The 10 easiest veggies to grow at home

If you’re a new or beginner gardener, the vegetables that you choose to plant can have a huge effect on whether or not you succeed. Some vegetables spring out of the ground, seem to thrive on neglect and are quick to yield a harvest. While others can seem to be so needy and fragile that the slightest deviation from ideal conditions can cause them to keel over and die in the blink of an eye. When you’re beginning your gardening journey, it’s important to choose varieties that germinate easily, grow quickly and readily produce a harvest. 

Radish – Germinates super quickly, can be grown most of the year, except for the hottest months in warm climates. Come in a crazy array of colours and shapes. Great veggie to grow with kids. Harvest in only 4 weeks

Pro Tip – Water regularly to avoid woody, bitter roots and err on the side of harvesting too soon rather than too late. 

Lettuce – Seed is cheap and plentiful, germinates and grows quickly. Look for varieties that don’t form a head like Oak Leaf or Butterhead, that way you can harvest from your lettuce when you need it, just make sure to harvest the outer leaves and never more than a third at a time.

Pro Tip:  Make sure you water your lettuces frequently to encourage rapid growth and to avoid bitter fibrous leaves. 

Cherry Tomato – Every home grower wants tomatoes in their patch. As a rule of thumb, the larger the fruit of a tomato variety, the harder it is to grow, that’s why I ALWAYS have Cherry Tomatoes in my patch. They grow quickly, fruit abundantly and taste amazing. Bonus points because Cherry Tomatoes will often naturalise and pop up of their own accord in your garden after your first season growing them

Pro Tip: Stake your tomatoes to keep the fruit off the ground, take advantage of vertical space and to increase airflow around the plant.

Zucchini – A must for every grower, beginner or advanced. I recommend zucchinis for beginners though as they are easy to germinate, grow readily and produce literal bucket loads of delicious produce. 

Pro tip:  Make sure that you harvest your zucchinis when they are about 15cm long, and to harvest regularly. If you leave your zucchinis unattended in your patch, you’ll come out after 7 days and find that tiny little zucchini that you forgot to harvest has turned into marrow the size of a man’s arm!

Silverbeet/Rainbow Chard – A dependable favourite, tough, prolific and once established, hard to kill. Silverbeet is the only plant in the patch that seems to thrive on neglect. 

Pro tip: Harvest silverbeet regularly to encourage new growth, just make sure you harvest the outer leaves first and never harvest more than ⅓ of the leaves at a time.

Spring Onion – Easy to germinate and very low maintenance to grow. Spring Onions are the easiest member of the onion family to grow and can be grown year round in most Australian climates.

Pro tip: You can grow spring onion from seed, seedling, or you can plant the roots from the ones that you bought from the supermarket. Just make sure the roots and the bottom of the stem are all intact thenplace them in a small cup of water so just the roots are submerged. Place the cup on a sunny windowsill, change the water every couple of days, and once the stem starts to resprout, you can transplant the Spring Onion to your garden

Parsley – An essential for anyone that loves to cook as much as they love to garden. Parsley is super hardy and low maintenance. I like to plant it all through my garden as an edible ornamental, so that there’s always some parsley on hand when I need it in the kitchen.

Pro Tip – Parsley can take a while to germinate, so be patient and keep the soil moist if you’re growing from seed. I also like to let me parsley seed before I remove it from my patch. Loads of pollinators and beneficial insects love the flowers, and the seeds fall, land in the garden and can pop up by themselves next time.

Beans – Easy to germinate and quick to grow, beans are a perfect inclusion in the beginner’s garden. Beans come in either a bush or climbing form. Bush beans can be grown without support, whereas climbing beans will need a trellis or stake to climb.

Pro Tip: Harvest beans regularly to make sure that they are tender, crisp and flavoursome. I like to harvest my beans daily when they’re firing. 

Snow peas – A perfect beginner crop for the cooler months. Just like beans, snow peas are easy to germinate, grow quickly and love to climb. 

Pro Tip: Even though it’s a cool season crop, don’t plant in the dead of winter. I like to put my snow peas in in early to mid autumn, or early spring.

Kale – Another perfect cool season crop for the beginner gardener. More resistant to pest attack than other members of the brassica family, it loves cold weather, can be harvested from repeatedly and for an extended period.

Pro Tip: Avoid planting over the warmer months. If cabbage white butterflies (often incorrectly identified as cabbage moths) are a big problem in your patch, protect your kale with insect mesh.