Sweet corn, melons, berries (blueberries, raspberries), certain salad greens, cucumbers all come to mind.

Fresh-picked leaf lettuce is absolutely tender and almost buttery tasting. Tender, young spinach can't be beat fresh picked from the garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: HarvestToTable.com

potatoes if you have room. No comparison between your own potatoes - esp. new potatoes - and store bought.

Dave

I've noticed a difference in most things I grow, but I grow a lot of heirloom vegetables which taste much better than commercial varieties. The biggest difference that I've notice is in:

Tomatoes (as you mentioned)

Spinach - especially spinach that you froze from your garden versus frozen spinach from the store. It does not taste like the same vegetable

Zucchini - Romanesco zucchini tastes fantastic and unlike anything I've ever purchased.

Beans - Uncle Steve's Pole Beans also have a taste that is much better than any store bought green bean.

It's tricky growing in limited space. I was limited to a 4' x 20' plot and containers when I lived in California. It drove me crazy!

I hope you can fit everything in,
Bellatrix

I second Bellatrix about beans. Home grown, fresh green beans are a world better than "fresh" in the grocery store.

George
Tahlequah, OK

I'm a fan of fresh-picked okra, myself. It'll hold just fine off the plant for 1-2 days as if it was fresh picked, but after that it starts to lose it's natural crispness and texture. I tend to keep the stuff for up to a week even if it goes past it's prime, though.

That said, a lot of people could care less about how crisp their okra is because they're either going to bread and fry it or cook it for a long time in a gumbo until it's mushy.

I use a lot of fresh okra to put a slight natural thickening on a lot of my summer veggie mixes. Since the okra is not going to be heavily cooked in the mixture the extra crispness comes in handy.

All the leafy green veggies are worlds better. I can't even get the kind of spinach I like in the supermarkets and now I've hooked half the gardeners at my community garden on it.

You will never buy sweet corn after you raise it. Beans are by far better to, as are tomatoes and potatoes.

I didn't really notice much different in squash if I let it get the supermarket size but it's better when it smaller and some squash is harder to find in the supermarket.

Learning the proper time to harvest is usually the hardest part for the consumer. What you find in the markets is the best size for transport but not necessarily the best for taste.

Peas are at the top on my list. With limited space it is very worthwhile to grow herbs such as parsley, dill, cilantro, and mint. Often the stores have herbs that are old.

Fresh herbs make a huge difference, they're probably the biggest bang for the buck since they can flavour everything.

If you have limited space you might try the square foot method and then you can get quite a bit from very small space.
I like green beans, tomatoes, melons, squash that is hard to get in the stores like eight ball zucchini and heirloom veggies that is hard to get in stores. You save money with growing your own herbs.
Hope that helped.

Peas, lettuce, spinach, and carrots for sure. I think peas have the most dramatic difference. On the plus side, they can be planted really close together. I usually put 16 plants in a 12"x12" area. (This probably only works with the shorter 2' vines.)

I definitely will always grow greens. Kale, collards and chard are sooo good at "adolescent" stage -- not the baby kind in salad mixes and not the huge old fiberous leaves sold for $3 a bunch. Plus they're really easy to grow and give you a lot of reward for your effort. :-)

Most definitely herbs--the ones in the store are nice, but can't compare to your own, just picked and put in the pot or sprinkled on a salad!
Also broccoli. Broccoli starts to go downhill after three days, and rarely do you get two-day-old broccoli at the grocery. Fresh broccoli is a whole different taste sensation, and it is easy to grow both as a spring and a fall crop. Freezing your own is also better than the store type.
I also agree with all the vegetables mentioned by other posters. The consensus is: If you can grow it, it's better!

Tomatoes tops the list. Green beans and sweet corn next. Melons certainly as you can ripen them to your taste AND choose your favorite varieties....that is a big plus. When it comes to corn and melons, I prefer newer varieties to a large degree.

My vote is herbs (big bang for your buck!), tomatoes, green beans (just pulled a bag out of the freezer for dinner!)garlic, corn(but with only 2 of us and not enough freezer space, will probably buy at the farmers market)
Other things I've grown are great, but I can get them locally grown quite cheaply. Eggplant, corn, squash, peppers (didn't do well this year, will try one more year)

Lettuce for sure! Herbs too. Heirloom tomatoes, squash, beans...well, pretty much everything. lol.

Fresh dug potatoes are wonderful. But, the vegetable with the most drastic difference between the store-bought and fresh (to me) is brussel sprouts. I love the fresh ones and can't hardly stand store-bought.

Persimmons?

DianaG, from the above posts it looks like "beauty is in the eye of the beholder..".

Being "space limited" is something that many have to deal with. Although I'm not currently space limited, if I were I'd probably make a decision on what to plant by considering the following ...

1) What are my favorite vegetables?
2) What would be the cost of alternatively purchasing these vegetables?
3) How much space do these vegetables take?
4) What are the days to maturity?
5) Would the planting dates allow for planting a second vegetable following harvest?

Tops on my list would be to plant vegetables with high value, small space requirements, short days to maturity, and ability to plant a follow-up vegetable. Not too many fall into this category. So I'd then need to figure out which of the above factors are more/least important to me and go from there..

Diana, space is a limiting factor for a lot of us, and you ask a very good question that I have pondered myself as I continue to create new beds and plant more and more edibles...(who needs grass?)

As far as taste my answer would be: tomatoes, green beans, peas of all kinds, fresh beans (shellies that you normally cannot even buy), sweet corn, carrots and lettuces (I include arugula here). I am trying to plant potatoes and have not succeeded yet, so I am glad to read that potatoes are one of those veggies too....(I have some more potatoes growing and I think I will get some this time)

However, following up on Grandad's suggestions, there are vegetables that we like a lot so growing them is a good idea. I would never buy the amount of veggies I grow, it would be too expensive or impossible to find! For example, my favorite eggplant, Rosa Bianca, I cannot find at the store. It is white fleshed, tender and so delicious, and yes, maybe if someone grew it commercially it would taste similar, but it is not commercially available where I live. So growing it gives me access to a most delicious eggplant that I would normally not be able to eat. Lots of vegetable varieties fall into this situation, normally you only get the ones that are easy to grow and transport, not necessarily the tastiest. The few places that do offer 'gourmet' vegetables also charge a premium.

Also, I would add to Grandad's list:

6) How heavy are the vegetables and what is your mode of transportation?
I started trying to grow purple potatoes since I love them and the closest place I can buy them is 11 miles round trip (on a bike) for me. I much rather dig them out of my yard even if I am not really saving any money by growing them, just because potatoes are so heavy. After reading this thread I am happy to learn they are also tastier.

Cabrita, it looks like you actually added another item to my original list..

2b) Are my favorite vegetables locally available for purchase?

Your eggplant example is a good one. I would most likely not be able to find Rosita eggplant in the local markets. Asparagus beans are also difficult for me to find, as are a few other items.

Thanks to everyone for giving me their input! You've given me lots of ideas to think about as I ponder the catalogs! If anyone wants to suggest specific varieties that you think are superior (in addition to the ones already mentioned), that would be great too!
Thanks again!