If I had to narrow it down to just five vegetables for a productive and self-sufficient garden, these would be my top picks, and today I’ll show you exactly why! Whether you’re a beginner gardener or a seasoned grower, these crops are easy, reliable, and give you maximum harvest for the effort you put in. Order my book here: https://www.briobooks.store/products/100-top-crops-you-can-grow
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0:00 Introduction
0:55 🥬 Why kale is the leafy powerhouse that keeps on producing
2:51 🥗 How lettuce gives you quick, constant harvests year-round
4:25 🥔 Why potatoes are the ultimate staple crop for self-sufficiency
5:46 🌽 How corn turns your summer garden into a sweet harvest festival
7:18 🎃 And why pumpkin is the long-keeper that feeds you for months
9:48 Amazing Conclusion
Good day. I’m Mark from Self-Sufficient Me and today we’re going to dig into five of my absolute top vegetables that I think people should grow in their home garden. These have been taken from my book 100 top crops you can grow. And I think these are the veggies every home gardener should try, whether you’re a complete beginner or an advanced green thumb. Now, narrowing down my top vegetables into just five wasn’t easy. It’s like choosing your favorite child, except these ones actually behave and feed you. So, grab a cuppper and let’s settle in for my five top mustrow vegetables for a self-sufficient garden. Let’s get into it. [Music] Number one is kale. I say hail the kale. And I know some of you say I wouldn’t even feed it to my chickens. But this veggie here, hear me out, is a powerhouse of nutrition. If you want a plant that keeps on giving, kale is your mate. This leafy legend thrives in a range of conditions, is surprisingly hardy, and once it gets going, you can pick leaves for months on end. Kale is packed with vitamins A, C, and K. But who cares about those letters of vitamins and all that poop? The main thing is this veggie here. If you eat it, you will have a boosted immune system, which will help you all year round to fend off all those nasty things that you can get from the environment and even your fellow humans. The trick with kale is regular picking. Treat it like a cut and come again crop. Snip the older leaves from the bottom and it’ll just keep pumping out new growth and you’ll have this kale tree effect by the end of the season. How cool is that? If you find you’ve got too much and you’re picking so much that you can’t possibly eat it, give it to your hens. They will absolutely love this stuff and it will make their eggs not only taste better, but they’ll be better for you. Get stuck into it, fellas. And here’s a tip. If you don’t like kale, try it sauteed with garlic and olive oil. It makes it totally different. And the other way you can try it is kale chips. Turning what some people think is rabbit food into a really gourmet snack. And remember friends don’t let friends skip leg day. So friends don’t let friends skip kale day. Number two is lettuce. Let us pray. Thank you Lord for giving us salad with this almighty crunch and freshness. Also, thank you for putting it on hamburgers to make them taste so heavenly. Amen. Lettuce is one of the easiest and fastest vegetables you can grow, and it’s perfect for beginners or anyone short on space. You can grow it in raised beds, pots, or even tucked in between other plants. The beauty of lettuce is how quickly it can go from seed to plate in as little as four to six weeks and sometimes from lettuce to seed in this case here, which is a good thing because lettuce is always true to type. And so you can let it go to seed, collect that seed, and then grow thousands more of your favorite salad crops over and over again. If you grow loose leaf varieties and harvest the outer leaves regularly, the plant will keep producing for weeks on end. That means a near consistent supply of fresh salad greens for sandwiches, tacos, and of course, burgers. Just make sure you keep the water up and offer a bit of shade in hot weather because lettuce doesn’t like drying out. And if it does dry out too quickly, it will bolt a seed early. And remember, if you feel like your garden’s falling behind, just remain calm and collected and keep on growing. You’ll get there in the end. Roma is a type of cos lettuce. Number three is potatoes. This is a small potato plant and it’s just growing self-seeded near these chickens here. So, it makes a fantastic shot, I thought. Anyway, but the reason why potatoes is right up there and if I had to pick one crop above all, potatoes would be probably it because not only are they so satisfying to dig up, it’s like digging for buried treasure, but they are also extremely good for you. Sometimes the way we cook potatoes isn’t good for you. But if you have potatoes fresh and if you cook them up in the right way without bad oils for example or seed oils, they can be very healthy and full of nutrition. Plus, they can give you a lot of energy that everybody needs, especially if you have an active lifestyle. Potatoes are