Best Plants for Beginner Gardeners

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Choosing the Best Plants for Beginner Gardeners

If you’re just starting your garden for the first time, you don’t want to set yourself up for failure by choosing plants that are difficult to grow. Instead, select some of these best plants for beginner gardeners so you can enjoy all the amazing benefits of gardening.

Start With Your Garden Planner

If you’re new to gardening, you don’t want to waste time and money tossing seeds or seedlings into the ground and hoping for the best. You want a thriving garden that will help feed you and your family right from the start!

That’s why you need to get this printable garden planner.

Planning your garden correctly from the start is the secret to successful growing year after year. This is the exact garden planner I use to grow so much fresh food, I have enough to feed my family AND give food to friends and neighbors.

Once you pick up your own garden planner, you’re ready to start growing some of these best vegetable plants for beginner gardeners!

1. Summer Squash

Summer squash has two main varieties that are both some of the best plants for beginner gardeners: zucchini and yellow squash.

Both varieties are known for growing quickly and being abundant producers. That’s why summer squash is also one of the best vegetables for a quick harvest.

They’re very hardy, relatively resistant to disease and insects, and simply require regular watering.

2. Peppers

Peppers are a great plant for beginner gardeners because they don’t need much in the way of care or maintenance, they don’t have many pests that like to bother them, and you’ll find an incredible variety of options out there.

Related: The Best Organic Weed Killers

Whether you decide to grow spicy habanero chile peppers or sweet bell peppers, just make sure your plant gets plenty of sunlight and it will happily produce a nice crop for you to enjoy.

3. Radishes

Radishes are one of the best plants for beginner gardeners because they’re ready to harvest in just a few weeks. In fact, this type of radish can go from seed to plate in just 25 days!

Related: How Long Do Seeds Last?

Not only are radishes quick and easy to grow, but they’re also versatile. You can slice them into a salad, serve them as an appetizer, use them in a side dish, or simply snack on them. Plus, don’t forget that radish leaves are also edible.

4. Green Beans

My son absolutely loves to grow green beans in his children’s garden because they’re so simple to take care of.

There are two main types of green beans you can grow: pole beans and bush beans. Pole beans grow on vines, so you’ll need some type of trellis for them to climb. Bush beans stay pretty compact, but they typically don’t produce as much as pole beans.

No matter which one you select, you’ll enjoy a plant that produces plenty of fresh beans to eat. Plus, if you end up with a big crop, green beans also freeze well.

5. Tomatoes

There’s a reason why practically every garden you see has at least one tomato plant. They’re one of the best vegetables to plant in summer because they like the heat, they’re easy to grow, and they’re prolific.

Certain types of tomatoes are also very drought-tolerant, which is an important feature to look for if you often have hot, dry summers.

Plus, once you taste a tomato straight from the vine (after washing it, of course) you’ll never want to buy them from the grocery store again.

The easiest tomatoes to grow are disease-resistant and determinate, which means the plant grows to a certain height, produces a bunch of fruit, and then stops.

Once you have more experience gardening, you can then try indeterminate tomatoes, which grow and produce fruit all season, as well as semideterminate tomatoes, which produce a main crop that ripens at once and then continues to produce a smaller crop until the first frost.

No matter which one you decide to grow, don’t forget to get a tomato cage to offer your plant the support it needs when it’s loaded down with fruit.

6. Potatoes

Gardzen 6 Pack BPA-Free 10 Gallon Vegetable Grow Bags with Access Flap and Handles, Suitable for Planting Potato, Taro, Beets, Carrots, Onions, Peanut

If you want to grow your own potatoes, you don’t have to worry about planting seeds. Instead, get a potato tuber that has a few quarter-inch buds growing on it. Cut the potato into sections with at least one bud on each section. Store these sections inside at room temperature for 48 to 72 hours.

When you’re ready to plant your potatoes, you can grow them in rows in an in-ground or raised-bed garden. They also do great in 10-gallon grow bags.

