11 ultra-productive vegetables for a bountiful garden all year round

Key points to remember

- Radishes, tomatoes and zucchinis are the most productive vegetables in the garden.

- Choose fast-growing, high-yielding varieties for an even more productive vegetable garden.
- Vertical cultivation, regular fertilization and crop rotation improve vegetable yields.

Growing a vegetable garden isn't just about eating five vegetables a day without having to get up at the crack of dawn to go to the market. It's also about the pleasure of seeing the fruits of your labor blossom. So you might as well be rewarded! If you want a vegetable garden that's profitable, easy to maintain and really produces... Here are 11 highly productive vegetables to plant in your garden or on your terrace.

Yields vary according to weather, soil quality and variety.

Radishes(Raphanus sativus): the fastest growing

Radishes, the choice of impatient gardeners - Photo by G. Fring / Pexels

The radish (Raphanus sativus) is like the Shinkansen of vegetables.It has the reliability and speed of the Japanese TGV. With it, you're sure to always have something to harvest. Some varieties require a wait of up to four weeks after sowing,while others produce their first radishes as early as 18 days.

Our tip for boosting productivity

Ultra-fast growth means you can sow several times (and harvest several times) between March and October. Take the opportunity to try out :

Spicy radishes in spring;
Mild radishes in midsummer.

Tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum): the most fruits

One cherry tomato plant can yield over 3 kg of fruit if the sun is shining - Photo by The Pham / Pexels

Among the thousand or so varieties of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) in existence, some stand out for their productivity: cherry tomatoes. A single plant can produce up to three times as much as a traditional tomato, giving you dozens of fruits a week. Need tomatoes for your preserves, coulis or mozzarella? The classic'Saint-Pierre', 'Roma', 'Big Beef' or 'Cobra' tomatoes are guaranteed to produce just as much!

What you need to know

Choosing the right variety isn't the only secret to success. Your soil also plays a decisive role. Tomatoes thrive in rich environments with good drainage, such as clay soils. They also need to be fertilized throughout the growing season. You should therefore amend the soil before planting. Then apply a nitrogen-rich fertilizer, and change to a potassium-rich fertilizer after flowering.

Zucchini (Cucurbita pepo): the largest volumes

Zucchini grow more slowly than tomatoes and radishes, but they produce more - Photo by Kaboompics / Pexels

Two zucchini (Cucurbita pepo) plants can satisfy one person's cravings for ratatouille, gratin, soups and even fritters for a year. Each person can donate between 10 and 20 squashes, weather permitting.

Monstera's tip

A Zucchini plant bears flowers of different sexes (male, female and hermaphrodite). In theory, this allows pollination, even with a single plant. However, we recommend planting at least two plants next to each other. This proximity facilitates cross-pollination, generally by insects such as bees, and increases the chances of obtaining more numerous, well-formed zucchini.

Beans (Phaseolus vulgaris): productive even in small spaces

It's possible to choose stringless varieties, to avoid the chore of thinning - Photo by Gobral / Pexels

You don't need magic seeds to get beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) in your garden. Simply choose climbing beans or dwarf beans. Climbing beans grow vertically and produce all along their two-meter stems. The latter take up very little space and are often early, which means you can spread out your crops.

The right reflex to adopt

Disease is the main obstacle to bean productivity. Rotate crops to keep rust and red spider mites at bay. Then sow lettuces, spinach and cabbage: legumes enrich the soil with nitrogen, and leafy greens love them!

Salads (Lactuca sativa, Eruca sativa, Cichorium intybus, etc.): fresh vegetables all year round

Lettuce, oak leaf, rocket... Salads are all easy and profitable to grow - Photo by Mariana Delamura Gomes / Pexels

Productive (up to 10 per m²), lettuces can be planted and grown almost all year round. What's more, there are hundreds of varieties to suit every gardener:

Compact or cut-leaf varieties to save space in the vegetable garden;
Early varieties to spread out crops and multiply harvests;
Slug-resistant, to feed your family rather than the gastropods.

Mistakes to avoid

You need to prevent your lettuces from going to seed, a rapid phenomenon common in hot weather or when the plant is stressed. The plant stops growing foliage when it starts to develop a flower stalk. Leaves already present become bitter, hard and almost inedible.