also a brilliant crop for beginners. They don’t need much fussing over. Plant seed potatoes in loose soil. Mound the earth up as they grow. And in a few months, you’ll have a heap of spuds ready for roasting, mashing, or chipping. You can even experiment with growing them in containers, bags, or even from peel cutings. As I showed in a recent video, they are truly an appealing addition to any garden. Number four is corn. on. Now, I don’t have any growing at the moment, but I do have some that I grew through winter to turn into seed so I can grow full on through summer, which is right now, basically. I’ll be sewing these very shortly. But corn is something that you need to grow at home to fully understand what real corn tastes like. Now, sometimes you can get corn really fresh, straight from the farm, and that’s perfect. But often the corn that’s in the supermarket has been there for several days, if not weeks. By then, the sugars inside those corn kernels convert into starch, which makes it taste more stodgy and less sweet and nice. Fresh corn out of your home garden is another world altogether, and I encourage you to try it if you haven’t done it before. Corn is a warm season crop that thrives with plenty of sun, water, and nitrogen. And the best part, it’s a great companion plant, too. Traditionally grown with beans and squash in the three sisters method. Just remember, corn is windpollinated, so planted in blocks rather than a single row for the best cob formation. It’s also a bit of a spectacle in the garden. I mean, children of the corn, tall, lush, and productive. And once you’ve grown your own, those sad supermarket cobs will never taste the same again. And hey, if you grow too much, you can always earmark it for friends and neighbors. And number five is pumpkin, the long keeper legend. And this here is a small pumpkin plant just starting. It’s self-seeded. This would be a Japanese variety or a Kent is another name for it because they grow wild throughout our veggie garden. And what I do generally is just leave them go where they start and let them meander through the veggie garden as best as I can, trying not to disturb them too much and let them do their thing, which is produce a lot of good tasting pumpkins that last a heck of a long time. And we just finished eating our last pumpkin last night. It demonstrates just how long you can keep pumpkins for. That pumpkin that we had last night was left over from our last summer, which was over 6 months ago. We had a number of pumpkins that we gave away and ate ourselves. They do sprawl a bit, so give them room, but in return, they’ll reward you with an abundance of fruit that can feed you all winter long. Here’s a top tip. Leave a good bit of stem when you harvest about 5 cm and cure them in the sun for a couple of weeks before storing and that’ll extend their shelf life dramatically. My top varieties to grow would be the Japanese or Kent pumpkin. I think that’s probably one of the best in the world and it’s a supermarket variety as well because it is that good. It is easy to store and that’s what the supermarkets like. It does taste great. It’s one of those rare varieties that is a good crossover from the supermarket to the home garden because usually the supermarkets like growing crops that store well but don’t necessarily taste the best. Whereas this variety, this Kent pumpkin and the Queensland blues and there’s probably heaps of other pumpkins that you guys in the US especially know about because like being Halloween and all that, you fellas know your pumpkins back to front probably a lot better than most of us Aussies do. But at the end of the day, grab a really good variety of pumpkin or several or grow heaps of them because it is probably one of the best besides potatoes and those other ones that I’ve been talking about and the rest of my top 20 in my book that I think you should grow for the perfect home garden. And speaking of Halloween, if you don’t like eating pumpkin, just grow it for Halloween and scare someone you love. Yeah. So, those were my top five veggies taken from my book of the top 100 crops you can grow. Obviously, there’s another 95 different food crops, at least another 15 top veggies that I recommend people grow. And it has all the nutrition tips and data there for you as well. And that was written by Kate de Primer, a good friend of mine, a 30 plus year dietician and nutritionist. So, if you want a copy of that book, the links are below in the description and the comments section. It’ll be pinned to the top there. And if you enjoyed this video, make sure you give it a big top thumbs up, share the video around, and subscribe if you haven’t already. And yes, get a copy of that book for Halloween or Christmas coming up. Hey, write a comment down below as well. Let me know. I won’t get too offended if you select something else as your top veggie to grow. put it in the comment section below and let us all learn. There you go again with that lettuce joke. But anyway, thanks a lot for watching. Bye for now. Cheers.
