Introduction

I came up with the idea for this planting plan when my youngest daughter asked me what I would grow if I could only choose ten plants. I was stumped, we grow about 250 different varieties and I love most of them. How could I whittle that list down to just ten!

https://embed.notionlytics.com/s/VkRkSGRVUlFjMlJ4TTBocWIyb3lTSGczZUVnPQ==

I took on the challenge, trying to find just ten veggies that I would be happy to eat all year round.

https://youtu.be/Qbobw3Dz7C8

First I needed to come up with some criteria for choosing what to include, these are the things I considered, in a rough priority order, the plants needed to:

be really healthy, after all these ten plants would need to provide most of my - plant based - nutritional needs for a year
be extremely tasty and versatile in the kitchen
be very prolific, providing a lot of food from a small space
have a long harvest period, there's little point having a huge harvest over a few weeks, what would i eat for the rest of the year?
be expensive to buy in the shops
be easy to grow, as I'm really targeting this list at new growers. Easy also included resistant to pests and diseases

Who should use this plan?

<aside> 💡 For more on choosing what to actually grow, I have a whole chapter to help you

</aside>

No one. This plan is just an example to get you thinking. It's artificially constrained to a small number of plants, which I think would provide a good solution for 80% of your fruit and veg diet. if you wanted to follow this plan though you would definitely want to add 'sprinkles on top'. A container with a few herbs, perhaps a few carrots in a bucket, maybe a tub or two of new potatoes, or a big tub with a courgette; the opportunities are endless. Personally I'd also add a few kale plants and definitely more varieties of lettuce.

The top 'ten' list

Here's my top ten list and yes, I know, it's got fourteen veggies on it. I'm afraid I just couldn't constrain myself! There's actually 13 on the list though, because Taunton Deane perennial kale is actually as alternative to the combination of Kalettes and Brussels (grown for leaves).

<aside> 💡 This planting plan works much better if you start everything in modules and then transplant then at 4-6 weeks old, see the basics section of the book for details

</aside>

In my defence I decided on 13 because when I did the bed plan with just ten, I found that I had gaps in some of the seasons and I hate to leave soil without living roots in it.

So here's the list:

https://airtable.com/shrRJBYtFDumhwFKn

<aside> 💡 When using the view above, the best way to view it is to click on 'View larger version' (bottom right) this will open up a web browser with a much larger and more powerful view

</aside>