Are you a beginner gardener looking to start your own garden? Growing your own vegetables can be a rewarding experience, but it can also be intimidating. Don't worry, we've got you covered! Here are 10 of the easiest vegetables for beginners to grow, plus 5 that you should avoid as a first-time gardener. Beets, lettuce, kale, cucumbers, peas, radishes, cherry tomatoes, and green beans are some of the most straightforward vegetables for new gardeners to cultivate. Summer and winter squash are also good choices for novice growers.
To make sure your gardening dreams come true, here are 10 easy-to-follow tips. One common mistake when learning to garden is misjudging sunlight. Before selecting a spot for your garden, pay attention to how sunlight enters your yard. Most edible plants, including many vegetables, herbs, and fruits, need at least 6 hours of sun to thrive. Knowing your hardiness zone can help you choose the best plants.
In a nutshell, it describes the coldest place in which a plant can grow. The higher the zone number, the warmer the climate will be.
So if a plant is resistant to zone 4 and grows in zone 5, that plant will survive in your garden
. However, if you're in zone 3, it's too cold to grow that particular plant. Lettuce is one of the easiest vegetables to grow for beginners.It tolerates shade better than other vegetables and will continue to grow after you cut it, meaning you can plant it once and enjoy fresh lettuce all summer long. There are a lot of varieties to choose from. Personally, I like Buttercrunch because I think it holds up well in salads. If you don't know what you like, start with a mix of lettuce leaves and discover it from there. Zucchini is another easy vegetable for beginners to grow.
It's simple to start from seed, requires almost no maintenance and will give you more products than you'll know what to do with. Do not plant more than 1 or 2 plants unless you have a family of 10 or like to give zucchini away to everyone you know. Tomatoes are also great for beginner gardeners. Subscribe and get your free 10-page guide to Tomatoes. I'll show you how to start from seed, the best care practices and how to harvest them.
Plus, you'll get 4 tomato recipes straight to your inbox. I help new gardeners learn to grow their own vegetables and cut flowers, and I also give them the knowledge needed to beautify their gardens with perennials. If I can grow it in my cold zone 3 climate and in a short growing season (about 100 days or so), you probably can too. Most plants will prefer moderately fertile, well-drained soil. This means soil that is rich in nutrients but not unbalanced.
The soil structure must also be open enough to allow water to penetrate and then drain freely. The best thing to do in most gardens is to buy a topsoil mix which will give your plants the best possible start. If you want clean garden borders always plant the tallest plants in the back and the low-growing plants in the front (the plant label will indicate the height and extent of each plant so that you also know how far apart to plant them). Plus picking up plants that are native to your area (ask at the garden center if you're not sure) will make your life easier. At a minimum you'll need a shovel and a trowel both needed for creating garden borders and planting. However if your garden has particularly calcareous or clay soil and the plants are not thriving you should start by improving the soil as much as possible before planting anything else. As long as you have a spot with 6 or more hours of light a day are willing to add some compost to your soil and water regularly you can garden this year.
Container gardening is also an excellent way to start growing plants in a small yard or to grow non-resistant plant species that you can then spend the winter in a greenhouse or in a bright indoor place. The garden planner automatically records frost dates for your specific location identifies easy-to-grow vegetables and even identifies companion plants. She is the author of London Writing of the 1930s and is passionate about contemporary home decoration and gardening. If you have a north-facing garden find the best shade-loving plants which will be happy on your plot. However if the answer is “rarely” it would be better if you had garden plants that require little maintenance such as grasses and vegetables that you can let them do their thing for example garlic to get through the winter bulbs such as tulips and the like depending on the climate of course. Kate Turner gardening guru at Miracle-Gro says: “With a lot of time at home and longer brighter days ahead now is the time to make the most of your garden or green space. Make sure you can put a hose in the garden so you don't have to carry water every time the plants are thirsty. Growing garden herbs is easy and many herbs such as sage and rosemary are also beautiful border plants so you'll combine a vegetable garden and a decorative garden. Always keep in mind the amount of sun your garden or its individual borders receives and go to your local nursery with this in mind.
