The Best Vegetables to Grow for Beginner Gardeners

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.

The 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.