9 Best Tasting Easy Vegetables to Grow in Home Gardens
on Feb 19, 2024
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Easy vegetables to grow are my favorite – but they also have to taste good too! If you’re looking for the best tasting, easiest vegetables to grow in your vegetable garden, here are my top nine favorites!
Table of Contents
Top List of Easy to Grow Vegetables
I grow a large, varied garden filled with flowers, herbs, fruit, and vegetables. I like to experiment in my garden, so you’ll always find something new in it. But there are a few tried and true vegetables that I can’t live without.
My favorite easy to grow vegetables include:
- Peas
- Corn
- Garlic
- Radishes
- Lettuce
- Potatoes
- Cucumbers
- Green beans
- Tomatoes
What Makes Vegetables Easy to Grow
Notice I did not include bell peppers or summer squash on my list of easy to grow vegetables. I find bell peppers to be pretty finicky and I have a hard time defending summer squash from the bugs – that makes them not easy vegetables to grow in my opinion.
I use a few characteristics to decide what qualifies as an easy to grow vegetable. First of all, they have to be easy for the beginner gardener. That means, the vegetables should be easy to sow the seeds directly in the garden.
It’s also good if they are versatile and one of the easiest vegetables to grow in pots or raised beds. It shouldn’t be too difficult to tell when the vegetables are ready to harvest.
Choose Easy Vegetables for Your Growing Zone
Remember to consider your local climate and growing zone when making your own list of easy to grow vegetables. Set yourself up for success by understanding your weather patterns and your first and last frost dates.
Read descriptions of seeds and pick varieties suitable for your area and soil types. My favorites do well in Growing Zone 5b.
My list of favorite vegetables might do well in your area as well, but definitely consider weather, water, and pest control issues. when growing vegetables at home.
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9 Best Tasting Easy Vegetables to Grow in Home Gardens
1. Peas
Have you ever tasted a fresh pea, straight from the garden? If not, you’re missing out. Not only are they super delicious, but they’re pretty darn easy to grow. Plant seeds directly in the garden bed in early spring and watch them grow! Provide peas with some type of support.
Besides being tasty and an easy to grow vegetable with few pests, my kids love to eat peas from the garden as well. Peas also have very pretty flowers. That’s a win-win in my gardening book!
There is a wide range of peas. My favorite pea varieties include: Green Arrow, Mammoth Melting Sugar Peas, and Snap Peas.
Related Post: How to Grow Peas in Your Garden
2. Sweet Corn
If you’ve never had fresh Iowa sweet corn, you’re missing out. Freshly grown corn straight from the garden has ruined me forever for corn. I cannot eat corn except during sweet corn season and that is a hard and fast rule never to be broken.
The only really tricky thing about growing corn is raccoons have a secret sixth sense about when it’s ready. They will beat you to the harvest if you have a raccoon problem. Otherwise, corn is easy to plant, harvest, and grow.
My favorite types of sweet corn are Peaches and Cream and Buttergold Sweet.
Related Post: How to Grow Corn in Your Backyard Garden
3. Garlic
Garlic is a relatively easy to grow plant. It’s so low maintenance. It’s the last thing that goes in the garden in the fall, and one of the first things that comes up in the spring.
I love it because home grown garlic tastes amazing, is easy to store, and has lots of great health properties. It’s also a very pretty plant, in my opinion.
My favorite types of garlic to grow include Elephant Garlic, Siberian Red, and Music.
Related Post: Beginner’s Guide to Growing Garlic
4. Radishes
Fresh radishes are another great garden secret. Not only are they super easy to plant, but they are also a garden pest deterrent. They self-seed and will come back year after year with no effort on your part!
Radishes are perfect for little kids to plant because hey grow SO FAST!! How many other vegetables can you harvest after only 22 days?
My favorite radishes to grow include: Easter Egg and Cherry Bell!
Related Post: Companion Plants You Must Have in Your Garden
5. Lettuce is the Best Easy to Grow Vegetable
Lettuce is another one of those vegetables that is just so much better from the garden than it is from the store. It’s easy to grow from seed, it self-seeds, and it re-grows if you harvest it right. It’s one of the first plants to plant in early spring. Young plants thrive in cool weather. I usually plant it in both spring and fall. What’s not to love about growing lettuce?
My favorite lettuce varieties to grow include Rouge de Hiver and Black Seeded Simpson.
Related Post: Growing Lettuce From Seed
6. Potatoes
Potatoes are one of the easiest root vegetables to grow. Prepare your seed potatoes, use the no-dig potato growing method, and you will get a nice harvest of delicious, fresh potatoes that are easy to plant and harvest!
My favorite type of potatoes to grow are Yukon Gold, but I also really enjoy growing German Butterball and a purple variety called Adirondack Blue. Potato plants are very pretty with a lovely flower that comes out just as the plant starts to set potatoes.
7. Cucumbers
Cucumbers are a must in my garden because I love canning them using my grandma’s dill pickle recipe. I honestly struggle a bit with cucumbers because of the dreaded cucumber beetle, but I manage to get more than enough to can each year with a little bit of effort.
Boston Pickling Cucumbers are my favorite variety to grow.
8. Green Beans
Fresh green beans are one of the finer vegetables to come from the garden. They’re easy to grow and they taste delicious. My kids love fresh green beans and we also love them stir fried.
I generally prefer bush varieties over pole beans, but an easy way to grow pole beans is the Three Sisters Garden. Use corn (another one of my favorite easy vegetables) as a trellis. I also grow some pole bean types as they are great at fixing nitrogen in the soil.
My favorite bush bean is the Calima Bush and Blue Lake Bush. I love all varieties of pole beans – the prettier the better.
9. Tomatoes
Nothing beats the taste of fresh tomatoes straight from the garden. I have taken to using huge, homemade tomato cages for my plants, so I don’t have to stake and prune. There’s lots of argument about the best way to grow tomatoes, but this method works for me!
Each year, we can or freeze quite a lot of crushed tomatoes, roasted tomato sauce, salsa, and pizza sauce. This year, I’d like to also can whole tomatoes, something I haven’t done often.
My favorite types of tomatoes include San Marzano, Brandywine, Riesentraube Cherry Tomatoes, and Purple Bumble Bee!
