More than ever, people are wanting to start their own backyard gardens! Gardening is one of my favourite hobbies and it’s so rewarding. Just like any hobby, it takes time and patience to learn how to produce a healthy crop! Here is my list of easy vegetables to grow in your backyard garden!
If you’re a complete beginner to gardening, I wrote this post that goes over all the basics!
When it comes to which easy vegetables to grow in your backyard garden, that depends on several factors such as your gardening zone, and how much sun your backyard garden receives. For a more in depth review on these factors, head over to this post. But let’s review the basics:
Gardening Zone:
Your gardening zone has to do with your climate and where you live. I live in zone 3/4 which is a cold climate with a very short growing season. So the vegetables that will grow easily in my climate are going to be very different than what grows easily in Southern California (zone 9/10).
That doesn’t mean that if you live in California, you can’t grow cool weather crops like beets and lettuce, it just means you’ll want to plant them in the spring and fall, instead of in the heat of the summer!
Find your gardening zone here:
SUN EXPOSURE
It’s important to keep in mind the sun exposure that your backyard garden receives! If your garden is in a shaded area, you’re not going to find that tomatoes or peppers are easy vegetables to grow. However, if your garden gets full sun your tomato or pepper plants will thrive!
EASY VEGETABLES TO GROW
Keeping in mind that everyone has a different experience based on climate, rain, sun exposure, etc these are what I consider easy vegetables to grow!
LETTUCE
Any type of lettuce, or leafy green is incredibly low maintenance in your backyard garden!
Lettuce grows quickly from seed, is tolerant to frost and doesn’t generally attract pests. I love planting it every few weeks so that I have a consistent harvest of lettuce throughout the summer!
If you live in a warm climate, you’ll be able to grow lettuce into the fall and maybe even through the winter!
SPINACH
Spinach is similar as lettuce in that it grows quickly from seed and is tolerant to frost!
I also love that spinach can be frozen and used in smoothies or other recipes months after you harvest it!
ZUCCHINI
Zucchini is one of the most rewarding and easy vegetables to grow for a new gardener! It quickly grows into a massive plant with yellow flowers!
If your zucchini isn’t producing fruit, it may be because the flowers aren’t being pollinated. Often zucchini flowers will need to be pollinated by hand if there aren’t enough bees in your backyard garden!
By the end of the summer, you’ll have more zucchini than you know what to do with!
BEETS
Beets are a crop that thrive in cool weather, or in a semi-shady spot! They’re easy to start from seed directly in the soil and they’ll even grow well in a deep planter box!
I find beets to be one of the easiest plant to grow in my climate!
BEANS
Beans are just one of those foods that taste 100x better when you snack on them straight from the garden!
They grow quickly from seed and can be grown up a trellis, sunflower stalk or bamboo pole if you’re limited on space!
TOMATOES
Tomatoes are a staple easy vegetable to grow in your backyard garden!
They might sound more complicated, but they are very resilient! If you’re still working on your green thumb, buy an established tomato plant at a local greenhouse and transplant it into your garden.
Tomatoes love warm weather and lots of sunshine! Larger varieties will likely need a tomato cage or trellis.
There are over 10,000 varieties of tomatoes, so you’ll be able to find one you love!
RHUBARB
Rhubarb is best acquired if you have a friend with a rhubarb plant! It comes back as a perrenial every year and grows to be very large!
I’d guarantee that anyone with an established rhubarb plant would be happy to share! Once you have a rhubarb plant, you’ll likely have it for life!
Rhubarb pie, jam and crisp are summer staples!
RADISHES
Radishes are the only easy vegetable to grow that I haven’t personally tried! But I hear that they are completely fuss free and perfect for the beginner.
Their growth cycle is very quick so they’ll likely be one of the first things you get to harvest from your garden!
MINT
Some gardeners consider mint to be a weed because it grows and reproduces so fast! It’s best to plant your mint in it’s own pot so it doesn’t take over your garden.
There are so many different types of mint such as chocolate mint, lavender mint, spearmint and peppermint. It can be harvested all summer long!
CHIVES
Chives are another herb that some people consider a weed! They’ll even thrive in low quality soil.
You can pick chives all summer to add to salads, sauces, or even breads. At the end of the season you can freeze the leftover to use throughout the winter!
SUNFLOWER
Ok, not a vegetable although sunflower seeds are edible! But what garden is complete without sunflowers?
Not to mention that their bright colour attracts bees and other pollinators to your garden which is good for vegetables such as zucchini!
Sunflowers are one of the easiest things you’ll ever grow! Plant a seed in any soil in early spring, water it a handful of times (or just completely forget about it) and in 3-4 months you’ll have stunning flowers that can be 8+ feet tall!
That’s it for what I believe to be easy vegetables to grow in your backyard garden! Just because something didn’t make my list, doesn’t mean you can’t grow it. With a little bit of research and practice you can grow even more difficult vegetables!
I hope you enjoy your garden this year whether it’s your first gardening season or your tenth!
