12 trouble-free best value vegies
Cherry Tomatoes
The best type for the home gardener are cherry tomatoes as they don't get fruit fly, like the big tomatoes do. They're sweet and juicy, and with a couple of plants you'll be harvesting handfuls.
Tommy Toe: Great taste, and kids love them. Make sauce with surplus.
Yellow Pear: Look fabulous glowing in a salad, as yellow bruschetta, or roasted with garlic and feta.
Plant in sun or part shade. They're hungry plants, so feed fortnightly with a specialised tomato fertiliser.
TIP: Provide a trellis, tie long stems and grow vertically.Cherry Tomatoes
Thinkstock
'Golden Nugget' pumpkin
Most pumpkin varieties have a startling rate of growth with vigorous trailing vines that can quickly take over the garden. Try the gorgeous variety 'Golden Nugget' for more manageable growth. One vine can bear a dozen or more mini pumpkins, just enough to serve two people. Orange-skinned, with sweet flavour, they're great for stuffing, baking and, of course, soup.
TIP: To take up even less space in your garden, grow these up a lattice. They love to scramble up, attaching by leafy tendrils, and the fruit will be more visible.
Thinkstock
Silverbeet
Each plant bears many huge, crinkled leaves, held high on thick, edible stems. A must in lasagne and frittata, you can also add the leaves to your salad, and stir-fry or steam the leaf stems. They're usually white, but look out for Rainbow Chard with red, pink and yellow stems, or Ruby Chard in red.
TIP: To extend the period of harvest, pick the outer leaves only. Each plant can last up to 12 months or more!
Tree onion
The most cold-tolerant of all types of onions, it produces mini, shallot-sized bulbs both above and below ground for several years. The small bulbs are ideal for salads, in casseroles, or for pickling. And the green leaves are great chopped and used as you would spring onions.
TIP: Plant bulbs now, with the neck of the bulb protruding from the soil. That's pointy side up!
Thinkstock
Loose-leaf lettuce
The veg that keeps on giving - pick only the outer leaves, leaving the centre leaves to continue producing. Lollo Rossa has dainty, frilly, pink-tinged foliage. Oak Leaf lobed leaves in green or red.
TIP: A saucer of beer will attract and drown snails and slugs, and protect your lettuce.
Thinkstock
Asparagus
Asparagus is a real long-term friend - each plant will continue to produce delicious, tender spears for decades. Shoots appear in spring. Pick them when they're about 15cm long. Don't let them get any bigger or they'll be tough and stringy.
TIP: Plant asparagus crowns now and allow them to grow undisturbed for 12 months. You can start to harvest every spring after that.
Thinkstock
Jerusalem artichoke
This sunflower relative grows to two metres tall, producing an abundance of underground tubers. You'll rarely find them for sale in the shops, as they don't store well once removed from the soil. They're knobbly with a unique earthy flavour and are delicious roasted, made into dips or soup. Also great sliced and crunchy in a stir-fry or salad. Select a sunny position as the tall stems will appreciate wind protection.
Bonus: This plant makes a good summer screen. Don't forget to fill a vase with the sunny, yellow daisy flowers.
Getty
Gourmet potatoes
It's easy to grow varieties that aren't readily available in the supermarket.
Kipfler: small with yellow flesh. Good boiled, steamed or in potato salad.
Pink Fir: Apple pink-skinned, elongated tubers with cream flesh, they're the ultimate potato salad spud.
Purple Congo: Create a colorful sensation at the dinner table. A bit floury so not ideal for chips or roasting. Best boiled or steamed and served with butter.
How to start: Buy seed potatoes and bury them 5cm under the soil surface. When the new shoots emerge, cover them in soil or a thick mulch. This is called "earthing up". Potatoes produce roots along the new stems, and more tubers as a result. Mulching also prevents sun exposure, which turns the tubers green and inedible.
Thinkstock
Beetroot
Growing your own baby beets is simple and can take just eight weeks from planting to harvest. They're delicious roasted, boiled or pickled, or grate uncooked beets into the salad bowl. As an added bonus, there's no wastage as the leaves of the plant are tasty spinach substitutes cooked or as a salad green. Best grown from seeds planted 2cm deep, in well-prepared soil in a sunny position.
TIP: Golden beetroot has a sweeter flavour. The 'Chioggia' variety has white flesh with concentric purple rings - looks sensational sliced!
Thinkstock
Lebanese cucumbers
These crispy mini cucumbers last all summer. They're great for salads, dipping and pickling. You could even try a thin sliver of cucumber with your gin and tonic instead of the lemon! Ensure they never become dry at the roots, and avoid wetting the leaves, which could cause fungal disease. Cucumbers are climbers and will grow well up wire-netting supports.
TIP: The female flower produces the cucumber fruit, and has a bump at the base of the flower. Give nature a helping hand by transferring pollen from male to female flowers. Simply tickle the male flower with a small brush, then dab onto the female flower.
Thinkstock
Sorrel
You can't often buy this leafy green in the shops as it wilts quickly after picking, but it is easy to grow. You'll be rewarded with a constant supply of lemony-tasting leaves - pick a few at a time just before you need them. Add a few chopped leaves to a salad or in a sandwich for a zingy taste. Sorrel sauce is a French classic served with fish, and sorrel soup is delicious.
TIP: Plant in sun or semi-shade, and mulch well. Sorrel loves to have damp roots. The clumps will get bigger every year, and benefit from lifting and dividing into smaller sections every three years.
Thinkstock
Zucchini
A couple of plants will give you plentiful supplies all summer long. Pick tender, young fruit. Don't forget tasty zucchini flowers you can serve with a savoury stuffing or light tempura batter. 'Golden Zucchini' is popular, with vibrant yellow skin - it's a little taste of sunshine.
Thinkstock
