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What are the easiest to grow vegetables when you are a beginning gardener? This sort of sounds like loaded question, but I assure you it is not.
If you are interested in easy crops to grow since you are just beginning to garden, it’s not a problem. You can be a successful gardener even when you are just starting out.
I’ve put a list together of 13 easy to grow vegetable I think are perfect for the beginner gardener. And growing your own vegetables not only tastes great, it has additional benefits too.
Contents
What are the advantages of gardening?
Not only is growing and eating homegrown vegetable healthy, you also get some other unexpected benefits with vegetable gardening too:
- Reduced Stress
- Decreased Depression
- Physical Exercise
- Save money on the grocery bill
- And of course – better tasting food
So with these benefits, I think everyone should start their own garden?
Are there really vegetables that are easy to grow for beginners?
Yes, I assure your there are! Today, we will discuss 13 of the easiest to grow vegetables even if you know nothing about gardening at all.
Many folks are intimidated by the thoughts of growing a garden. They are mislead and think they need a large plot of land to have a vegetable garden. This is not true.
You can live in an urban area with a small space for gardening or in an apartment and still grow your own vegetables.
I recently ran across this article How to Start a Vegetable Container Garden Anywhere from Homestead Acres and thought it was genius! Vegetable gardening in containers! So if your garden space is a deck or a balcony, no problem, you too can grow your own vegetables!
Today, I’ll be referring to raised bed gardening since this is the gardening method I use on our homestead. They are not huge, but I am able to grow enough vegetables to can and preserve much of our families food for winter.
And their size is perfect for us!
RELATED: Take the guesswork out! Use the easy formula worksheets in The Canning Garden Workbook (printable) to figure out how much to plant, for canning, to feed your family for a full year!
13 Easiest to grow vegetables Even As a New Gardener
1. Beets
Most people have a love – hate opinion of beets. I really didn’t like them when I was growing up. My mother would cook them often and I didn’t like the taste at all.
It was like eating a mud pie if you know what these are. Not good at all.
Once I started gardening, I of course, wanted to see if I could be successful at growing beets. Once I started growing them, I did change my mind.
I still don’t care for them baked but to make and eat pickled beets– YUM! And my youngest grandson loves them pickled too.
The great thing about growing beets is that both the root and the leaves are both edible so I like to call these a no waste vegetable.
2. Cabbage
Cabbage is a cool season crop which means that it can be grown twice a year – in both the spring and again in the fall.
And it doesn’t take up a lot of space to grow it. When you plant cabbage, it needs to be spaced about 2 feet apart. My raised beds are 40 x 45 and I am able to get 4 cabbage plants in each bed.
It grows rather quickly and it super exciting to watch it grow. The leaves are gorgeous and if you go out early in the morning while the dew is still on – it will look like diamonds glistening.
This is one of my favorite vegetables to grow just due the shear size it gets. Of course, since it is so large, it does have a garden pest that loves it. The dreaded cabbage moth. But these are easily controlled.
3. Squash
Yes, squash is an easy to grow vegetable too. Since it grows on a vine, it is easiest to grow it vertically.
When I grow any vining vegetable in my raised beds, I use a garden trellis and train the vines to grow up the trellis.
The best varieties of squash for trellising are the acorn squash, yellow summer squash and of course the zucchini squash.
Other varieties like the butter nut squash and the squash in the gourd family are really too heavy for a trellis without additional support.
So unless you have a rather large garden layout, I would recommend growing squash that are smaller in size.
4. Radishes
Growing radishes is easy in any size garden too. Actually, they are a fast-growing vegetable and you will be eating radishes in about 2-4 weeks.
Since they do grow so fast, they are great vegetable for succession planting. This just simply means staggering your planting times so you can extend your growing season.
5. Peas
Yum, who doesn’t love green peas? Of course, my grandsons “hated” green peas until I started gardening only 4 years ago.
Now when they stay overnight, they ask for green peas and potatoes for supper. Mixing the two together on their plates has become a favorite.
These too are a great plant for succession planting.
6. Onions
This is one of my favorite vegetables. Onions are one of the most widely used vegetables used in cooking. So it only makes sense to grow them.
And – they are one of the easiest to grow vegetable ever! They need only be spaced about 4 inches apart, so you can really grow a lot in a small space.
