Easy vegetables to grow
We've got ideas for what to plant for first-time vegetable gardeners. Get ready to dig in the dirt!
LET'S GROW: Radishes (clockwise from upper left), tomatoes, zucchini and squash are among the easiest vegetables to grow. (Photos: Radishes by The_Ewan/Flickr, zucchini by THE Holy Hand Grenade!/Flickr, squash by Robert Couse-Baker/Flickr, tomato by photon ℽ/Flickr) Comments
Holy cow people! Please realize that designating a fruit or a veggie is done so from a culinary perspective. Plus, its a veggie garden. Why go the extra length to call it my mostly veggie with some tomatoes/fruit garden? And remember, gardening is supposed to be fun! Leave the technicalities at the front door.
kale is easy to grow
i thought tomatoes were a fruit
Knowledge is knowing the tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting in your fruit salad.
I have peas growing in two containers and also in a raised bed in my veggie garden. You can plant them early in containers; St. Patrick's Day (March 17 in zone 6) is a good way to remember when to start them. It's an attractive plant with little white flowers before the pods form. Just give them some means of support so their tendrils have something to latch on to. By early June you will have some pods ready for picking. Easy and sweet.
The easiest ones we have found to grow in raised beds are two or three kinds of lettuce, parsley and salad onions.
if you have a backyard facing north and mostly shaded, not many veggies will grow. I've officially given up after years of trying.
Hang em! Lots of stuff will grow in "shade", indirect light. Try different colored containers, each color grows differently, I kid you not! I strung x-mas LED lights, red, white and blue, my oh my, how does my garden grow! People actually think I'm still celebrating x-mas?!? Go figure.
growing them in the front yard? Or does your community have an ordinance against that? (some do) Many vegetables look lovely in front beds and I see more and more landscaping that blends ornamental plants with produce.
Lettuce and spinach are a breeze to grow and can be raised in window boxes. The trick is to make sure that they don't get more than six hours of sun a day as the weather gets warmer, don't pick entire plants--just the bigger leaves as you need them, and water generously.
Tomatoes are a lot of fun, but are fussy about heat extremes (won't set fruit if temps are over 90 degrees), don't like to get their leaves wet (blight is NO FUN) and need full sun for at least six hours a day. If.... More
When I lived in Florida, we had fresh tomatoes long before anyone else but by the time other people were getting their first fruit set or picking their first ripe tomato of the year, our plants had long faded. Those heat extremes and the "noon monsoons" of Florida summer.
It drove me rather crazy when every blog and website on the internet posted fabulous looking fresh tomato recipes and all we could get were pathetic grocery store tomatoes.
Man, what a dizzying array of seasonal schedules, insect control details and sunlight measurements. I'll never think of the expression "simple farmer" the same way again.
tried planting in august. they still got the plants.
Please look up tomatoes as they are fruits. Yes borderline fruit but fruit non the less. Easy way to look it up is to pick up a dictionary. It will give you the fruit definition not vegetable. Plus can always ask a biologist.
Respectfully Desi
Do have a nice day!
It is a vegetable that is a fruit. Vegetable is NOT a scientific designation, but is a gastronomic one. So you can have a vegetable that is a fruit, biologically. So please look up the definition of vegetable, and you will see calling a tomato a vegetable is accurate.
Strawberries are really neither. They are a hybrid or pseudo fruit. But, I appreciate the article for what it is for.
The comment is correct
Beets, chard, tarragon, Savory, purslane, peppers. All can be grown in containers, window boxes/flower beds or earthboxes. Even on patios and balconies.
I'm planting beets along the steps going to my front door....zucchini & cukes off the side of my porch...*watch for some on your front porch!!! The first year I planted stuff in my front yard neighbors talked....but the next year guess who planted tomatoes in their front flower beds!! I'm using more huge pots to make my gardening easier on me....as raised growing beds since I have arthritis & fibromyalgia too. Strawberries are going in pop bottles hung from my deck and.... More
Beets, chard, tarragon, Savory, purslane, peppers. All can be grown in containers, window boxes/flower beds or earthboxes. Even on patios and balconies.
I can grow all kinds of exotics without chemicals in south Louisiana, but have never had succes with squash. I just found out that it's because I live next to a sugar cane field - when the cane fields are sprayed for critters, the sugar cane borer moves to my yard ... and bores into the vines of my squash. Grrrr!!
Squash vine borer. Use row covers to exclude the adults before they lay eggs.
Squash vine borer. Use row covers to exclude the adults before they lay eggs.
Parsley not only grows well but if you keep the roots in over the winter it comes back the next year! Tabouli anyone?
I have always had great luck with eggplant-I like the traditional Black Beauty but also like the Japanese variety-both have lovely puple flowers and are fun to watch as they develop -also very tasty in a many recipes
I heard that radishes don't like heat. I grew them two years ago when it was hot and all I got were hundreds of seeds as the plants just went to seed. Last year I started them early (around the time the ground thawed) and I got some, but I didn't replant them when it warmed up.
