I haven’t bothered to raise any broccoli seedlings since coming across the variety ‘Green Midget’ (in Zealandia’s Grow Fresh punnet range). It produces an initial compact 20cm head followed by a secondary flush of 10-15cm heads around the cut stump.
If you prefer huge heads, opt for 'Green Dragon' (in punnets) or the commercially grown F1 hybrid ‘Marathon’ (McGregor’s and Egmont Seeds) instead.
Failed with broccoli before? Try ‘Gai Lan’ (Kings Seeds), ‘Green Sprouting’ (Yates) or ‘Broccoletto Rapini’ (Egmont Seeds). These tender side-sprouters all taste like broccoli.
9 Homegrown HERBS are great value for money and won’t wilt on your windowsill.
One of the first mistakes many beginner herb gardeners make is planting out hydroponic herbs from the supermarket, instead of sourcing soil-grown plants at the garden centre. While mint might take this way, basil will collapse and coriander will bolt (always sow coriander direct). In beds or pots, herbs are rewarding to grow and rich in flavour. Start with the basics – basil (in summer), chives, coriander, dill, fennel, mint, oregano, parsley (curly and flat-leaf), rosemary, sage, thyme – that you use most often. All herbs, with the exception of mint and chervil, do best in full sun.
10 It’s easy to sprout a KŪMARA tuber to start a low-cost crop.
Kūmara need a warmer climate and gentler handling than spuds; consequently, they cost more (during lockdown, my husband’s Aunt Judy paid $28 for three big sweet potatoes!)
To grow kūmara, start now: all you need is a single storebought tuber. Nestle it into damp potting mix and it’ll soon grow green shoots. Once these shoots have a few leaves each, slice them off and place in a jar of water to grow roots. Plant your free-rooted runners out in a sunny, frost-free spot in late spring.
Kūmara do best in mounds or 40-50cm deep beds with a solid base. Try piling soil over a buried sheet of corrugated iron.
Plus if you’re a fan of fancy (and pricey) trailing houseplants, sprout a kūmara and keep it indoors as an amazing talking point.
11 When the first freshly dug new season’s ‘Jersey Bennes’ hit the shops, they fetch $10 per kg, so it’s a nobrainer to grow BABY POTATOES. ‘Rocket’ and ‘Swift’ are ready to dig in 70-90 days. Start chitting seed spuds now so they are ready to plant as soon as all risk of late frosts has passed. 12 Love snacking on BABY CARROTS? Do the maths and save.
For $4.99, you can buy a 300g plastic bag of peeled baby carrots at the supermarket
– or a packet of 1000 carrot seeds to grow your own. Sow specialty baby varieties such as ‘Ladies Fingers’ (Egmont Seeds) and ‘Mini Sweet’ (Kings Seeds), or pluck the thinnings from any carrot variety 6-8 weeks after sowing. Baby carrots are merely the runts of the litter.
Carrots are tricky to keep on the straight and narrow. Always sow direct and use a rotary hoe or do the mahi with a fork and spade to prepare the soil prior to sowing, as carrot roots are liable to fork and twist if they hit obstacles such as sticks, stones and hard lumps of clay.
Don’t overdo the fresh compost, either, as this can lead to split, forked, munted roots. They’re still edible but they are a devil to peel.
Grow your own BABY BEETS too.
Again, do the maths. For the same price of a 250g vacuum pack of pre-cooked and peeled baby beets, you can buy a pack of 200 seeds. Sow classic ‘Detroit Dark Red’ (Egmont Seeds and McGregor’s) or torpedo-shaped ‘Cylindra’ (all suppliers). Sow direct or transplant seedlings from punnets. While waiting for the roots to swell, harvest individual leaves
as a bonus salad crop.
14 In a small space, you can still grow a surprisingly big crop of colourful pre-Colonial MĀORI POTATOES.
In my experience, potatoes prefer a cool root run and don’t do well in raised beds, planter bags or pots, however much you cosset them. However, so-called Māori potatoes or taewa are the exception to this rule: these knobbly old-timers flourish in difficult conditions without any noticeable drop in quality or tuber size (granted, they are quite a bit smaller to start with).
Heirloom Māori varieties, from dark purple, oval-shaped ‘Urenika’ to creamy ‘Huakaroro’ and deep-eyed, racoon-masked ‘Kowiniwini’, have stood the test of time in Kiwi growing conditions. They take up less room than traditional potato crops and don’t need digging all at once. Just leave them growing as you “bandicoot” (dig around the edges of the plants to filch a few tubers at a time).
Source Māori seed potatoes from Koanga Gardens, garden centres (in the Morton Smith-Dawe range), farmers’ markets and organic food stores.