We’ve compiled a list of the 10 easiest vegetables to grow for beginners. With a little sun and water, you can expect to see great yields in these easy to care for plants.
If it’s your first time growing vegetables or if you historically have a brown thumb, you may not know where to begin. It might be really tempting to start out your gardening experience by trying to grow something beautiful or exotic. But we’re going to advise against that. What you need when you’re starting out gardening is an easy win.
1. Lettuce
Lettuce is far and away the one of the easiest vegetables to start with for beginner homesteaders. Part of that is how easy it is to grow right from seeds. Not only are most lettuce seeds inexpensive, but growing them is a snap. For most lettuce varieties, you only have to dig a very shallow channel and lightly cover with soil.
Lettuce is one of the fastest growing vegetables you can plant in your garden. For some varieties, you can harvest lettuce after only two weeks following germination! Regular waterings will produce an amazing crop of leafy vegetables that you can harvest multiple times all spring and early summer.
There are so many different varieties of lettuce that you can grow, from nutritious butter lettuce all the way to common iceberg lettuce. Pick and choose which lettuces you enjoy the most for your garden to create tasty, varied salads.
2. Green Onions
Green onions are a plant that not only grows quickly, but it’s also one you can harvest until frosts hit. It’s an amazing low-maintenance crop that you can pretty much plant and forget about.
One of the best things about green onions is that if you don’t pull out the entire plant, you can just cut off the green tops and the plant will continue to grow, even into the fall.
3. Zucchini
If you have the space for it, zucchini is a wonderfully prolific and easy to grow crop. Of all the easiest vegetables on this list, zucchini will be the one that you’ll be giving away due to their abundance.
Zucchini are a wonderful summer crop that you can harvest early. Watering regularly and ensuring that your zucchini plants have full sun will produce a great crop that you’ll be able to use in a number of recipes.
4. Bell Peppers
The color varieties you see in the store are due to the length of time that the plant is on the vine. The longer you let a bell pepper stay on the plant, the more it will change color: green, then yellow, and finally red. The bell pepper will get sweeter as its color changes.
Bell peppers love heat and sunlight and are a wonderful summer crop that resists many garden pests. You can plant them about half a foot apart, or grow on in its own container if you lack a lot of ground space.
5. Cherry Tomatoes
Unlike their larger counterparts, cherry tomatoes can be grown with a fraction of the space and effort. They don’t require the support for their leaves and vines nor do they need their side shoots pruned.
Most tomato plants are best started indoors until they have a healthy plant that can support itself. This also helps protect the tomato plant from being ravaged by a late frost; tomatoes hate cold weather.
6. Jalapenos
If you like a little heat, jalapenos are and easy to grow vegetable you can add to your garden. Jalapeno plants like heat too, so make sure you plant them in full sunlight.
These plants are relatively low maintenance and tend to produce quite a lot of jalapenos for consumption.
7. Radishes
When it comes to root vegetables, radishes are one of the fastest and easiest vegetables to grow. Once planted, you can have radishes in as little as three weeks! Not only that, but you can plant radishes in both the spring and fall.
Radishes are best sown right into your garden, so you don’t have to worry about the hassle of transplanting young plants. They also have large seeds, so you don’t need to worry about thinning them out after they start growing the way you do with carrots.
8. Peas
When I think of spring, I think of peas. Peas should be planted very early in the spring so they can produce during the cooler months of the growing season. If you want to get the most edibility out of your pea plant choice, we’d recommend snap peas; they produce full-sized peas and you can also eat the pods themselves.
Peas are also a great rotational crop, as they “fix” nitrogen, which means they add nitrogen back into the soil. This cuts down on the amount of fertilization upkeep in your garden. Peas prefer full sun, but they will still grow in partial shade. Keep in mind that partial shade will cause peas to be less sweet and not as productive.
9. Green Beans
Green beans come in either bush or vine varieties. For ease of growing, we recommend picking up a bushing green bean plant. That way you don’t have to set up a trellis, and bush types typically require less garden space overall.
Green beans are best started right in their beds after the last spring frost instead of transplanting. They do their best in direct sunlight in well-draining soil. Bush beans usually start producing within a month and a half. Like peas, green beans also fix nitrogen.
10. Cucumber
Like zucchini, if you have the space for the vines, cucumber are some of the easiest vegetables you can grow. Not only are cucumbers great vegetables to eat fresh from the garden, any extras can be turned into pickles.
If you give these plants plenty of space and water, you’ll probably end up with more cucumbers than you know what to do with. If space for sprawling is an issue for you, cucumbers take to being trained up a trellis really well.
Bonus Veggie: Microgreens
We’re including microgreen on our easiest vegetables list as a bonus because it’s probably they’re probably the easiest plant to grow. However we don’t consider them “proper” vegetables since you’re harvesting them before they fruit.
Radish microgreens are probably best for the beginner gardener. Just like the radish, they produce quickly and require very little attention. Put them in your sandwiches, salads, or impress your friends by adding them as an element to your plating.
While we’ve listed what we think are the easiest vegetables to grow, what’s important is that you choose vegetables that you enjoy eating. It doesn’t do you or your garden any good to grow food you don’t like or can’t use.
Pick out some vegetable plants that work for you and your lifestyle and give them the love and attention they need to produce tasty food for you.