If you wanted to plant lettuce, you can get a bunch in a small space. We transplant in lettuce In the 200 square foot bed, we have over 400 heads of lettuce. Best of all, it isn't there very long. We start off all our seedlings in 72 cell 10 by 20 trays.

If you only grew the mini romaine heads, you could grow them even closer ( those are the ones in the foreground). Not know what your goal is, but you would be eating lots of lettuce.

{{gwi:116161}}

We grow broccoli Di Cicco. Here, we get many small heads from the same plants over months. Very productive.

those that PM lists, plus zucchini, lettuce, cabbage and chard. Nothing else is in the same class. I have a salad chicory that is prodigious, similar to lettuce, and keeps going all year. I plant it under tomatoes for a double crop.

For broccoli, also look into Piracicaba and Happy Rich, which is a broccoli-gai lan cross. They don't head up with big heads, but you can eat all parts of the plant, especially the leaves.

Kohlrabi, beets, carrots, and turnips all pack into a bed quite nicely. And they are around 60-70 days to maturity so you should be able to get two crops a year from the same bed (spring planted for mid-summer harvest and mid-summer planted for fall harvest). Plus with the beets and turnips you get both the roots and the greens.

Sunchokes (aka Jerusalem artichokes) give a huge return per plant if you can keep their roots/tubers from spreading.

Rodney

Jrslick, thanks for the photo. You are right, lettuce was a great crop in the cooler weather and I tried a new variety of Romaine from Israel that was supposed to be good in the heat and it wasâ¦Jericho was the name of it, which we will grow again next year. What variety are those mini Romaine in your photo? Very cute looking. We have to stagger our lettuce plantings so they are not all ready to eat at the same time. Are you a market gardener? What are the dark lettuces you have there?

Shuffles, I havenâÂÂt grown Di Cicco in a long time, IâÂÂll have to try that.

Glib, I forgot about Zucchini and lettuce. WeâÂÂre not big fans of Chard. I tried a new cabbage this year, Gonzales? which was a mini and produced a head about the size of a softball. Just enough for one serving. I could fit four of those in a 4ft x 1ft space. I will be growing those again too.

Conchita, never heard of those two broccoli varieties. IâÂÂll check those out, thanks.

Thanks Rodney. I think we are somewhat picky eaters, lol. Not big turnip fans either and havenâÂÂt tried Kohlrabi. ItâÂÂs a cross between a cabbage and a turnip? We havenâÂÂt grown carrots, because there is always organic available at the store year round and we use a lot of them sometimes. WeâÂÂve thought we should try to grow what is hard to get organic and what is the most expensive at the store too. But we do grow beets!

Have you tried Hakurei turnips? They are very nutty - almost a peanut butter kind of flavour, and much sweeter and milder than regular turnips. You can plant multiple crops a year (or to rotate, you can do turnips in the spring, beets in the summer and lettuce in the fall in the same bed).

The mini romaines are Dragoon (green), Truchas (Red Romaine), The green behind that is Concept, the dark red is Cherokee, then the Green is Nevada, and finally Magenta.

I only grow the Summer Crisp/Batavaria lettuce from Johnnys.

I have grown Jericho for many years now, but I am moving away from it. It doesn't hold as well in the field.

Yes I am a market gardener.

Yes, yes on the sprouting broccolis. If you have four plants, you will get handfuls for cooking every other day.

Sure you don't want to reconsider chard? Since you are picky, grow Fordhook White and compost the ribs. Use the green leaf only as a spinach substitute.

I have a blue potato I'd put on the list. It's early, unstoppable, always makes 5-6 plus nice taters per plant.

I should have mentioned that the Piracicaba broccoli is also spelled Piricicaba sometimes. I think that's how Fedco spells it.

Kohlrabi isn't a cross of anything. The taste is similar to cabbage... maybe more like a broccoli stem... definitely not turnip-y.

Speaking of turnips, I don't much like them either. :) My dad does though so I grow some for him.