To avoid this, water regularly and generously. Protect your lettuces, rocket and batavia from direct afternoon sun when the mercury is rising. Finally, remember to mulch the soil to keep the roots cool.

Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum): several kilos per square metre

Although not very demanding, potatoes are more productive in rich soil - Photo by Jai79 / Pixabay

If you're not afraid of eating potatoes from Monday to Sunday, devote part of your plot to potatoes (Solanum tuberosum). One square meter can offer you between two and five kilos! Are you impatient and want to free up space for other seedlings? Concentrate on early potatoes. They can be harvested as early as 70 days after planting.

The solution if you're short of space

Tubers can be planted in the ground, but also in pots. You'll need a deep enough container (at least 40 cm high), good potting soil and regular fertilization to grow your own potatoes on your balcony.

Cucumbers (Cucumis sativus): one of the best weight/m² ratios

As well as being easy to grow, cucumbers are rich in minerals and vitamins -Photo by A. Sutrisno / Pexels

In the right conditions, one cucumber plant (Cucumis sativus) can yield ten kilos of cucumbers, or more than twenty pieces. To boost your yield, opt for hybrids adapted to your climate and selected for their productivity:

Marketmore 76, Vert long maraîcher and Flamingo where summers are short and nights sometimes cool;
Loustik, Poinsett and Marketer when summers are hot and the sun is strong.

Our technique for harvesting more

Whatever the climate, your cucumbers will be even more productive if you climb them on a trellis:

Foliage benefits from better exposure to the sun, which stimulates growth and fruit formation;
Air circulation is optimized, limiting the onset of humidity-related diseases;
Hanging cucumbers grow straighter, stay cleaner and are less prone to rot.

Carrots (Daucus carota): production to be stored

Carrots may not make you lovable, but they make a vegetable garden productive - Photo by Madman1234 / Wikipedia

With a yield of three to ten kilos per square metre, carrots (Daucus carota) are among the most profitable vegetables in the vegetable garden. The icing on the cake? You can harvest them twice a year. Sow early carrots under cover in February, and enjoy them 80 days later. Then, in summer, sow the storage carrots, which you'll harvest six months later.

The gesture that changes everything

Carrots need space to grow. About a month after sowing, when each plant has one or two leaves, thin out. Keep only one carrot every three centimetres. Thin a second time when plants have three tops, to leave five to eight centimetres between plants.

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea): harvest from October to July

Popeye's vegetable garden - Photo by OakleyOriginals / Flickr

Want to eat your own produce all year round? Plant spinach (Spinacia oleracea)! Harvesting takes place from January to July and October to December, depending on sowing times and varieties. And you don't have to eat it cooked, with cream and a hard-boiled egg like in the canteen. You can also enjoy them in salads, pesto or smoothies.

Best practice to try

Use companion planting to increase production. Place your spinach next to plants that store nitrogen(broad beans, peas, chicory, strawberries). On the other hand, keep them away from root vegetables (beet and carrots), which consume the same nutrients and whose root systems may compete with each other.

Peppers (Capsicum annuum): as productive in pots as in the ground

Peppers can be grown in pots or in the ground - Photo by Yan Krukau / Pexels

The first fruits may be slow in coming (on average, it takes four months from sowing to harvesting), but once your Bell pepper annuum has started growing, you'll find it hard to stop. Whether planted in a pot or in the ground, a single plant can produce :

Up to 20 peppers forsmall-fruited varieties;
Up to 10 peppers for large-fruited varieties.

Monstera's advice

Peppers can be harvested green or ripe, once they have reached their final color. By choosing an early harvest, you allow the plant to continue flowering and producing new fruit.

Onions (Allium cepa): for a productive vegetable garden without too much effort

The question is what to do with all those onions - Photo by Townsend Walton / Pexels

A single square meter can yield up to two kilos of onions. Enough to enhance your dishes, satisfy your need for vitamins A, B and C and ward off the evil eye. Cultivation lasts 12 months or so if you plant :

White onions:harvest in spring;
Red onions: to be eaten in summer;
Yellow onions:harvest in summer and store throughout the winter.

The secret to productive onions

Onions are not very difficult to grow. They require a sunny spot, light, well-drained soil and watering only until emergence. Their only requirement: no competition. You'll need to weed regularly around them to ensure maximum space.