7. Spinach
Growing spinach is very easy to grow too. In the right conditions, spinach can be harvest in a little as 6 weeks.
Do keep an eye on your plants they are easy to bolt. Spinach seeds should be direct sown into the garden soil about 4 inches a part.
So you know what this means? You can also grow a lot of spinach in a small space too. Just harvest the leaves as they get the desired size you like to eat.
8. Lettuce
Lettuce is a perfect easy to grow vegetable and can be harvested rather quickly.
I direct sow lettuce in both spring and fall. It’s most often grown as a leaf lettuce, but it can be used for cooking too.
9. Potatoes
These are one of my grandson’s favorites! I don’t think there is anyway I cook them and they don’t like them.
Of course, I think their favorite is homemade hash browns. It doesn’t matter if I cook them on the stove top or in the oven, they are asking for seconds.
Growing potatoes does take a bit of space but since they are deep root growers, they make great companions for planting with lettuce, radishes, and spinach since these all grow with shallow roots.
10. Green Beans
This is another one of “those vegetables” my grandsons hated until they tasted homegrown.
There are a couple different type green beans – pole and bush beans. I would recommend you start with growing a bush bean.
The reason – bush beans don’t take a lot of space to grow. Whereas, pole beans will continue to grow and will need to be trellised.
I grow White Half Runners and Blue Lake both in my raised beds. Both of these are a bush beans and I am able to grow enough to have home canned green beans all winter.
Trust me, once you taste homegrown green beans, you’ll never want them from a grocery store ever again.
11. Carrots
They are a bit slow, but growing carrots is worth it. With just a bit of patience, you and your family will love them!
Carrots should also be direct sown in the garden soil. They don’t transplant well, so I would not recommend starting seeds indoors.
These can be planted among your lettuces, spinach, beans and onions.
And, canning carrots is not hard to do either if you are interested in preserving them for the winter.
Are you beginning to see that easy to grow vegetables can also be grown in small spaces or raised beds?
And that you don’t have to have a large vegetable garden layout to grow a bounty of fresh vegetables? I hope so.
12. Cucumbers
These are a fun vegetable to grow. They too are a vining vegetable that will need to be trellised.
Cucumbers, if you are growing vegetables in a small space or raised beds, can be planted with squash and trellised on the the same trellis. Depending on how large your squash are, your trellis could need additional support.
It’s exciting to go outside to take a look at your cucumber vines and find a nugget of a cucumber hanging there!
It seems like when one appears, it is only a day or so you have lots of cucumbers.
My favorite variety of cucumber to grow is the Boston Pickling Variety. This is because my family loves dill pickles and a variety of other pickles too. This variety cucumbers are great for pickling.
13. Tomatoes
I saved these for last because, I guess growing tomatoes is my all time favorite vegetable to grow. And I’m thinking I’m not the only one that feels this way.
What meal is not complete without tomatoes used in some way? They are so useful in the kitchen.
Whether you use them whole or in a sauces for pizza & spaghetti. or even in casseroles, they are just a perfect easy to grow vegetable .
I think every beginner gardener should grow tomatoes. No garden is complete without them.
Of course, there a few tricks to growing healthy tomatoes and I’ve learned most of them the hard way.
Most things you read will tell you they should be place about 2 feet apart and I have done this in the past.
But this year, since I had an epidemic of tomato hornworms last year, I have spaced them to 2.5 – 3 feet apart. This will allow me to see inside closely and also to keep them pruned if need.
I grow strictly a Roma tomato and this is because they are a meatier tomato that is great for making all my homemade sauces.
Of course I do have one or two other single plants of a variety for slicing. Normally a celebrity variety is my pick.
I always grow determinate tomatoes. Since they don’t require a lot of space to grow. I would recommend that if you have never grown tomatoes before, that you choose determinate’s as well.
Unless of course, you have that large garden layout we talked about or you are just adventurous – which is totally great!
So there you have it. My recommended list of 13 easy to grow vegetables for beginning gardeners.
So tell me, what vegetables are you going to be growing in your new vegetable garden this season?
More Gardening Tips
- How to Start A Garden
- Healthy Soil, Its’ Necessary
- How and When to Water a Garden
- Best Garden Tools for Gardening
- How to Make Compost Tea
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