Rodney

I think kohlrabi was initially bred from a cross between a cabbage and a turnip. But maybe that's false information - I'm too lazy to look it up. To me, it tastes far worse than either ;)

This post was edited by Slimy_Okra on Tue, Oct 21, 14 at 12:36

When looking for productive veggies, you must first list the veggies you want to eat. Then you look for research-based lists such as at the link below ...

You'll find more links if you use the search phrase
"high-yield vegetables for massachusetts home garden site:edu" -- but without the quotes.

You can tweak that search phrase to obtain even more results.

Here is a link that might be useful: Intensive Vegetable Gardening

Thanks for the names of those Lettuces, JRSlick. IâÂÂve heard of Nevada and the rest are new to me.

Do you grow Summer Crisp/Batavaria Lettuce in the summer?

IâÂÂm surprised Jericho doesnâÂÂt hold well in the field. I thought it held well for us, we were using it for quite awhile and it was not bitter. I am going to give it another try next year and keep better notes.

SOkra, I guess the one time I tasted regular Turnip must have been very bad, because IâÂÂve had an aversion to it since. [g] But if I have a chance to taste that Hakurei Turnip at some point, IâÂÂll let you know what I think. Thanks for the tip on how to get three crops out of one bed. I do like being able to do that.

Lacyvail, IâÂÂm surprised I havenâÂÂt heard of the new Broccoli crosses. I really like the idea of direct sowing them too. Cut and come again, we love. WeâÂÂve done that to Kale all summer.

Thanks Planatus, That sounds like just what I am looking for. With the green Chard, can you use that in a salad to sub for spinach? I guess the foods that we cook using greens, we normally will always choose Kale over Chard. I thought it was more nutritious and weâÂÂre used to the taste. Is there an advantage for Chard over Kale?

Your blue potato sounds like a winner. Where did you buy that and is it just called âÂÂblue potatoâÂÂ? Can that be grown in a container?

Thanks Conchita, IâÂÂll look for that at FEDCO.

Rodney, my Mom was the only one who enjoyed Turnip. Very nice son to grow that for your Dad, I bet he appreciates it.

Jean, thanks for that link. I am finding lists of vegetables with the yield amount expected from that, which is really helpful.

Totally know what you mean about the broccoli, next year I'm going to try something different. I'm going to start my broccoli indoors (like I did this year) but way earlier. I'm going to transplant them outside early (before first frost by a bunch) under a plastic hoop house. Then, hopefully, I will get them harvested and out and still have time it use the space for something else during the second half of the season. Love to hear if others have tried this?

For the record, broccoli leaves are edible too. You can chop them up and add them to dishes, stir fries, colcannon, etc.

Yes we grow the the summer crisp lettuce in the summer. We are able to grow it up until July 15 in the hot Kansas summer.

Jericho just elongates too much for me. The summer crisp is more compact and my customers seem to think that is important to them.

Jay

>For the record, broccoli leaves are edible too.

True, but the leaves of heading broccoli aren't nearly as sweet or tender.

WIgardenrookie, that should be a nice experiment. And having a hoop house will come in handy for an early start for sure. If I were you, IâÂÂd start a new thread and ask that question and you will get more responses than on this thread. My problem with Broccoli this year, was that I hadnâÂÂt grown it in a long time because I didnâÂÂt have room, and when I did this year, I got it in the ground really late and then it wouldnâÂÂt head up. Maybe it was too warm. So I had to leave it in the ground the whole summer and it finally headed as it cooled off.

And that reminds me, that my husband said, donâÂÂt bother with the Brussels Sprouts either. We waited all season for them, we barely had sprout development and then a Woodchuck came along and ate the plant. lol But even if he hadnâÂÂt, we still would have had to wait for a frost to pick Brussels Sprouts which we still havenâÂÂt had. ThatâÂÂs five months in the ground.

tishtoshnm, thanks for that reminder. They sure were edible to the local Woodchuck. :-)

IâÂÂm anxious to try this new broccoli cross and we can buy Brussels Sprouts at the grocery store. HeâÂÂs the only one who eats them.

