6 Vegetables For Beginners To Grow
Are you looking to grow some vegetables this year? Is this your first year ever attempting vegetable growing? Do you consider yourself a beginner and just want to get started? This guide is for you.
Growing vegetables is honestly so easy, but I know the feeling of overwhelm it can bring if you’ve never done it before, so I wanted to create a helpful guide to 6 vegetables I believe are the easiest to grow and will give you so many fresh vegetables this summer.
1. HERBS
Ok, I know this isn’t a vegetable but it’s a great starting point. Even if you just have a windowsill and no garden you can get enormous satisfaction from growing your own herbs. With the option to grow from seed or buy starter plants, there are so many options that will bring your garden and food alive with flavour, scent, and colour. Think about the herbs you use most often, perhaps you use the dried versions, start there and just throw in one or two new ones to broaden your horizons (and taste buds). You can buy seeds from plenty of places but I’d also recommend starter plants from Urban Herbs if you want to support a small business. Here are a few of my favourites herbs to grow:
Basil - my favourite of all herbs, look for the emerald tower basil if you can as it grows taller and bushier than other varieties. Keep it from flowering as much as you can by pinching out any buds, and throw in chopped leaves to your pasta sauces anytime you need.
Chives - these are definitely a contender to grow from seed, and will keep coming back year after year too. They are pretty versatile when it comes to the kitchen, and don’t take up too much space in your herb planter either.
Rosemary - this grows into a neat little bush (unless you go for the trailing kind) and can last for years if looked after well. If you keep it in a smaller planter you might find it gets a bit woody and needs replacing after 2 years (which is still very good value for money). It’s perfect for roast dinners and chopped finely in any sort of traybake or sauce too.
Mint - always keep this in a pot or it will take over your garden. It’s possibly the most hardy of all herbs and will keep coming back year after year with relatively minimal maintenance.
Thyme - a creeper plant that will overtake any space you give it, keep an eye on this as it grows. There are so many types of thyme from the traditional to orange, lemon and golden which all taste fantastic in cooked food or salad dressings.
2. POTATOES
You don’t need an allotment or big garden to grow potatoes, in fact a hessian bag on a balcony will do. You’ll need a small windowsill (and an egg box) for them to chit for a few weeks, and then a sheltered area to grow them in. You can plant them as early as March and harvest through until October. They are easy enough to grow and a great option for kids to get involved with too - they need topping up with soil every few days as new green leaves become visible, and harvesting them is like panning for edible gold!
Potatoes come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, you can opt to grow salad potatoes, purple potatoes, or big baking potatoes, the choice is yours. I wrote a whole blog about buying, growing, harvesting and storing potatoes, so check it out if you want to give them a go this year.
3. CARROTS
Another garden (and kitchen) staple that is easy to grow from seed, you will need ground space or a deep trough so your carrots have space to grow downwards. Don’t worry about consistency though, there is great fun in discovering the different shapes and sizes hiding below the soil line. You will have to master the art of ‘thinning out’ if you plant too many seeds too close together, but it’s all good skills and easy for kids to help out with too. My toddler had so much fun pulling the carrots up this year I can’t wait to do more next year! My favourites types of carrots to grow are Chantenay and Rainbow Mix.
Carrots are super versatile when it comes to eating, from being just a side dish, to being blended into soup, grated into coleslaw, or used in a cake, and let’s not forget the carrot tops that can be blitzed into pesto - there are so many options when it comes to how you will consume your crop.
4. TOMATOES
One of my all time favourite things to grow, tomatoes give you a lot of return on investment. From just one seed you can get a plant that will give you a plethora of tomatoes, so don’t get too over excited with the seeds and end up with too many plants.
Before I had my own garden I had no idea there were so many types of tomatoes, and now I’m obsessed with trying something new each year. Last year I tried zebra tomatoes, and this year I found Indigo Pear tomatoes were absolutely amazing (and tasted like baked beans!).
Like carrots there are so many things you can do with tomatoes in the kitchen, from making your own puree, pasta sauce or soup, to throwing them into a fresh salad, salsa or traybake there is plenty of option to fill your freezer, cupboards and tummy.
5. BEANS
Another way to get a lot of produce from very little outlay is to grow beans. With just a pot and some tall canes on your decking you can grow a range of beans to keep you fed and stock your freezer. The other beauty of beans is that they flower before the form into food so they are aesthetically pleasing too!
Runner beans - a classic vegetable for the garden, you may need extra long canes as they can grow super tall if given half a chance, but it’s worth it for the abundance of beans you’ll get.
French beans - I got a climbing variety last season and loved them, they had cute purple flowers and grow delicious beans that kept us going for months.
Broad beans - they don’t grow tall but are great to grow and perfect to store in the freezer.
6. ONIONS
They aren’t the most exciting vegetable to grow but they are easy and low maintenance, and always come in handy for the base of plenty of homecooked meals.
You can plant onion sets out from the Autumn before the harvest, which makes nice use of any veg beds you do have in your garden through the winter months. You want them to be in a sunny spot, and not too close together - even though the onion set looks small they will grow and need space, so don’t plant them closer than 4-6” apart. Your onions are ready when the tops have been green, then go yellow and then wilt over - make sure you chop off any thing that looks like it might become a flower through the growing season!
I usually do a selection of white and red onions to give me a bit more choice when cooking. I wrote everything I know about growing onions in this other blog, so give it a read if you want to start growing your own onions.
Did I include your favourite vegetables in this list? Or is there something else you’d like to try growing as a beginner? Let me know in the comments below.
