If you’ve read my How to Plan your Vegetable Plot Parts 1 and 2, your plot will be ready so now all’s that’s left is to work out which vegetable variety to choose.

How to choose a Vegetable Variety

There are hundreds of vegetable varieties to choose from so where do you look first? And how do you find the perfect vegetable variety to grow?

1. Look at the seed varieties in the Supermarket or Garden Centre.

This is a good place to start, if you are not into researching which varieties to grow or are a beginner vegetable grower, start with the popular or well known varieties which are easy to grow and usually found in supermarkets (Lidl have a great range) or your local garden centre.

2. Look online with your favourite Seed Supplier/s.

Look through the seed catalogues of your favourite seed supplier and see what their range of varieties are like, you’ll be able to find something that springs out of the page that you’ll fancy growing.

3. Research varieties that grow that fit your specific needs.

If you need to grow courgettes in pots or beefsteak tomatoes in a greenhouse or large onions for exhibitions, you’ll need to research the varieties for your specific needs. It’s worth joining a Facebook group on Vegetable growing or a vegetable forum like The Grapevine to help you choose the varieties to grow that fit your specific needs.

4. Choose a variety with a great name to grow.

Sometimes it’s just simple, you’ll find a variety with a great name and want to grow that. For example Dragons Tongue beans otherwise known as borlotto beans or Gigantomo which is a giant tomato that fits in both hands.

5. Choose a vegetable variety for it’s weird colour or unusual shape.

If you’ve grown a normal white cabbage, why not try a red cabbage this year? Or try something a bit different in colour or shape. There are so many different colours of vegetables that are only available to the home or allotment grower and cannot be found in supermarkets. There’s purple kale, black and white winter radishes, green, orange, yellow and black tomatoes, purple and yellow cauliflowers, yellow ball courgettes, just to name a few.

6. Choosing a vegetable variety that helps against a common pest or disease.

Last year we suffered with blight, a bacterial spore that attackers that plants that devastated all our tomatoes. So this year I have been looking at blight resistant tomatoes so we actually will get some tomatoes if this disease attacks our plants this year.

There are lots of vegetable varieties to choose from that help against powdery mildew on peas, which is another thing we get often on our vegetable plot in mild and wet conditions. Growing these varieties can ease the pain of loosing some or all of your crops to pests and diseases.

7. Choose a vegetable variety that works with the weather.

If you live in an area that doesn’t get many hot summers or that gets a lot of wet summers, there a certain varieties of bean for example that will still set their flowers even though it doesn’t get hot enough or there’s too much rain.

How to Plan Your Vegetable Plot

• Part 1 – What to Grow and Where to Grow it.
• Part 2 – Do you have room to grow it and how to sow seeds
• Part 3 – Choosing a vegetable variety
• Our Vegetable Plot Plan 2021