Easy Vegetables for Beginner Gardeners

Which vegetables are the easiest to grow?

What should I plant in my first time vegetable garden? Should I start with potted vegetables?

Those taking their first steps in gardening often ask which vegetable crop presents a low degree of difficulty to ensure a good harvest with little care.

In this group of beginner gardeners, we will certainly include young children, who are useful to learn the secrets of planting, combining play, exploration and knowledge, while at the same time acquiring healthy habits and discovering new unique tastes.

When we say “easy vegetables”, we refer to vegetables that do not have great requirements for watering, fertilizing and protection from insects and diseases.

However, we will need to follow some simple tips for their proper care in order to get the best result and avoid common mistakes we make in the garden.

So we pick the easiest vegetables for beginner gardeners, along with helpful simple tips to ensure a bountiful crop of fresh vegetables.

Vegetables for gardening beginners.

If growing vegetables seems too difficult, we can start with vegetables that have special care needs.

It is important to start by planting a few plants so that we have more time to observe and properly care for them.

The vegetables we recommend are easily grown in the garden and in raised beds. However, they give just as good production and without much difficulty, when they are seen in pots and planters on the balcony, the yard and the terrace.

We prefer ready-made plants that we get from nurseries, which go into production faster, compared to plants that we make ourselves from seed. If we want to experiment more, we can grow vegetables with leftover pieces from the kitchen.

1. Growing lettuce. Lettuce is one of the most popular salad vegetables and the
   easier to grow. In addition to growing in the vegetable garden, we can very easily plant lettuce in a pot. The taste and freshness of the lettuce we cut from our garden is incomparable. There are many varieties to try, such as classic lettuce with long, dark green leaves and French lettuce with
   the loose tender leaves. A special variety that we recommend is the butter lettuce with smooth tender leaves and a closed head. The crispiest lettuce leaves are given by curly head lettuce, the famous iceberg, which forms a round head like a cabbage. Lettuce is planted at distances of about 30 cm between plants and 40-50 cm between planting lines. In general, the lettuce harvest time is fast with a duration of 1.5-2.5 months, depending on the variety we grow.
2. Tomato cultivation. Tomatoes may be difficult to grow, but cherry tomatoes are not. They are the choice for beginners as well as young children who love to cut and taste delicious red, yellow, orange and black cherry tomatoes depending on the variety. We plant the cherry tomatoes in the middle of spring to give us production in the summer, where we cut them fresh in bunches or individually each fruit. The tomato crop has a strong growth and needs support so that the shoots can withstand the weight of the fruits. Suitable planting distances for tomatoes are one meter between plants and two meters between planting lines.
3. Strawberry cultivation. Another easy vegetable to plant in spring is the strawberry, the favorite fruit of young and old with the unique juicy taste that we enjoy in late spring and early summer. For children we recommend planting in planters as they love to cut and enjoy fresh strawberries every day. There are many varieties of strawberries to grow, small fruit and large fruit, some strawberry varieties that produce early and late varieties that are harvested later. Suitable planting distances for strawberry cultivation in the garden are 30-50 cm between plants and 70-80 cm between planting lines. Strawberry cultivation thrives in sunny locations, as the plant needs at least 6-8 hours of sun per day, to give quality production.
4. Growing arugula. And let’s not forget arugula, one of the most aromatic and spicy garden herbs that we enjoy in green salads. Its arugula is very easy which is an ideal start for novice gardeners, as well as for young children taking their first steps in gardening, as we can very easily plant arugula in a pot. Arugula prefers relatively cool and sunny locations to thrive in the fall and winter season. Arugula is planted sparsely with seed placed at a depth of 1-2 cm. If we choose to transplant ready-made plants from a nursery, we place them at planting distances of 15-20 cm between plants and 30-40 cm between planting lines. And if we plant it on the balcony, we will need a pot or planter with a depth of about 15 centimeters.
5. Growing spinach. Spinach is also a favorite green leafy vegetable, which is planted and thrives in the fall season. It is considered one of the easiest crops that we recommend to every beginner gardener who can easily start with spinach in a pot. We prefer to plant ready-made spinach plants that we get from nurseries for faster production and higher yield. We plant the spinach at distances of 15-20 cm between the plants and 30-40 cm between the planting lines. To plant spinach on the balcony, we use pots or planters at least 15 cm deep. Spinach is harvested gradually about 2 months after transplanting. We gradually cut the peripheral leaves of the spinach to have a longer harvest period. The small tender leaves of spinach are ideal for salad, while the larger ones are chosen for our cooking.
6. Pepper cultivation. Let’s go to the pepper, the summer vegetable with its unique taste, crunchy texture and characteristic aroma. A key ingredient for our salads and meals with a unique taste, crunchy texture and characteristic aroma, the pepper crop reaches a height of about 1 meter. And if we don’t have a garden, we can plant peppers in a pot on the balcony or terrace. Pepper cultivation gives us the opportunity to try unique flavors with hot or sweet peppers in various shapes, from oblong to rounder with bright colors such as green, yellow, orange and red. When planting pepper we choose suitable planting distances, about 50 cm between plants and 80–100 cm between planting lines to make better ventilation.
7. Green onion cultivation. Green spring onion can be planted all year round in our garden and of course we can easily plant onion in a pot. If we prefer dry onion, depending on the variety, we plant in the March-April period or in the autumn period. The planting of the onion can be done both in planting lines and in the fields. For the linear planting of onion, shallow furrows are dug at planting distances between the planting lines of around 30 cm. The small onion bulbs are planted at distances between them of about 10 cm for the dry onion and 5-7 cm for the green onion. The onion’s planting depth in the soil should be about one centimeter, that is, just enough to cover the top of the bulb.

Basic care in growing vegetables for beginners.

Basic guidelines for proper vegetable care for beginner gardeners include soil preparation, proper planting, regular watering, fertilization, and disease protection.

• We prepare the soil well. Planting vegetables requires fertile, fluffy soil, enriched in nutrients for proper plant root development. We enrich the soil with compost, well-digested manure and complete organic fertilizer. If we grow in a pot, we use a special plant for vegetables.
• We plant the vegetables at the appropriate distances. We plant vegetables in sunny places in our garden so that they thrive and give us good production. We prefer to plant the vegetables at sparse distances to give our plants better ventilation to protect them from disease and insect attacks.
• We water the vegetables frequently. Vegetables need regular watering to have good growth and production especially when temperatures are high. For watering the vegetables, it is important to install an automatic drip irrigation system that ensures efficiency and water saving.
• We put organic fertilizer for horticulture. Vegetables have important details in fertilizer. We incorporate into the soil 1-2 tablespoons of complete organic fertilizer, rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and good, every 2-3 weeks.
• We protect the vegetable garden from insects and diseases. In conditions of increased temperature, high temperature and poor ventilation, vegetables show higher rates of disease and insect infestation. For the biological control of diseases and insects, we spray with biological preparations such as copper, sulfur, potassium salts, natural pyrethrum and Thuringia bacillus.

And a secret for growing vegetables If preparing the soil for cultivation discourages us from getting started, we can try no dig gardening, a cultivation method that allows us to cultivate more comfortably, at the same time enhancing the natural soil processes.