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In the last year many people have turned to gardening as a way to grow food on their own. But if you are a new gardener, you probably don’t want to make your new gardening experience over complicated. The best way to do this is to find the easiest fruits and vegetables to grow in your garden.
Growing these fruits and vegetables will help keep your garden maintenance low as you begin to learn the basics of gardening. When you first start gardening, there is going to be much to learn. So keeping things low maintenance is important as you start your gardening experience. But even when aiming for the easy vegetables and fruits to grow you find you still have tons of options and variety you can have in your new garden.
If you don’t have a yard for a plot of land for a garden and are making a container garden, we also have a list of the best vegetables to grow in a container garden.
Related Reading: Fast Growing Garden Vegetables You Can Grow
The Easiest Vegetables To Grow In The Garden
Potatoes
Potatoes are one of my favorite things to grow and I grow tons of them in the ground and in grow bags. You can even grow potatoes easily in a 5 gallon bucket, just make sure it has holes to drain well and the soil isn’t too compact.
You can grow potatoes either from seed potatoes or even grow them from left over kitchen scraps, like sprouted potatoes that you would otherwise throw out.
How To Grow Potatoes in Your Backyard Garden
Companion Plants for Potatoes
Onions
Onions are planted in early spring. Depending on the type of onion harvest times will vary. Scallions can be harvested a few weeks after planting. For full sized onions then you need to let the bulbs grow for a longer period of time. But these are very easy to grow and don’t take too much from your time dealing with all the other parts of your garden.
Green Beans
Green beans are a great vegetable to add to your garden. They make great companion plants for many other vegetables by helping add nitrogen to the soil. And you can have tons of green beans just from a few plants. There are many different types of green beans you can choose from too.
The most time consuming thing with green beans for me has been getting the Japanese Beetles off them during the mornings.
Zucchini
Zucchini is a member of the squash family, and is a staple in many gardens. Make sure they get at least 6 hours of sun and give the plant a good amount of room to grow.
If you want to get plenty of zoodles for the summertime then this is the right crop to grow.
How to Grow Zucchini in a Pot
Companion Plants for Zucchini
Radishes
Radishes are one of the early crops you can plant in your garden. And they grow fast in the cool spring weather.
Radishes will be ready to harvest in only about a month after you plant your seeds. Another great bonus of this easy to grow crop is that they do great in partial sun, so if you have a spot that doesn’t get the full sunlight during the day and you just didn’t know what to plant there, radishes may be what you are looking for.
Companion Plants for Radishes
Bell Peppers
Bell peppers are a very popular vegetable in gardens. Its best to mulch the soil around your pepper plants to help keep the soil moist. Just make sure to water them regularly during the growing season.
Jalapenos
I was sold a “bell pepper” plant one year, it wasn’t bell peppers, it was a jalapeno plant. We don’t each much spice in our house so I really didn’t tend to the plant at all. That plant produced jalapenos like crazy, with barley anything extra done except watering and the plant food that all our garden plants get.
Cucumbers
Cucumbers grow great in containers or in a regular garden. Just make sure to have something for the vine to grow on like a trellis. There are some bush varieties, but the most popular cucumbers are the ones that grow on a vine.
Tomatoes
A vegetable garden wouldn’t be complete without tomatoes. Tomatoes are the gateway vegetable to gardening. Many new gardeners start dipping their toes into growing their own food because they got a tomato plant.
They are one of the most versatile vegetable plants to grow. You can grow them in a pot, hanging upside down, or in the ground.
Top Tips for Growing Tomatoes in Containers
Companion Plants for Tomatoes
Squash
Just like zucchini, squash is another very popular vegetable to grow in the garden. And it’s is very easy to get a great harvest from each plant. Put it in a sunny spot, give them a good amount of room to grow with well-drained soil. If you are worried about pollination, you can get your own pollinator and do the bee’s job.
Lettuce
Lettuce is another one of those easily grown crops that you can have many varieties to choose from. Some of the most popular are Romaine or Iceberg, but you can also get many other kinds like Buttercrunch or Green Ice. This is also another vegetable you can grow from scraps.
The Easiest Fruits To Grow In The Garden
Strawberries
Strawberries grow like a weed. In fact if you are growing these in your garden you might want to make sure they are in their own container. If not you may find your strawberry plant taking everything over. But they grow very easily and you can get the kind that you harvest in June, ones that have strawberries throughout the summer, or ones that have a few peak periods during the season.
You will be amazed at how much better your homegrown strawberries will taste over the store bought ones.
Blackberries
Blackberries grow on a bush. These can be planted many places that are out of the way, and not have to take up space directly in your garden area.
We have 2 big blackberry bushes on the hilly part of our yard, it’s not somewhere where we really want to fuss with trying to manage a garden area due to the incline. But the blackberry bushes love it there.
The blackberry bushes don’t need too much attention, the first year you won’t get much out of them. But the second year after planting the bush they take off and give delicious berries. You will need to give the stems some support and make sure to top off the large center stem so the bush doesn’t grow too high to where it can’t support itself.
Apples
Apple trees will produce apples for years. There are many kinds you can choose from, and after the initial year, like many trees, you just let it be a tree. No fuss, just go get your apples when it’s producing fruit.