Fruits and vegetables are an essential part of everyone’s diet, but they can be expensive and hard to come by in some places. Whether you’re trying to enrich your meals, save money, or help the planet, growing fruits and veggies at home is an excellent idea. There are many foods beginners can grow, too.
The easiest fruits and vegetables to grow include tomatoes, bell peppers, carrots, green beans, and radishes. You’ll also find strawberries, raspberries, peas, and onions to be quite easy to grow under the right conditions. All you need is soil, fertilizer, and enough space for the roots to expand.
Throughout this article, you’ll also learn the following information about which fruits and vegetables are easy to grow:
- A list of numerous plants you can grow at home without a problem
- Why you should choose easy fruits and vegetables to start your garden
- Tips to improve the results of your plants
Tomatoes
According to Garden Tech, tomatoes are some of the easiest plants to grow. Sun-grown tomatoes are fresh, plump, and delicious. You can grow them in pots or soil in the ground. They need plenty of sunlight and warmth, so feel free to use mulch or dense fertilizer to prevent heat from escaping the roots.
Tomatoes should be buried up to their stems when you’re planting seedlings. Give them a couple of inches on all sides so the vines can expand.
Strawberries
Strawberries are also quite simple to grow because they don’t need too much space. As long as you can provide enough hydration and sunlight, your strawberries will be amazing. Don’t pull them from the plant until they’re deep red. Most strawberries are white or light green until they ripen.
You can grow strawberries in pots, but it’s best to transfer them into the ground if you want them to grow more fruit.
Bell Peppers
Growing bell peppers at home adds tremendous flavor. You’ve probably had hundreds of store-bought bell peppers, but they’re nothing like the bold, juicy taste you’ll get from homegrown peppers.
Start by growing them in a pot or egg crate, burying the seeds about an inch below the soil. Once they sprout above the surface, transplant them into pots, 5-gallon buckets, or soil.
Carrots
Carrots take a few months to grow, but you can quickly grow seeds. Plant them in the ground, water the soil, and wait until the tops grow up to an inch, then pull them from the ground. Depending on the variety, your carrots can grow between four to nine inches or more.
Note: Don’t forget to try orange, purple, and yellow carrots!
Onions
Rural Sprout suggests giving every onion several inches apart from the next since they grow quite large. Homegrown onions are full of flavor, and the acidity is affected by the soil’s pH. You can change the pH if you want acidic, flavorful onions, but don’t go too low, or they won’t sprout roots.
Radishes
Radishes are known as some of the best vegetables for beginners and young gardeners. If you want to get your child interested in gardening, steer them toward radishes. Plant them in the soil about 1.5 inches below the surface, water them regularly, and pick them when they’re ripe around four weeks later.
Green Beans
Green beans are relatively easy to grow, but there’s a simple trick you can use to prevent rot and disease: Never water the leaves; Focus on the soil. Green beans have sensitive leaves that can become diseased if they’re moist for too long. Other than that, green beans grow quickly and provide bold flavor for your dishes.
You can grow green beans in gardening pots or let them turn into massive bushes for a bigger yield.
Potatoes
If you have a wide plot, you can grow quite a few potatoes. Cut the potato seed segments in half, put them about six inches under the soil, and space them twelve inches away from the next potato. Water them daily for the best results. Potatoes often take up to three months to grow, but you can grow as many as you’d like without ruining the soil.
Zucchini
Zucchinis are known to grow to be several pounds when people plant them at home. Store-bought zucchini doesn’t have the proper growing regulations, so they stay between six to twelve inches. However, when you grow zucchini in healthy soil, they can get up to fifteen inches or more. Live Eat Learn explains the largest zucchini was over seven feet long!
Apples
Apples are some of the most popular fruits because they’re crisp, delicious, and plentiful. One apple tree can grow hundreds of fruits each year. The only downside of growing apple trees is they usually take about five to ten years to fruit. You can purchase and plant grown apple trees to expedite the process, though. Once you try a homegrown apple, you’ll never get one at the store.
Garlic
Planting Garlic is easy to grow because it doesn’t require much room. You can plant one garlic clove, water it, add fertilizer, and watch it sprout between five to ten cloves. Plant dozens of garlic cloves in spring, or start in fall to let them absorb as many nutrients as possible. Once it bulges through the surface, you can pick the garlic.
Raspberries
Raspberries are delicious and colorful, but did you know you can grow them in your yard? Birds and insects love raspberries, so make sure you pick them as soon as they’re bright red. The same rules apply to blackberries. Both fruits grow on a bush, so make sure there’s enough room for a six-by-six-foot area. Also, don’t plant raspberry bushes under trees; They need lots of sunshine.
Cucumbers
You can grow cucumbers in containers, but they thrive when they have plenty of space. They’re not the best choice for people with a small backyard, but you can grow tons of cucumbers without very much effort if you have a large area. Many farmers and at-home gardeners recommend growing cucumbers on a trellis or fence since it promotes ventilation, sunlight exposure and stretches the vines.
Squash
If you want to grow other types of squash aside from zucchini, you can follow a combination of recommendations for zucchini and cucumber. For example, squash grows very well on a fence for the previously mentioned reasons. You can plant squash seeds every twelve inches, but make sure they’re buried under about two inches of fertilizer and soil. Squash can get quite large, so pick them before they fall off of the plant.
Peas
Peas are quite versatile. You can grow them on a fence, in a pot, or in soil on the ground. They need ample sunlight, but only for a few hours per day. Since they don’t have massive roots, peas fare well in small plots. You can grow them in a tiny garden and harvest numerous vibrant green pea pods in about two months.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to grow your favorite fruits and vegetables, you can make a plot and start gardening. Homegrown plants taste much better since they’re locally sourced and free of pesticides and herbicides. You’ll save plenty of money and enjoy the fruits of your labor (no pun intended).
Here’s a quick recap of the post:
- Green beans, carrots, and radishes are excellent choices for beginners.
- Apple trees take a long time to grow but require very little maintenance.
- Many vegetables grow quicker than fruits.
- Ensure your plants are growing during the correct season.
If you are looking for other gardening ideas check out 9 Different Types of Gardening That Are Great