Even the most experienced gardeners had to start somewhere, so don’t be intimidated when diving into the world of growing your own vegetables. If you’re planning on using your garden or allotment to produce your own range of veg, you’re probably going to want to start on the easier end of the spectrum. Vegetables that require minimal fuss and attention are a good place to begin your home-gardening journey. Here are three easy vegetables to grow at home.
Easy Vegetables to Grow At Home: Radishes
Easy Home Gardening
As a starting point for the aspiring gardener, radishes are an ideal vegetable to get to grips with. Quick and easy to grow and care for, some varieties of radish mature in less than a month.
Ideal Area
Radishes are cool weather vegetables, so ensure you’re not planting them in the heat of summer or the cold of winter. Ideal planting time is early spring, with easily drainable soil ensuring the radishes do not oversaturate.
Top Tip
If you’re not confident about moving your radish into garden soil, you can grow them from seed to maturity in your plant pots. As they’re quite small in size, plant pots can provide adequate growing space for the radishes to reach maturity. Also consider adding some organic soil amendment to improve the soils physical properties and allow for better veggie growth.
Easy Vegetables to Grow At Home: Carrots
Easy Home Gardening
If you’re looking for a versatile and resilient vegetable to get your gardening experience started, you should look no further than the ever-popular carrot.
There are numerous varieties of carrots to choose between, but we suggest starting with one of the larger varieties, such as Imperators.
Ideal Area
Carrots aren’t fans of intense shade; pick an area which gets a lot of sunlight to allow your carrots to fully prosper. Although they require plenty of sunlight, high heat can be harmful to carrots, making them an ideal starter vegetable for British gardens.
Top Tip
Carrots are root vegetables, meaning that it’s extremely beneficial if they are directly planted in the soil at the very beginning of the process, rather than starting off in a pot and moved outside at a later date. You can, however, grow them in pots for the entirety of the growth period as long as there is adequate space available. Therefore, pots are not ideal for the larger varieties of carrots.
Easy Vegetables to Grow At Home: Lettuce
Easy Home Gardening
Potting sheds are ideal to start the process of growing lettuce. Using pots and seeding trays ensures that the lettuce can grow at its own pace without the dangers a garden can pose to growing crops. Weeds and slugs can be extremely harmful to cabbage in its early stages, making greenhouses and sheds an ideal environment for their early development.
Ideal Area
Start your lettuce off in a seeding tray and allow the seeds to grow to an inch in size before transporting to the soil in your garden. This allows you to easily keep a close eye on your seeds’ growth. Wait for a day which isn’t particularly hot but also isn’t cold. The mild conditions are ideal for starting off the second phase of your lettuce growing.
Top Tip
Picking your lettuce in the morning allows for maximum crispness. Picked lettuce can be stored in your fridge for up to two weeks before spoiling, although it is advisable to eat as quickly as possible after picking for the maximum taste.
Trevor Sinclair is an experienced gardener and wrote this article for you and encourages the use of potting sheds and greenhouses in home gardening.
