Five Veggies to Grow this Upcoming Year

With the New Year almost upon us, and the winter being milder than usual, my mind just keeps wandering back to the garden - what worked this past year, what didn’t, and how I can adapt it for the next growing season.

One of the most important things to do when planning out your garden is to ask yourself what you like to eat from the garden. Chances are, you'll enjoy growing more what you plan on eating!

But perhaps you’re new to the gardening gig and aren’t quite sure what might be a successful crop in your newly allotted plot in the backyard. Fret not, because I’m going to share with you my top five veggies that you can try your hand at growing in 2024!

1. Beets
   
   Great for pickling, juicing, roasting, or tossing in a salad, beets are high in essential vitamins and nutrients such as Vitamin C, iron, potassium, and manganese. Beets are versatile and can be used in a variety of ways. Earthy and sweet in flavour (depending on the seed variety), beets round out the heartiest of meals.
   

   One advantage of beets is that they thrive in cooler temperatures. This means that if you’re already itching to get started on your garden plot come late April/early May, beets can be one of the first vegetables you plant.
   

   Another advantage to beets is that they are a dual crop. Did you know that there’s more to beets than just the root? Beet tops/beet greens are a wonderful and nutrient dense food you can add in salads, soups, and any other recipe you’re creative enough to think of (my wife makes a mean stuffed pasta shell dish, and beet tops add a great flavour and texture as part of the filling)!
   

   Beets are also super easy to grow. You can sow them in a row, spaced 3-5 inches a part, or you can plant 3-5 together in a cluster, 6 inches away from the next cluster of beets. As they grow, one or two in the cluster will mature more quickly. When you harvest those, the others then have more space to grow and fill out for a future harvest.
   

   I could go on, but the important thing to know is that you are fully capable of growing and harvesting beets in your garden this upcoming year!
   
   

2. Onions
   
   While onions take a little more time and may require some delicate treatment in their early stages, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as pulling a perfectly good, sweet smelling onion out of the earth, knowing that it will be the ultimate addition to your dinner.
   

   Did you know that onions are also a dual crop? As the onions grow and mature, you can trim off the onion tops, using them as flavour enhancers in your kitchen.
   

   If you’re considering growing from seed indoors, onions are also very simple to work with. Try sowing two per cell when planting, just to ensure at least one of them will germinate. If you don’t have the heart to remove the weaker of the two if they both germinate, you can allow them to grow together, even when transplanting into your outdoor garden in the spring. The bulbs may not grow as large, but you will still get twice as many healthy onions!

   
   Choosing your variety of onion is also important - the last two summers, I have had success with the Valencia onion. They are quite sweet in flavour and had a high germination rate when I planted them from seed. However, I didn’t find the bulbs grew as large as I had hoped. I’ll be testing out a couple other varieties this year and will have to make sure I post about it in the future.
   
   

3. Potatoes
   
   What would we do without this food staple? Potatoes are a hearty addition to any meal, and it seems to me that we take it for granted as an everyday food for us.
   

   As satisfying as it is harvesting an onion from the garden, multiply that satisfaction by ten or more when it comes to harvesting potatoes. It always amazes me how planting one (or just a part of one!) potato can yield a harvest of a half-dozen or more hefty sized spuds.
   

   I don’t think I need to suggest how one can use a potato in the kitchen. I mean, after all, you can boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew….
   

Like most potato connoisseurs, Samwise Gamgee knows a thing or two about potatoes, and isn’t shy about letting others know if they’re lacking in basic potato knowledge.

Quick note: It’s always helpful to do some quick research on which potatoes will grow best in your region. There are over 300 species of potatoes, many of which are suited to completely different environments from where we live!

4. Beans

Something that I’ve observed over the years of gardening: if the wildlife are wild for something that you’re growing, then it’s probably really tasty, or really healthy for you (probably both!).

Every year I plant row upon row of bush beans, and every year I have to get creative in how to prevent those bush beans from being ravaged by the squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, and groundhogs that frequent my backyard. When I am successful in salvaging the bush bean crop and it comes time to harvest, many of the beans never make it to my kitchen, because I manage to snack on them right out there in the garden. There’s nothing quite like the fresh taste of the fruit of your labour!

FYI - pole beans are a great alternative (or addition) to your garden if you’re lacking space. Since they will climb whatever is closest to them, pole beans will need a supportive trellis to help them grow vertically. If you plant your pole beans next to any other tall, strong plants in your garden, like say sunflowers, you already will have a natural trellis that supports the growth of the beans, while the beans actually will support the growth of the sunflower by adding nitrogen to the soil, something that sunflowers feed heavily on in order to grow and produce their massive flower heads. Two birds, one stone, amirite?

5. Sunflowers

Since we’re on the topic, may I suggest growing sunflowers in your garden in 2024? I know, it’s an odd “vegetable” to suggest, but hear me out; I have my reasons.

First of all, sunflowers add a colourful aesthetic to your growing space. It seems to me that sunflowers bring smiles to our faces more often than frowns, so there’s that.

Secondly, pollinators love sunflowers. If you plant sunflowers in your garden, prepare to transform the ecosystem of your backyard for the better! Bees, butterflies, ladybugs - they will all flock to your garden from near and afar to get their fill of delectable pollen from your sunflowers, and while they’re at it, they’ll end up pollinating the other plants in your garden too! Win-win.

Thirdly, sunflower heads are edible and taste delicious. If you think I’m crazy, go and look up sunflower recipes on YouTube. It made quite the stir on the internet in 2020, and while it may not be making as many waves as it did then, the flavour of a roasted sunflower head over a charcoal barbecue (or roasted in an oven) has retained the same wonderful, nutty taste.

Fourthly, sunflowers provide necessary sustenance for the birds over the winter. Beautiful birds visiting your backyard in the bleak midwinter? Now who doesn’t want that?!

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So there you have it. Five veggies I suggest growing in your garden this upcoming year. Of course, I could mention so many other things, but then I’d have to make this a list of ten or more veggies to grow. Maybe another time.

Happy growing in the New Year!