42 Comments
G'day Everyone, If you could only grow 5 vegetables… what would YOU pick? 🌱
These are my top 5 must-grow veggies for a productive, self-sufficient garden — and they’re just a taste of what’s inside my new book “100 Top Crops You Can Grow.” 📘 Grab your copy here 👉 https://www.briobooks.store/products/100-top-crops-you-can-grow I’d love to hear what your top 5 are — drop them in the comments below and let’s see which veggie comes out on top! 🥬🥔🌽🎃
You lost me at Kale, grew it once, it tastes like shit, don’t care how many vitamins it has.. the rest I agree are good. I would swap kale for beetroot
The kale looks yummy in the garden
Mark! Your subscriber count has surpassed the population of Perth! Growing faster than your seasonals are 😅
I gotta say cucumber is truly amazing, i made a couple years supply of dill pickle, dontations to friends and heaps of cucumber sanwiches with very little effort at all
My potato plant leafs are getting eaten bad. Is there something I can do?
You're the embodiment of a good Aussie mate. I live in an apartment but if I get a garden one day, your wealth of knowledge will be of great service. Thank you!
My top 5 here in NZ are, Perpetual spinach, Butternut Squash, Potatoes, Lettuce, and Sugersnap peas!
I quite enjoy cooking kale into pasta sauce.
I grew bush beans this past year in my greenhouse on the pacific coast of Canada and was amazed at how much a few plants produced. The plants only grow about 1-2 feet high, but produce a lot of slender green beans that were sweet and delicious raw or cooked. They produced for 5 months! They are easy to freeze as well.
"Romaine calm…" 😂😂😂😂Greetings from East Coast USA Mark! I've been watching you grow for ten years! Still my favorite YouTube channel ❤😊
I would put tomato in the top list, it is such a versatile fruit.
Bought your book Mark, a GOOD READ!! Well Done to you! My top 5: Silver Beet, Spuds, Lettuce, Garlic, Pumpkins with a 12 month shelf life such as Hubbard style, Iron Bark, Triamble etc.
Cheers. Good video. Great dad jokes
I hate Kale it tastes disgusting how about english spinach?
I didn't realize kale was so easy to grow, to be honest I've never seen it be grown until this video 😅😅 me and my cousins always thought it was dumb that our grandma used kale as decoration on plates during holidays, and we are it just because it made no sense no one else ate it… We didn't like the taste at first, but it grew on us and we all love it 🤣🤣
There is literally nothing wrong with seed oils…. That's literally a myth pushed by someone of the dumbest people…. Sometimes I really hate the internet, the anti-science movement is so fkn huge because everyone has easy access to information, and they often don't care about validity of that information.
I used to be so optimistic about the internet, but daily I'm reminded of the harm it causes.
You didn't lettuce down, another good video! I would have included beetroot, it too is great on a Hamburger, its packed with nutrients and can even be used for dyeing fabric.
But are you Russel Crowe though? 😊
Lately, all I get in my feed from you is for members-only. I am a subscriber, not a member, and it gets a little annoying to have to search you out to avoid the members-only promos.
The only way to eat kale is by turning it into chicken and pork chops first.
Asian greens, Bok choy, Choy sum, mizuna I find are good and I just pick as needed
I recently restarted my food growing journey as a professional plant killer 🫣 i actually managed to get some tiny, tiny potatoes to grow last year so im trying my hand again because my family needs to eat! I started this time with pumpkin seeds and a couple tomato seeds. These are produce i had easy access to and heard that they are good beginner crops. I dont live in the US tho so some of ur picks probably will not be great for our climate and my wallet 😅
But as always ur my go-to gardening channel 🙌 great advice!
