Britain’s Favourite Garden Vegetables 2008

Here at GrowVeg.com we have a bit of a unique perspective on vegetable gardening. Not only do we offer a comprehensive source of information about growing-your-own food but we also hold more details about people’s gardens than almost any other organisation, through our unique Garden Planning Tool. So we thought it would be really interesting to see just what people are growing this year and whether any emerging trends could be spotted.Firstly, we had to make sure that the results were going to be fair. It would be no good just counting all the different vegetables that people are growing because most people grow a lot more individual onions than tomato plants – four tomato plants can be ample for a whole family, whereas four onions would last just a couple of meals. We are also aware that many people have several areas that they garden: a patch in their own garden and perhaps a bigger area, or allotment, somewhere nearby. So we decided to count each vegetable just once per grower, no matter how many garden plans they have for this year, to make it a fair indication of the popularity of each plant.The results produced some very interesting figures. Beans beat the usual contenders of peas and potatoes to the top spot with 85% of gardeners planning to include them in their vegetable plots. Peas were next in line with 70% of gardeners choosing them, followed closely by carrots at 68%. I think carrots are particularly surprising given the difficulties in growing them on heavier clay-based soils and in adequately protecting them from pests such as carrot fly –they are certainly not an ‘easy’ crop.Traditional favourite Potatoes came in at only fourth place, being grown in 67% of gardens, closely followed by onions. A surprising 50% of gardeners plan to include beetroot, which is rapidly growing in popularity due to its proven health benefits and status as a ‘superfood.’ It’s popularity is perhaps also due to being remarkably easy to grow and rarely affected by common garden pests.Leeks, parsnips, courgette and garlic were the last of the top ten with tomatoes being noticeably absent from the list – though this may just be down to them often being grown in pots or grow-bags on the patio and therefore not being included in many garden plans.I think that these results show that vegetable gardeners are no longer trying to grow everything they can eat – a year’s supply of potatoes for example. Most people just don’t have the room for that and are using other criteria to choose what to grow:Easy-to-grow vegetables: such as beans and peasHealthy vegetables (which often taste much better fresh): such as carrots and beetrootHigh value vegetables: for the space available beans can save a fortune over shop prices and with a little work the growing season can be extended over a reasonable timeVegetable Inclusion in garden plansBeans 85%Peas 70%Carrot 68%Potatoes 67%Onion 64%Beetroot 50%Leek 49%Parsnip 47%Courgette 46%Garlic 46%That’s my interpretation of the results – why not let me know what you think of these emerging trends by adding a comment below...

Kerrie,
That sounds like one amazing diet to be brought up on! And what an appreciation of fresh food you must have accumulated, not to mention the knowledge passed on by your father.

Have to say that the peas I grow never make it to the table - my children just eat them fresh out of the pods like sweets! Searching for new potatoes has to be one of the most child-friendly activities in the garden as well.

This year I have been experimenting wtih growing all my salad off ground level in large terracota pots to beat the slugs and have had a beautiful variety of fresh leaves for the past fortnight. Just got to keep the supply steady now and not eat it all at once...

Best of luck with your raised veg garden.

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Comments

Jeremy Dore May 19, 2008 at 8:32pm

Kerrie,
That sounds like one amazing diet to be brought up on! And what an appreciation of fresh food you must have accumulated, not to mention the knowledge passed on by your father.

Have to say that the peas I grow never make it to the table - my children just eat them fresh out of the pods like sweets! Searching for new potatoes has to be one of the most child-friendly activities in the garden as well.

This year I have been experimenting wtih growing all my salad off ground level in large terracota pots to beat the slugs and have had a beautiful variety of fresh leaves for the past fortnight. Just got to keep the supply steady now and not eat it all at once...

Best of luck with your raised veg garden.