Jay, Jericho definitely was elongated. IâÂÂll have to try the Summer Crisp. July 15th is pretty late. I think I was just finishing up the Jericho around then this year, but we were probably not as hot as you were. Any particular variety better than another?

Conchita, that sounds great, canâÂÂt wait.

I started to grow green cabbage instead of broccoli - same space taken, but it doesn't have to be picked at exact day, "otherwise it will start to flower", the head is enough for 2 large dishes and keeps well in the refrigerator. When you cut main head it will create 2-4 more small ones later in the season. This is especially true for early Golden Acre green cabbage.
Red Pontiac Potato also gives me a good crop. This year I had 2 row 23' each. We stopped to buy potatoes in start of July, and I estimate we have enough for probably another 2 months or even more. (There are two of us in the family, but potato is our main side dish). Garlic (12'x3') gives us garlic for whole year long(I plant inside what started to sprout at the end of the winter and we eat green garlic). Onions(12'x3') covers all my canning needs and the rest last till January. Peppers, eggplants, tomatoes - major crops I use for canning. The preserves we eat every day last till next summer.

Very good point about the holding properties of cabbage. I am liking the Gonzales variety that is the right size for us, because we like to eat a whole cabbage at one time and those are softball size. Just enough for dinner for two. They do keep well in the refrigerator too.

Funny, we rarely eat a potato any more. We switched to sweet potatoes, and now we've switched again to squashes more than sweet potato. Mainly because of the carbs and the glycemic index.

You must have a big garden!

I'm in MA as well. Tomatoes, carrots, zucchini and string beans are my best producers. I plant carrots with 8 inch row spacing across a 4 foot bed, and get very good results. I did dig the bed first, pulling out rocks and loosening the soil. A 4x4 section of green or wax beans is hard to keep up with for one person, and need to be preserved.

And if you want a fall crop, consider Delicata squash. It takes some space, but each vine produces at least two 8-11 inch squash. They don't last all winter, but several weeks at least.

Have you considered some of the shorter, faster peas? You can sow them quite thickly in a small space and get a decent yield. Another plus, if you see when they are winding down, as the heat hits, just chop them right down and use them as a little high N mulch around your tomatoes and grow something like your cucumber where they were.

I do not really consider yield first when growing, but rather the pleasure I get eating the vegetable. But I have a big garden, so it just isn't the same. I did still grow what I liked to eat best when I had a small garden, though.

I will second the pea suggestion, in my case edible podded peas. I plant twice a couple of weeks apart and end up eating them for about two months. Most of them I eat raw out of hand, but they are great steamed, sautéed, and in salads. I plant in a band about three inches wide with the individual seeds about an inch apart and get as many peas as we can eat in perhaps 10 feet of row space. You could plant along a north edge of a bed that also has something like tomatoes or peppers that need more space as they grow since peas are an early crop that are finishing up as the peppers and tomatoes start to get more size.

In general I find cherry sized indeterminate tomatoes are great use of space since they produce prolifically and use vertical space well.

I grow regular broccoli, but leave it after cutting the first head and continue to cut the smaller succeeding crops. I am still eating broccoli from the plants I planted in early summer. I agree that the plants aren't small, however.

I choose plants based on flavor and types of veggies we like, but space isn't currently an issue for me. I imagine that some of the root crops which tend to be shorter, such as carrots, onions, shallots, garlic or radishes, could be planted along the south edge of beds with larger plants as long as water and fertility is sufficient.

Like Sunnibel, I choose plants based on flavor and types of veggies we like, but space isn't currently an issue for me.

prairiemoon2, yes, I have a "big" garden) (LOL) Whole my property including house, lawn with 6 fruit trees, shed, huge compost pile and and some berry bushes is just 6000 sq feet). All together 700 sg feet for veggies. But not as a single lot, to make things more interesting, I have a hill at my property, steep one. And I have 4 planting levels all together on terraces.