Im really struggling with potatoes 😂😅 i keep over watering them
Cheers from the States. I really enjoy your videos, and I am a beginner with gardening.
hi Mark! I watch your viddies regularly and just wanted to congratulate you on your channel and all the wonderful content you put up for us. I actually put in a Christmas order for my family to purchase a set of those wonderful 'Aussie made' garden tools you recommended last year – they're the best!! You should let people know about them again. Gone are the days of handles falling off and rust – I love them! Thanks so much. By the way, my dad was a Vietnam Veteran (Nui Dat) in the late sixties – Thank you for your service 🪖🪖💓💓
Loving the dad jokes, Mark. 😂
I do want to add one more crop, if I may.
After seeing sunchokes on your channel for the first time, I was struck by its beautiful flowers and yummy tubers. I will be planting it on my balcony 😊
I would always make room for sweet potatoe.
Tough question, only picking 5 veg to grow. If this was a challenge, I hoped to be allowed to barter for other veggies from other growers. My 5 choice after considerable thought was 1) potato, store well and can get a couple of harvests over the season. 2) Carrot. Again, store well. Can also treat the carrot tops as a herb and use them a such. Som double usage. 3) Butternut squash. Good storage, tasty veg. 4) Cabbage. Can store with some prepping, such as fermenting. Jar them up the right way and it lasts. 5) Tomatoes. Versatile. Not ideal long term storing fresh but prepped is great. SO many good idea, soups, sauces, salsa, think out the box a little more and you got jams, chutney and sorbet. Done correctly, can store well in jars and in fridges and freezers
Not me shocked, that the book is written by "Mark Valencia" instead of "Mark Fromselfsufficientme" 😶🤭
Any top crop list needs to have the goal listed. Are you trying to grow as much of your diet as you can, minimizing all purchases from the grocery store? Are you trying to grow crops that are difficult to find or have poor quality in the store? For example, if I were trying to be truly self sufficient I would absolutely grow my own potatoes. They're incredibly productive and are a staple. However, you can buy cheap and good tasting potatoes in the store. On the other hand, where I live you literally can't buy a tomato worth eating in the store, you have to grow your own or know somebody who grows them. It's a must for any garden.
Pumpkin and Kale pizza. The best!
There's alot of idea's out there for soil preparation to get microbes in the soil working for example adding cooked rice to soil or making up some fermented solution. Interested to see what your take is on this.
My kale keeps on getting eaten (even after netting it) here in Brisbane. How do you protect it from the grubs?
Good picks. I like butternut squash and swiss chard also! And of course garlic and onion. 😊
I also live in Aus, how do you stop C grubs eating your potatoe roots? :/
That last pumpkin was a good Kent.
love your utube videos have been watching you for quite a few years now and Have just bought your book, but I am very disapointed that you are now going down the members only channel…… why?…… what about your loyal subcribers that have been watching you for years and maybe they can't afford to be a members channel… sorry think you done the wrong ting here.
I watch a channel in the UK camper vibe they DO NOT Do patreon or members channel.. they have over 300 thousand subcribers they don't do members or Patreon… they do not ask for peoples money to watch thier videos…. So I think other should go this way….still can't believe you after I bought your book etc going down this members only channel…. rant over..
Yes I love growing Seminole pumpkin here in Central Florida USA
Okay, I just saw another video of yours stating it's for members only. It's about the 5th one I've seen in the last week. Generally, I like your videos, but this blatant promotion is something I don't care for so, I think I'll avoid your channel from now on and if I continue to see these promos I'll just delete your page. Good luck on your new venture.
Great video
LOvely selection, its my first time setting upa a garden and ill start with pumkins, tomatoes and beans, my main fear is my soil, its compact and lacks enough water retention, what would u uggest for improving a clay like compacted soil?