The Best Vegetables to Grow for Beginners

Are you thinking about starting a garden this spring? These ideas for vegetables to grow for beginners will give you some great ideas!

It is so much fun growing vegetables and fruits to eat throughout the summer! Sometimes though it can be overwhelming when you go to decide on what you are going to grow! The list I have for the range of vegetables to grow for beginners will hopefully help you when choosing!

I know for myself I have found it incredibly overwhelming when I am trying to figure out what I am going to do when planning my garden! I have a tendency to over commit to the amount of plants that I end up wanting to grow which causes issues in the long run! haha!

Over time I have begun to slowly understand what is to much and what is the perfect amount to grow! Each person and their space is so obviously different so what I share might not work for your space! Be critical on what you think will work and do your research to make sure you are not overwhelming yourself!

Okay so before we get started a few things to keep in mind are – do you have garden space for the vegetable? Are the instructions for growing going to fit into you schedule/garden plan? How much work are you willing to put into the plants and what do you enjoy eating and cooking with? These might seem silly to ask yourself but I promise they do make a positive impact in the long run!

Well now that we have the basics covered lets’ jump into the discussing the vegetables to grow for beginners!

Option 1 Root Vegetables

Super easy to grow! They are low maintenance but they do need somewhere deep to grow and somewhat spacious! So when choosing them just ensure you have the space for them! Normally the seed packet will have the full instructions on the back of what is exactly best for that seed!

Great options to plant:

Carrots

Potatoes

Onions

Beets

In our garden we generally grow carrots, and onions each year! They are generally the easiest to grow for me! However this past year I killed off all of my starter seeds for onions so we didn’t have any to actually grow haha! One day I hope to do potato and beets but right now I just have the space for them!

Option 2 Leafy greens

Leafy greens are another super simple plant to grow! At least in my opinion! We like eating Kale in our house so I grew that for the first time this summer! Im not going to lie only one plant made haha! I think that was more on my error in regards to not following the instructions properly haha! The one kale plant we did ave was fun to watch grow and was generally pretty easy! However I do think I have some more learning to do to make the best of it!

Great options to plant:

Kale

Romaine Lettuce

Swiss Chard

Spinach

If you are thinking about growing Kale or Spinach these are two great options that can be harvested and put into the freezer for easy use during the winter months! This is something I actually love having in the freezer! All I do is wash them and dry them and then stick them into a bag then right into the freezer! When I pull them out to be used in stir fry’s, soups, or really any dish that needs another vegetable all I do is crunch the bag together and it breaks up the spinach or kale so I can easily sprinkle it in! Basically it cuts down on me chopping it up which is really nice when you are trying to cook quickly!

Option 3 Vine growers

I feel like I keep saying I love growing “_______” because they are so simple! Yet here we are again me saying that haha! Maybe I need to reevaluate what simple means? Anyways I am sure you have caught the drift! I love growing vine plants because I feel they are pretty simple and resilient! This past summer we grew peas and during that time we had some insane heat waves, some forgotten watering times, and a tree that covered most of them. In the end they all flourished! Which was amazing and super tasty!

Some great vine grower options are:

Peas

Runner Beans

Beans

Climbing tomatoes

Make sure to only plant what you will love to eat and if you over produce what you feel comfortable processing for the winter months!

Option 4 Squashes

These are such a yummy plant to harvest! And they are great for storage over the winter months! And I bet you can’t guess what they are really great for? — Simple gardening! These guys are great plants to have in the garden as long as you get them in the garden at the right time!

Last year we had loads of them growing but unfortunately had a predator eat them all! I am pretty sure it was the neighbourhood cat since I had seen it stalking the garden regularly! We would have the plants produce flowers like crazy! The squash would begin to grow and before it got too big it was gone. Not on the ground, or rotted out or forgotten about but just gone! So that was a bit disappointing however, lesson learned they need to behind something or planted somewhere else.

Great squash options that can be easily stored through the winter are:

Butternut squash

Acorn squash

Spaghetti squash

And one that doesn’t fair the same in winter storage but great in the freezer is:

Zucchini

Do you have any questions or other ideas on great vegetables to grow for beginners? I would also love to hear which ones you plan to plant this spring! And maybe what you are going to do with them once they have grown?

Just another quick reminder! Gardening can be so much fun and can provide you and your family with high quality fruits and vegetables! However, it can be overwhelming, wild and time consuming if not planned correctly! Make sure to take the time to plan out your spring summer season, your garden and know what you already have on your plate before committing to all the vegetables!