Read along for all of the best tips for growing vegetables for beginners, with a guide to the best vegetables to grow for the first time gardener.
Gardening season is just around the corner; are you ready to plant your first vegetable garden?! I’m getting excited for our garden this year and I’m ready to start planning, i.e. garden layout, cut flower varieties to plant (not vegetable garden related but something I want to try this year), seed ordering, etc.
Soon enough it will be spring and we’ll all be able to get a little dirt under our nails and hang out in the sun as much as possible.
Growing Vegetables for Beginners
I remember the first year we were going to plant a vegetable garden, I was SO nervous! I researched everything I could to the very last detail. Looking back it was silly of me to be so worked up and anxious about it. Gardening can be a lot more forgiving than you think!
I had a post some time ago that was titled “10 Things I Learned With My First Vegetable Garden”. That post has since been lost or deleted in the process of switching my site around a few times. I so wish I still had it to look back on.
One of the things I remember was that I was so surprised when our dirt garden had small sprouts popping up. Then, after a few months it had some good sized plants. Finally, in the thick of summer we had a full on vegetable garden with beautiful vegetables to enjoy. I remember planting the seeds in the ground that spring with a whole lot of doubt in my mind about whether or not ANYTHING would grow.
I had this strange notion in my mind that you had to be an expert or have some kind of serious skill to grow a vegetable garden. This is so not true! Really, it can be broken down into just a simple equation. Plant the seeds in fertile ground + water + sunlight = beautiful plants with veggies out the wazoo.
Of course there are a lot more details you can go into to make sure you are growing the most efficient, healthy, and fertile garden that you are able to. Don’t get too caught up in that though if you’re just starting out. Just take the leap and get to planting and you’ll be so surprised by what you can grow come summertime.
If you’ve still got nerves about starting your own vegetable garden this year, take a look at these 7 foolproof varieties. They are all easy to grow vegetables for the first time gardener. This will hopefully make you feel a bit better knowing that every one of these vegetables is easy to grow, easy to harvest, and delicious to eat.
Best Vegetables to Grow for Beginner Gardeners
- root vegetables (radishes, carrots, beets, turnips, etc.) as can be assumed the vegetable part of root vegetables is the root! Root vegetables are hardy and usually pretty easy to grow. They are also delicious! We love turnips and carrots sauteed together with a little seasoning.
- lettuces – grow all of the ingredients for a delicious salad by starting with your favorite varieties of lettuce. Most varieties of lettuce are extremely easy to grow with little care, and even easier to harvest (just a few snips to take what you need for a salad that evening).
- zucchini – zucchini along with other squashes are very easy to grow and will usually provide you with a big bounty. Growing up some of my cousins would grow zucchini every year in a small planter type area outside their house (an area that would usually have landscape bushes and such). They would seriously give us foot long zucchinis all summer long because they always had a surplus. One or two plants should be plenty to feed you and your family.
- green beans – I have never personally grown green beans before, but this year I am! I don’t know why I haven’t because green beans are easy to grow and they are actually one of our favorite vegetables to eat. Green beans are great to freeze, which is nice if you want to enjoy them after the summer. They are also really tasty canned.
- tomatoes – of course tomatoes are included in one of the best vegetables to grow for the beginner gardener. Its best to start with a strong plant, if you’re not adverse to it your first year try a starter plant instead of seeds until you get the hang of gardening. You’ll likely get a larger, healthier tomato plant with a plentiful bounty. Also, there are so many different things you can do with surplus tomatoes; canned stewed tomatoes, canned salsa, canned pasta sauce, and you can even freeze your tomatoes.
- herbs – herbs are an awesome addition to your vegetable garden as they’re really easy to grow and you’ll likely appreciate fresh herbs a great deal if you enjoy cooking. Basil is an easy herb to grow and would pair really well with all of those extra tomatoes you are planning on canning. We had rosemary one year that I kid you not, would. not. die. I planted it on the side of our home with some other herbs and decided the following year that I wanted to put lilacs in that spot. The dang rosemary just kept coming back and lasted all through the winter. Obviously, herbs are pretty forgiving and easy to grow; they are great for the beginner gardener.
- peppers – another easy to grow vegetable for the first-time gardener is peppers. They really love the heat. Peppers are fun because you can let the peppers ripen for different lengths of time to achieve a different flavor or different colors. Depending on what your preference is you should be able to figure out the exact time to pick yours to get the best tasting peppers.
Now Just Get Started!
There you have it! Seven of the best vegetables to grow for the beginner gardener. Remember, don’t be nervous if this is your first time growing a vegetable garden. Do your research but don’t think you have to know every last detail about vegetable gardening to grow a successful and fruitful garden this year. All you need to do is start.
What varieties of vegetatables are you planting this year? Is this your first year planting a vegetable garden? Let me know in the comments below!
Check out some of our other popular gardening posts below or see all of our gardening posts HERE.