Bury the potato sections 2 to 4 inches under the dirt and water them as needed. When it’s time to harvest, it’s like your own scavenger hunt as you dig under the dirt to see what you can find!

7. Strawberries

Red and Yellow Wonder Blend Strawberry Seeds

Perfectly ripe strawberries that you grow yourself are even sweeter than the ones you buy at the grocery store. Keep this plant in a sunny spot in your garden and you’ll enjoy a delicious treat that’s easy to grow throughout the summer.

Even better, these strawberries are perennial plants in warmer areas, and each plant should last several years. As long as you keep adding a few new plants every year, you’ll never run out of strawberries to harvest!

8. Lettuce

Lettuce is a low-maintenance crop that isn’t picky about growing conditions. This is one reason why it’s a great garden plant for your indoor garden! While most lettuce prefers slightly cooler temperatures, I live in Florida and I’ve had great success growing this type of lettuce.

Since we usually have a salad every evening with dinner, I can’t even begin to guess how much money I’ve saved by being able to go right into my backyard and pick my lettuce instead of getting it at the grocery store.

9. Spinach

Spinach is another leafy green that’s ideal for a beginner’s garden. Not only is this leafy plant pretty easy to grow, but it’s also amazingly nutritious.

Spinach is one of the best sources of magnesium, which is an important mineral that can help you fall asleep naturally. It’s also an excellent source of vitamin C, which can help you naturally fight off a cold. Plus, spinach is a great source of potassium, vitamin K, vitamin A, zinc, fiber, and more.

Since spinach prefers cool temperatures, it’s also one of the best vegetables that grow in shade.

10. Basil

Most herbs are easy to grow. In fact, some herbs are almost too easy to grow. You might have heard stories from other gardeners about dill and mint taking over their garden. While these herbs are a breeze to grow, they’re sometimes hard to use.

That’s why I think basil is one of the better plants for beginner gardeners. Basil is a fantastic herb that complements a variety of the best vegetarian dishes. You can use it fresh or dry it.

Just keep in mind that basil doesn’t really like chilly temperatures. Consider growing your basil in a container. That way, when the forecast calls for temperatures below 50˚F, you can bring your plant inside to keep it warm.

11. Turnips

Turnips have been feeding people around the world for thousands of years. If you can’t get anything else in your garden to survive, chances are really good you can grow turnips.

In addition to growing quickly and easily, turnips are also versatile. Not only are turnip greens edible, but you can also eat the turnip fried, roasted, fresh, or mashed like potatoes.

12. Cucumbers

If you can give your cucumbers the sunlight, warm temperatures, and regular watering they prefer, you’ll end up with so many you might have to give some to your neighbors.

Another good option is to get a cucumber variety that’s good for slicing and pickling. That way, you can make homemade pickles with the cucumbers you don’t eat fresh.

13. Carrots

Carrots are simple and fun to grow. While my son liked eating steamed carrots, he actually didn’t like eating them raw until we grew this carrot variety in our garden.

They taste so sweet when they’re freshly harvested that they make a fantastic snack!

While carrots prefer full sun, they don’t mind growing in a little shade. Plus, even though you can grow them in the ground, they actually do better in a container garden. That’s because carrots need clean, rock-free soil to grow straight and long.

14. Eggplant

Eggplant was one of the first vegetables I had plenty of success growing. You can easily grow it in a garden or a large container. It also loves sunlight and warmth.

If your plant acts like mine and produces so many eggplants that you’re not sure what to do with all of them, be sure to check out this collection of over 85 eggplants recipes. With so many delicious options, you’ll have no problems coming up with something to eat!

15. Swiss Chard

Swiss chard is one of the best plants for beginner gardeners because it’s not very picky about its growing conditions. It likes growing in partial shade, and it can even withstand light to moderate frosts.

Best of all, it produces beautifully colored leaves that are a great source of vitamins, minerals, and fiber, while being low in calories. When the plant is about a foot tall, you can start harvesting the outer leaves. The crunchy stalks are also edible.