Good vegetables for a beginner?

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I've never grown vegetables before and thinking of doing so. Which are the best and most easy vegetables to grow? I will start off with these to build up my confidence, then move onto more difficult ones later. I appreciate any help or advice. Thank you.
 
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Tomatoes, chilli peppers and herbs. That is how I got started with vegetable gardening. They are easy to grow. There are so many threads on growing each of these here.
 
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If you live in the nothern hemisphere, then chances are you've missed many of the summer vegetables for this year, but you could still get yourself some lovely salad leaves, radishes if it's not too hot, you can just about get some dwarf beans in, and you are definitely early enough to sow spring cabbages, which are reasonably easy to grow.
Oh, and I'm getting my second crop potatoes in next week.

My advice would be, "Don't be too timid. Have a try at what you really want to grow. Take heart from the successes, learn from the failures."
 
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If you live in the nothern hemisphere, then chances are you've missed many of the summer vegetables for this year, but you could still get yourself some lovely salad leaves, radishes if it's not too hot, you can just about get some dwarf beans in, and you are definitely early enough to sow spring cabbages, which are reasonably easy to grow.
Oh, and I'm getting my second crop potatoes in next week.

My advice would be, "Don't be too timid. Have a try at what you really want to grow. Take heart from the successes, learn from the failures."


Isn't this the guy who doesn't think he's a real gardener? ;) I love your support and encouragement! I think you're a real gardener and a whole lot more!!! :)
 
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Try planting radishes, carrots and lettuce. They are easy to grow, and mature to harvest quickly. The success with these will encourage you to try the other suggestions here. Try different things. We planted kale, which I was not familiar with. It came up and tastes good the way my wife prepares it. I was surprised!
 
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Squash is excellent for beginners. Because its so productive and grows fast. The thing about garden is it requires patience, so immediate results are necessary for beginners.
 
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A general rule of thumb, is that if it's cheap to buy in your supermarket / local store, then this is for one of two reasons: Either it has a short harvest period (asparagus, strawberries, etc) or it is really easy to grow, like carrots, potatoes, lettuce.. I'd recommend starting with these, as not only are they easy, but they will taste so much different from the ones you buy in the shops, that you'll be inspired and motivated to try other vegetables, too.

When I first started out, I was obsessed with growing radishes and spring onions (I had packets that said they'd only take 6-8 weeks to harvest. I had so much of it, that I had to start giving it away because it was beginning to go off before I could eat it all! hehe. But I was so proud of myself for having too much produce, that I just wanted to grow even more..!
 
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Passingcat, every area is different when it comes to growing vegetables. I live in an area that is hot and sunny, so tomatos do pretty well but lettuce needs a great deal of water and it tends to taste bitter. Near the ocean, lettuce does very well but it is very hard to get a ripe tomato.

As for what will grow easily in your area, look at what the gardeners in your area grow. See what plants are found in most gardens: I suspect that they are popular among gardeners simply because they grow well and taste good. In my opinion, tht would be an excellent place to start!

It really is late in the year for some vegetables: corn, tomatos, and most squash need 100 days of growing season, more or less, to produce. Radishes and lettuce, on the other hand, may produce in as little as 6 weeks.
 
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... As for what will grow easily in your area, look at what the gardeners in your area grow. See what plants are found in most gardens: I suspect that they are popular among gardeners simply because they grow well and taste good. In my opinion, tht would be an excellent place to start!

Very true... I love to go and have a wander around the local allotments, see how everyone else is getting on. Everyone seems so friendly around there, too..always happy to have a chat and share advice.

Some say that peppers are really easy to grow (and thus good for beginners), but I have to disagree. I've never been able to grow them unless they're in my house. I've heard that they really can't tolerate changes, especially temperature. Whilst I do try to regulate the temperature in my greenhouse, our weather in Wales is so unpredictable that my pepper plants are usually dead / dying before I get a chance to do anything. They don't so much mind my windowsills though, as I live in an old house, it's very difficult to heat it up, but then it stays a regular temperature through every season for the same reason, so the peppers seem to thrive in here. :)

If anyone has any tips bout this, I'd be extremely grateful, and would love to hear them, as I love peppers too much just to give up on them completely. :confused:
 
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Very true... I love to go and have a wander around the local allotments, see how everyone else is getting on. Everyone seems so friendly around there, too..always happy to have a chat and share advice.

Some say that peppers are really easy to grow (and thus good for beginners), but I have to disagree. I've never been able to grow them unless they're in my house. I've heard that they really can't tolerate changes, especially temperature. Whilst I do try to regulate the temperature in my greenhouse, our weather in Wales is so unpredictable that my pepper plants are usually dead / dying before I get a chance to do anything. They don't so much mind my windowsills though, as I live in an old house, it's very difficult to heat it up, but then it stays a regular temperature through every season for the same reason, so the peppers seem to thrive in here. :)

If anyone has any tips bout this, I'd be extremely grateful, and would love to hear them, as I love peppers too much just to give up on them completely. :confused:

Peppers are easy if you are in the right area I think. They love full sun and they like the heat just not way too hot (I notice they don't like it when our temps get to 100 but if the temps average no higher then 80s to low 90s they do ok.) Tho they really do seem to like the 70s and low 80s best. They also do not like it too cold but will tolerate cooler temps at night as long as it is not freezing usually. At least that has been my experience here.

They also do not like to be over watered which is what made me think I lost mine this year with all the excessive rain we got, but once the soil started to dry out a little they started to look healthy again.
 
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Depending on where you live on what is easiest. In New Jersey I have found that peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers are easy to grow. Asparagus is easy too but I don't think you actually get anything for the first year or two with asparagus.

Tomatoes can be a little picky, but in NJ they grow quite easily with not much effort. My daughter's first plant was a green bean plant and it grew quite well (she was 4 and took care of it.) My first plants in my own garden were tomatoes and peppers.
 
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This is kind of a different suggestion, but you might have fun trying it. I was reading about vegetables that you can "re-grow", and one of them is a carrot. Once you have used the carrot, you plant the top, and t will grow again.
You will not get a whole new carrot, but you will get the carrot tops, which are wonderful in soups and salad, and if you let it grow, then it will flower, and go to seed, so you can save the carrot seeds to plant next year.
For something that we usually just throw away, planting it and growing something usable from that bit of veggie can be an interesting experiment for you.
 
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I think the best advice I ever got as a new gardener was to plant what you eat. It doesn't matter how easy and productive a zucchini plant is if you don't like zucchini! The most rewarding things to grow are the things that will end up as lovely, appetizing treats from your own plants, and it is great motivation for enduring the learning curve. Look at which of the vegetables you enjoy are grown in your area (easy to do - look around your local farmer's market) and start with those.
 
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Tomatoes have always been easy for me to grow. Especially the little cherry tomatoes. Those things just seem to thrive for me. Basil is another easy one.
 

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