Value Space Rating – Autumn Top 5

About 3 months ago I wrote a post about the value space rating of my summer crops, you can find it here.  Value Space Rating is basically a way of determining the value of growing a given plant.  If you are interested in how I weighted the ratings then its worth having a look at my previous post.  If you just want to see what Autumn’s top 5 rated plants were then read on.

1. Herbs – Herbs won this reasonably easy, and in fact if viewed as individual plants then basil, parsley and lemongrass would have all made the Top 5.  For me herbs will always feature highly on my VSRs because I not only eat and harvest a lot of them but the convenience of having them readily available means I give them lots of additional points in that area.

2. Tamarillo – Tamarillo makes the Top 5 due, in part, to being a very heavy cropper as well as being quite expensive to buy at the supermarket (I use Woolworths online to source fruit & veg prices).  I must admit I’ve loved having a constant supply of fruit.  Great for lunchboxes and snacks and as Tamarillos don’t mind a bit of shade the space they do use is far from the most valuable in the garden.

3. Silver beet – Yay for silver beet, always ready with fresh leaves.  The rainbow ones look pretty and I find it really versatile to cook with.  The fact that it costs about $4.00 a bunch helps its VSR no end.  If you like silver beet it is probably the first vegetable I would plant in any garden.

4. Chillies – Ah the benefits of productive plants.  Most of my plants were in their second year and considerably more productive as a result.  I was so pleased with all my chilli varieties this year but from a VSR perspective the winner was probably the Scotch Bonnet as that had the heaviest fruits.

5. Figs – this is cheating a bit as its not even my tree, but the branches do come into my yard (they grow under the fence from next door) so I do get to harvest the fruit.  As it can be difficult to buy them they score well on that basis, as well as the benefit of having them fresh.

Honourable mention – Eggplant.  Eggplant came 6th on the list and if you discount the fruit they would have made the Top 5 along with beans.  If I could get my plants to fruit earlier I think it would feature higher.  I am planning on sowing my seed earlier this time to see if that helps.

Note: The results may have been quite different had Mr 2 not decided to do some ‘weeding’ thus creating havoc in my lettuce bed and setting cropping back by quite some weeks.

This week The New Goodlife talks about the Top 5 things she has learnt about cooking from scratch.