PROLIFIC CROPS

There are a few crops worth recommending to stretch your budget simply because they are so ridiculously prolific. High-yield vegetables like these help maximise production of your growing space too.

Cucumbers

Auckland Botanic Gardens manager and top plantsman Jack Hobbs finds this prolific cucurbit is a brilliant budget-boosting crop for summer. “I grow Lebanese types such as ‘Manny’ (F1 hybrid) that produce a prolonged harvest of smooth tasty fruit that are ideal for salads, dipping in white wine vinegar or for making tzatziki. I also pickle some as gherkins,” he says.

Jack sows seed in pots in spring, plants out from mid-October and begins picking from late December. To save space and keep fruit off soil, he grows them up a support but plants can be allowed to run across the garden too. “Regular harvesting and watering keeps the vines fruiting for months until I am pretty much sick of eating them.”

Climbing beans

NZ Gardener staff writer Barbara Smith keeps her small household in beans year round by planting 12 ‘Blue Lake Runner’ seeds each year against a climbing frame. “When the beans reach the top of the 2m frame I train them on strings across the driveway,” she says. “They go for another 4m. They produce from the ground up and all the way across the drive.” She eats them fresh all season and freezes the excess for the rest of the year.

Chillies

I love chillies and no wonder – ridiculously productive, easy to store (bung whole fruit in the freezer) and perfectly happy to grow in pots. Plus in the kitchen they give a glow up to budget meals, and can be used to make your own fancy rubs, marinades and oils.

Jerusalem artichokes

These prolific nutty tubers are almost too easy to grow, Auckland permaculturalist Ellen Schindler says. “They will however take advantage and colonise any available garden area!” But they make delicious chips and soups, and can be added to stir-fries. “The main reason they are less appreciated than other staple root crops is that they give you wind,” Ellen admits. “It seems that only certain connoisseurs can tolerate their body becoming a wind turbine for a while after eating!”

Mushrooms

Ellen says mushrooms are much easier to grow yourself than many people realise and incredibly productive for the space they take up (you grow them inside so you don’t need any outdoor space at all). You can buy a mushroom kit, she says, but you can also easily make your own. “The humble oyster mushroom is an easy DIY start. There are many You Tube videos that give you the basic idea what to do.”

These are a great crop to stretch your food budget because you can use mushrooms in cooking in the same way you would use meat, she says. “Plus you can add them to soups and sauces, and marinate or ferment them and, if you have too many, dry them and use at a later time.”