Easy Vegetables to Grow for Gardening Beginners

The last couple of years have seen an enormous boost in interest in gardening. Maybe it’s because we’re stuck at home more often, or we want to be more frugal with spending, but people are quick to consider growing greens.  Unfortunately, many realize a month or two in that gardening is more complicated than that.  Whether they recognize how finicky pepper plants can be or lose a crop of pumpkins to a hot summer: it can be disheartening to fail.

Instead of struggling through uncertain veggie growth, here are the top plants any beginner can grow on their first try:

• Tomatoes
  • Time to grow: three to six months
  • Light needed: at least six hours of full sunlight
  • Attention needed: moderate

If your search for St. Albert homes for sale* has paid off and you finally have a yard of your own, it’s time to join in with the number one homegrown crop!  Tomatoes are incredibly resilient and heavily fruiting plants.  You can grow them in nearly any climate as long as you get at least five warm months out of the year.  These plants need plenty of water, but they give back more than you give them!  There’s a reason more tomatoes are grown by homeowners than by commercial companies.

• Cucumber
  • Time to grow: two to three months
  • Light needed: at least five hours of full sunlight
  • Attention needed: minimal

Cucumbers grow quickly and abundantly.  Like any other vegetable that extends from a flower, cucumbers need a lot of direct sunlight and moist soil.  Although you can get away with five hours of full daylight, they prefer to sit in the sun for the entire day.  If you live in a hotter area, like the South West, you can shade them in the afternoon to keep them from burning in the sun.

• Spinach
• Time to grow: six weeks
• Light needed: minimal or early morning sunlight
• Attention needed: minimal

Spinach is another simple vegetable to grow, but it pays off with how much you get to eat.  Although it needs very damp soil, spinach is happy in moderate light.  If you have a window that gets only morning sunlight, you can even grow spinach in a long and narrow window pot.  This is an excellent plant for apartment dwellers and homeowners alike!

• Green Onion
  • Time to grow: two weeks
  • Light needed: minimal
  • Attention needed: minimal

This vegetable is the easiest on this list!  If you buy green onions from the store, snip off all of the green, and leave the white root.  You can then place this knob in a narrow container and pour water up half of the length.  When it grows, continue to change out its water, always keeping the white roots covered.  Within two weeks, you’ll have fully grown green onions ready to be eaten again!  You can repeat this process two to three times before you should buy another set of green onions, but this lengthens the lifespan of this tasty veggie and ensures you always have fresh green onions on hand!

*This article is supported by Redfin.