are there any vegetables to grow that really are trouble free pest and disease wise?

jacgab

I'm a halfhearted organic gardener as well! I've had good success this year with parsnips, beetroot, curly kale, onions and potatoes and my garden is awash with slugs and snails. Will give brocolli and dwarf beans a miss next year as these got eaten in no time.

mcgrow

One thing I've noticed: if you grow a few trays of tightly packed salad leaves indoors, then, once they are big, transfer them to the soil near the plants you want to keep. The slugs and snails are distracted by the salad leaves for several weeks and once they are gone, the main plant, for example a courgette, is big enough to cope.

izzwizz_2

I'm a nearly organic gardener too (don't use any chemicals except tomato food, and only use that because I can't stand the smell of nettle tea!).

This year, hubby built some covers for our raised bed using lengths of 2" x 1" wood made into a box shape and covered with enviromesh. It was fantastic at keeping all the pests off (grew cauliflowers & broccoli with no caterpillars, etc.), but also all the crops grew really well with a bit of added protection from wind, rain & sun. When some of the crops grew too tall for the covers (e.g. onion sets), I plonked the cover down on concrete and put windowboxes of lettuces underneath. The enviromesh was a fantastic investment and is still in great condition so will be able to reuse for a few years.

I have found the easiest plant to grow is courgettes - no covers required. Great in raised beds since the leaves can hang over the sides. Few pests and even though they will suffer from mildew, this doesn't really affect the crop. It likes a Sunny spot though. Second vote would be for onions & shallots from sets, especially if you have somewhere indoors to start the sets off in modules so they get going before you plant them out. We grow shallots in windowboxes and use the green shoots like spring onions or leeks - a great, early crop when not much is around in the Spring.

Mayflower10cat

We've grown veg for the last 15 years or so, as organically as possible. The one vegetable that takes the least effort IMHO is the simple potato. We love our new/salad potatoes and for such little labour, you can get a LOT of new potatoes from a very few seed tubers. Yum!!!

Lotus-eater

I would think it was better to grow what you want to eat and learn to grow them properly.
Literally nothing is pest free and pests attack different things differently in different places and in different years. So what one person says one year is pest free, possibly won't be in your garden, next year.

Leeks are pretty much bomb proof, but then if you are unlucky enough to have leek moth, or leek miner you are going to lose most if not all of them.
Rocket and radish can be badly attacked by flea beetle, even though the damaged stuff can still be eaten, it's puts alot of people off who are only used to perfect supermarket fruit and veg.

cjb02

I think most of these have been suggested, so my bomb proof veg are carrots in buckets (carrot fly I think does not fly above 18inch off the floor) garlic. never had any issues with pest (except cats maybe) runner beans (these grow like triffids), achocha (again grows triffid like) and pea's, well mange touts (grown them for the first year this year in a bucket and they are like WOW that was easy)

fruit, I would suggest rhubarb and strawberries (netted). just imo.

Oldbiggles

One thing I’ve tried and it works really well.
Plant a row of potatoes, but instead of piling up the soil, cover the row with black polythene. Where you later see a bulge under the polythene (It’s the leaves) make a small slit to allow the leaves to grow through. Later when you would normally dig up the potatoes, instead you can lift the edges of the polythene; gently remove the largest of the potatoes, leaving the smaller ones to go on growing. Re-cover the soil with the polythene and wait until the small ones have grown to the required size. You will have twice as many potatoes in your crop if you do this.
Growing carrots alongside onions is also something that works to keep pest free, also marigolds amongst tomatoes.

:beer: