Are you a beginner trying to fit gardening into your life? If you are, start small apart from knowing which vegetables are the easiest to grow from seed. With a bit of planning, you can learn the basics. This guide will find everything required to make your garden grow.

Where to start from?

Space is the most significant limitation faced by beginners who want to grow vegetables at home. One must know the kind of space they have for growing. One either selects the vegetable and then sees how much space is required or knows the space available and then accordingly decides the vegetables for growing. Some plants tale more room to grow, for example, corn, and can overshadow smaller vegetables.

Plants planted too close require sunlight, water, air, and nutrition to grow, and if there is a lack of space, one can always use containers to grow vegetables. The season lengths vary according to where one lives; more importantly, some vegetables need more time to grow than others.

One needs to seriously consider how much time they can devote to the garden, where time and effort vary. For example, radishes grow by themselves; bush beans grow with little care. Tomatoes, however, need more staking and pruning. Some vegetables are season-based. Warm seasoned vegetables like pepper start later than broccoli, and lettuce is considered cool-season vegetables.

It is safer to pick the easiest vegetables to grow from seed as a beginner. Also, growing from seed offers more variety, can be produced from containers if there is a lack of space, has a higher success rate, and is less expensive. Some seeds can be sown directly in the garden soil, while others can be suitable for transplanting.

Choosing the right vegetable to grow at home

You should only grow those vegetables you like to eat or which are difficult to get in the farmer’s market or grocery store. There is no point in cultivating veggies that will finally find themselves in the compost heap.

The following are some of the vegetables that are productive common plants you can grow locally.

• Tomatoes
• Cabbages
• Beets
• Bush Beans
• Peppers
• Lettuce
• Carrots
• Radishes

Grow vegetables from Seeds or Transplants

If garden space is not a constraint, it is recommended to purchase small plants or “transplants.” Many people take this route when they want to grow their choice of vegetables.

Many vegetables can be challenging to groom from the seed level, and they are best purchased as small plants from nursery stores. For example, it can be cumbersome to grow tomatoes from seed. Some vegetables require a warm and long season to grow, such as the tender stuff like eggplants, tomatoes, and peppers, and for them starting with a transplant will give a head start. Many vegetables can easily start growing from home if the growing season is short.

Here are a few benefits of growing vegetables from seeds:

• Seeds are cheap compared to transplants; if purchased in large quantities, they can be even more affordable. They can be stored for a couple of years and shared with friends and neighbors.

• They come in more variety than transplants.

• Many vegetables do not survive the transportation of transplants.

• Some crops like corn, beans, squash, melons, and peas grow better when directly sowed in the soil as seed compared to being transplanted.

• Starting with seeds means a high success rate of healthy vegetables.

• Apart from the warm-season vegetables, others like carrots and radishes also grow well when started with seeds. This is because they do not like their roots to be disturbed once they start growing, and transplantation does disturb them.

Starting the seeding process of vegetables at home

There are many benefits of sowing seeds indoors

1. It can give a head start to the sowing season leading to a healthy harvest.

1. For many warm-season plants, such as Tomatoes, Eggplants, and peppers, indoor seeding is necessary as they cannot be planted during spring when the soil is cool. In many regions, there are not enough growing days for the plant to harvest if the seeding is done outside because of the weather. Indoor allows one to gain precious weeks.

1. In warm regions, starting indoors allows one to get extra time for another round of crops, especially the cool-type crops.

1. Seeding indoors does not require transplants which grows in nurseries may not be of high quality and do not thrive well indoors.

1. With seeds, one can find out if they are grown organically instead of chemical-based and accordingly plant them as per convenience.

Starting indoor seeding – which ones to begin with?

Some vegetables grow exceptionally well when grown outside, and some do not like to be transplanted. Ultimately it depends on what type of vegetable one wants to grow. There is no hard and fast rule on vegetables’ indoor and outdoor growing.

• Crops best suited indoors include tomatoes, broccoli, sprouts, cabbages, and Brussels. Other slower-developing items like cauliflower, eggplant, peppers, and celery can be grown indoors.

• Some vegetables, like tomatoes and eggplants, are vulnerable to cold temperatures and are best kept indoors.

• Plants such as cucumber, pumpkins, muskmelon, squash, and watermelon are tender and do not transport well. They are best sowed indoors.

• Root vegetables like carrots, turnips, and radishes do not like their roots to be disturbed, so they should not transplant but instead sowed indoors with seeds.

What is container gardening?

There is an option to use equally productive containers for those who do not have space to grow vegetables. This growing method helps one keep the cost and time to a minimum.

Tips for growing vegetables in containers

• One should use large containers to hold enough water to get through the hot days. Large containers hold the moisture better, and also bigger the container, the more plants can be grown together.

• It is advisable to use clay pots than plastic containers as they look more attractive. However, plastic containers retain moisture better than terra cotta clay, which is unglazed. One can keep a plastic pot inside a larger clay pot to get the best of both containers.

• One can also use buckets, barrels, baskets, tubs, boxes, or anything that can hold soil. One needs to make sure that the bottom has drainage holes.

• Plants grown in hanging baskets are equally efficient and space-saving. One can easily tend to them and harvest them.

• The containers must be placed with enough air circulation and good sunlight.

• Some vegetables that can be transplanted are suitable for containers, such as cherry tomatoes and peppers. Those starting with a container can use seeds or transplants purchased from a nursery.

• One should add coarse gravel of about one inch when using a container to improve drainage before planting seeds or transplants.

• Keeping the plants cool and moist during hot weather, a double pot helps when placing a small pot inside the large one and filling the gap with crumpled newspaper or sphagnum moss. When watering the plant, the filler between the pots can be soaked.

• The plants in the container should be treated with liquid fertilizer twice a month per the label’s instructions. Occasionally, applying compost will add trace elements to the soil in the container.

• Keep the plants safe from insect pests.

10 Easiest Vegetables to Grow Yourself

Though the list of vegetables is much longer, these are the most common and easiest vegetables to grow at home.

Lettuce 

Lettuce is something that can be grown anywhere, anytime during the year. It is one of those crops that can be transplanted indoors. It should be harvested in small quantities and kept shaded during hot weather though it grows slowly here. Lettuce comes in different shapes and sizes – leaf shapes and shades of red and green varieties. Leaf lettuces can be cut simultaneously as they grow, meaning one can have several harvests from the same plant.

 Green Beans 

All bean varieties grow well, even in poor soils, as they fix the nitrogen as they grow. The bean plants are fast-growing and thrive in moist warm soils. The bean plants of the pole type give an extended harvest, while the bush variety does not need trellising. In hot locations, southern peas, lima beans, asparagus beans, and in cool areas, snap beans are easy to grow.

 Peas 

After the last harvest spring season, one can rework the soils and plant peas to get a continuous supply of peas, sowing peas simultaneously for different maturities. This can continue till around mid-June.

 Radishes

Radishes after planting can be harvested in only 24 days. They can also be interplanted with other vegetables, which take more time to grow. When working on the soil, radishes can be planted at any time. Each seed is sown 2 inches apart or more or maintain this space after the sprouting. The seed is to be more or covered with soil or compost.

Since radish is the carrot’s natural companion, mixing the radish seed with the carrot seed before sowing helps the soil develop a tough crust. The quick-growing Radish push through the soil earlier and breaks the soil crust for the later growing carrots. As one harvests the early radishes, the space left is filled by the carrot.

Carrots

Carrots can be grown easily. They are planted in cool periods of the growing season by seeding in the loose sandy soil. Not all carrots are orange. Some are white and purple, and some are resistant to pests and diseases.

Beginners may find the carrot grown by the to be deformed and short. This is because of poor, rocky soil. So, one should mix sand with the soil and loosen them up. The carrot seedlings should be thinned to proper spacing, so they are not overcrowded and grow properly.

Cucumbers

When growing cucumbers, it is important to prepare the soil in advance. The soil should be made fertilizer rich in potassium and nitrogen to give large yields. If possible, the cucumber should be planted next to a fence in sunlight. The fence acts as a shelter and support for climbing. One can also plant them close to corn as the corns trap the heat that cucumber needs and serve as a windbreak.

Kale

The Kale is super nutritious, hardy, and can grow in all temperatures. It can be harvested at different stages for its buds, and flowers can be used for eating too. Collards and mustards are also related to Kale and are easy to grow.

The plants can be sown anytime between spring and summer, and the Kale will grow until it gets very hot.

Beets

The beets that you grow themselves are to be tested for. Nothing can compare whether they are garden-fresh, roasted, or boiled till they are tender.

The see capsule contains two to three beet seeds, so the seedlings must be thinned. The seed should be sown 4 inches apart and one inch deep. The beets can be harvested at any time till they are the size of a tennis ball. While the beets are waiting to grow, one can also use the leaves like spinach giving two harvests from one plant.

Swiss Chard

The Swiss Chard belongs to the beet family and does well in warm and cool weather. It is a superfood containing nutrients like vitamins, C, K, minerals, and fibers.

Super Squash

Summer squashes are like composted soil and plenty of space and sunlight. One should plant them 3 to 6 feet apart in warm and plenty of soil. They require plenty of water at the soil level and not the leaves.

Conclusion

The above ten vegetables are some of the easiest ones one can grow in their home, though one research for more types or those which are liked but not covered in this article.