We have put together the 5 easiest vegetables for an inexperienced gardener to grow, with step by step process to help beginners. Not only are these easy to grow they are typically vegetables that children will like to eat to get them started growing a garden. I will provide several varieties for each vegetable to give you several to choose from.
Easiest Tomatoes to grow
Tomatoes need a sunny area that allows the tomato plant lots of room usually 3-5′ to spread out, plants should be planted in the garden after the last frost. and all of these varieties need to be staked or caged to support the plants when loaded with tomatoes. See soil preparation under our best tomatoes to grow article. Water once a week to provide deep watering and prevent diseases.
Sungold
Sungold tomato is a small snack or salad size tomato that is easy to grow and produces loads of tomatoes. The flavor is sweet, juicy, and produces clusters of golden-colored tomatoes early in the season through the first frost. Great tomato for children to grow and disease resistant.
Bloody Butcher
Bloody Butcher is a tomato that is smaller than a slicer and larger than a cherry that grows in clusters. This is one of the earliest and most flavor-filled tomatoes, deep red in color and easy to grow, produces a large number of tomatoes throughout the season, and is disease resistant.
Prairie Fire
Prairie Fire is an elongated cherry size tomato that has a unique color with red and orange stripes that is one of the sweetest and juicy tomatoes available. This tomato produces a huge volume of tomatoes and is an early producing tomato that continues to produce throughout the season. Easy to grow but can split if watered overhead so be careful to water at the base of the plant.
Celebrity
Celebrity is a slicing tomato that is early season, produces a high volume of tomatoes and throughout the season. I chose this tomato for it’s flavor and disease resistance as well as easy to grow.
Easiest Beans to grow
Beans need a sunny spot that you can grow in rows to be steaked up and string attached to allow the pole varieties to grow up, for bush beans you will not need to steak them up. Plant in late spring once soil has warmed up for best results.
Blue Lake Bush Beans
This is a classic bean that is compact in bush form or you can purchase in pole variety as well. It is one of the earliest beans and produces nice green bean that is full of flavor.
Royal Burgandy
This is a bean that not only tastes great but adds beautiful purple color to your garden. It has a great purple color and when cooked turns a brilliant green. This is a pole variety that is fun for children to grow.
Gold Rush
Gold Rush is a golden yellow-colored bean that adds color to the garden in the bush variety. It is full of flavor and holds it’s yellow color after cooking. It is also disease resistant and is one of the early bean varieties.
Easiest Carrots to grow
Carrot seeds can be planted directly in the garden in early spring in rows where they have plenty of deep loose soil to allow the carrots to grow well.
Carrots
Napoli
This carrot is bright orange growing 7-8″ and is an early spring variety, it is a mild yet juicy and crunchy carrot that is a great one for children to grow and eat.
Caracas
This carrot is a stubby carrot 4-5″ long and chubby. It has good flavor and is easy to harvest and has 45 days to harvest one of the shortest. It is a favorite to use in the kitchen to steam or roast.
Kaleidoscope carrots.
These are 3 colored yellow, orange and purple carrots that will be a hit with everyone, you can usually buy the mixed seeds (yellow bunch, sugarsnax, and purple elite). They are typically 7-8″ long favorable and colorful carrots.
Easiest Cucumbers to grow
Cucumbers seeds or plants should be planted after the last frost once the soil has warmed up, and nighttime temperatures are warming. I suggest you wait on planting them until late spring or early summer for best results and they should be planted where they get lots of sun and trellised for the best result.
Diva
This is a snack-size cucumber that is not bitter and great for kids since it is smaller and has a very sweet flavor. The plant produces a good volume of cucumbers throughout the summer and into the fall with few issues of disease. This cucumber is great to snack on right out of the garden.
Lemon
The lemon cucumber is one of the older cucumbers around and is known for its round shape and yellow color looking like a lemon. The flavor is very juicy and mild and is not bitter. Great to snack on right out of the garden.
Manny
Manny is a cucumber that is slender, crunchy, and spineless which makes it easy to serve without peeling the skin. It does best when growing up a trellis and is one of the earlier cucumbers.
Easiest Peas to grow
Sugar Daddy snap
This is a self-supporting plant that produces peas without stringiness, the pods are tender and sweet and great to eat alone as well as in salads or stir-fries.
Alaska Early peas
This pea is a shelling pea that the plant will need support since they tend to grow 4 feet tall and produces an abundance of peas. The peas can be eaten raw or cooked, they have a great flavor and can also be used to make split pea soup.
Maestro
This produces a large volume of peas per pod usually containing 8-9 peas each. The plant usually needs support but grows to 2′ tall. It is one of the highest volume pea plants.
Oregon Sugar
This pea grows to 3 feet tall and will need support. The pods are sweet and tender to eat and can be eaten right from the garden or enjoyed in stir-fries or salads. It is best to plant rows every 2-3 weeks to keep you well-stocked.
Planting schedule
Peas are the first to start since they can be planted in early spring or even late winter so that you can enjoy come late spring and early summer.
Carrots are also a first to start since they can be planted in early spring or late winter, you can harvest usually after 55-65 days and continue to harvest.
Tomatoes are the next to plant after the last frost has occurred in your area. Some of these tomatoes will produce fruit by the beginning of July to enjoy on the 4th of July others will take a little longer arriving in late July.
Cucumbers and Beans are the last to be planted since they are sensitive to cold temperatures, but they can be started in a greenhouse to get an early start to the growing season, if you go this route be sure to harden the young plants off before planting in your garden.
These are just a few of the easier plants to start your gardening experience with, if you find others vegetables that you find are not only easy to grow but taste great please forward me your suggestions to share with others.
