A Small Garden, for Double Cropping with Fewer Weeds.

HOMEACRES FARM LEARNING
With limited time, what are the best vegetables to grow?
The most time efficient vegetable is potato. Perhaps the most worthwhile is tomato.

How to manage space? - no dig saves much time, with beds of 1.2m or 75cm, paths of 40cm.
Weeds are the biggest time-waster. No dig helps massively and any cost of compost / organic matter is offset by higher output, and a reduction in time needed to weed.

Many vegetables grow in half a season so have a plan for a next one tp sow or transplant after each harvest. No dig makes second planting easier and quicker because there is no soil prepartation, no feeding or extra compost needed, and better moisture retention.
Examples include spinach or leeks after potatoes, carrots after lettuce, salad rocket after onions, broccoli or cauliflower after broad beans, Brussels sprouts or kale after carrots. Check out interplanting possibilities.

Brassicas can be difficult because of pest pressure, but overwintered kale, collards, broccoli & cabbage, plus early-spring planted cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli and kohlrabi are more likely to be successful.

Ease of Growing approx!!
1 potato, 2 lettuce, 3 tomato, 4 collards from August sowing 5 beetroot 6 onion & salad onion 7 chard 8 courgette, 9 broad beans, 10 cucumber, 11 corn, 12 carrots.

Filmed by Carly Dutton-EdwaArds 16th October 2026 at Homeacres no dig garden, Somerset, UK.
Music by Heidi Theaker.
Thumbnail by Carly, and Nicola Smith.