Dill is fairly easy to grow and give away.
Cherry tomatoes picked green just before the first frost put on the windowsill usually give me a couple ripened tomatoes daily until Dec 22nd (I've had 4-5 years of this.... More
I live in a townhouse and I'm hoping that I can grow vegetables and maybe even strawberries indoors? I have an area in my home that I believe would be perfect....a decent amount of space and great lighting. I just don't know where to begin!! Help! What should I do/purchase first? I know this question may be too general, but I'm hoping that someone can point me in the right direction.
Strawberries, tomatoes and any edible that flowers typically need to be polinated. Easiest to let mother nature and her bees do this.
Tomatoes are easy to fertilize which is why they are so often grown in greenhouses. Their pollen is wind borne (in greenhouses they generally use fans). If you don't get much a breeze in your garden, all you have to do is grasp the "trunk" and give the plant a gentle shake.
Last weekend I helped a friend do exactly what you describe. I put the details in my easy condo gardening blog, but cnn probably wouldn't like it if I gave you the address. The first thing you need is lightweight plastic pots. We bought some for a reasonable cost at Lowe's. They have the soil you need in bags. It's Mel's Mix, used for square foot gardening. While you are there, find a copy of the Square Foot Gardening book. It if full of easy to follow directions. Don't be put off by.... More
Tomatoes don't climb. They need to be tied to whatever trellis you use.
You plant it in the fall under thick straw, overwinter and harvest the next year.
Soak seeds for 24 hours completely submerged. I use a plastic milk jug I cleaned out. Drain then rinse the seeds. Let them sit damp for another 24 hours. I then plant them in a large terra cotta planter in potting soil. After filling the planter with a fair amount of soil (2 inches or so from the top) I generously lay the seeds atop the soil and then cover with a 1/2 inch of remaining potting soil. Air, H2O and a little sun when the green leaves emerge. Seven days "or so" later voila! More.... More
Basil, rosemary, thai peppers (the little red peppers), strawberries, cucumbers. We've planted all of these things and more in our courtyard, and did nothing but water it once or twice a week. Barely any care required at all, just tug out the obvious weeds and it grows itself. If you have problems with pests, ladybugs do the trick. If *I* can do it, anyone can do it.
I never tried this but I heard of a good bug repellent. Take a bulb (not clove) of garlic, chop it and put in processor with 1 cup of water. Then add to one gallon of water. Spray everything with this and supposedly the bugs will keep off and the rabits and deer will stay away too.
You can do the processer thing and a gallon of water with an onion too.
Blend it up and strain it and spray it on the garden.
I put garlic, fresh jalapeno, vegetable oil, cayenne pepper, and water in a blender and puree. Strain well, maybe two or three times, because it is going in a spray bottle, then add a few drops of liquid dish detergent and more water. I understand that certain bugs don't like pepper heat (jalapeno and cayenne), garlic is a natural bug deterrent, they don't like the stickiness of the oil, nor do they like the soapiness of the detergent. So far it's been working on my vegetables.
Gorgeous and delicious! Save some to harvest after a couple of fall frosts, because the starches to to sugars and make the greens all the sweeter. Collards work this way also, but they take a long time to cook so we're now skipping them.
Champagne Collards
2 tsp olive oil heated in sauté pan, add chopped green onions, sauté until slightly browned, add 1 tsp smoked paprika (or regular) stir to coat onions, add ½ cup leftover champagne or white wine and immediately add 2 or 3cups chopped collard greens. Cover for about 2 minutes, stir and add salt and pepper to taste then cover for another minute or two. Stir and serve hot.
I use a tripod along side a fence and get tons of pole beans later in the summer.
I have killed more basil than a person should be allowed. Despite this, word on the street is that it is easy to grow. What do you think?
it is easy, too much water will kill it, temps at 40 or below, other than that, sun or shade moderate to high temps, it should grow into a big bush by summer. I'll bet your problem is too much water.
Too much water certainly could be the problem. Does it prefer partial shade as opposed to only sun?
I kill basil and mint of all things. Actually, it's not really me killing it. I have something that eats the hell out of both of those items. My mint is finally growing after 2 years of eat off from some worm though it's very sporadic. And, my basil dies every year to something eating it. I think i'm going to quit planting it in the garden and just go with it as a hearty potted plant instead.
I always grow basil with my tomatoes. Not only does it mean that when you harvest the tomatoes, you can grab a handful of basil at the same time, but it also helps to deter pests from the tomatoes.
I have found that basil does not like the wind,so keep it in a sheltered position. It also likes the warmth, so if possible, keep it in a greenhouse or a sunny, sheltered position.
.... More
I had no idea basil could help deter pests. Like years past, I have nothing to loose and will try again. My tomato plant would love the company.
In NwOhio I find Basil a challenge to grow. It starts out great then it takes off too quickly to use it up, or it dies when I trimm off the flowers. Not one of my personal favs in the garden, but love to have it around!
