Easiest Vegetable to Grow

Easiest vegetable to grow in my climate is the kale family, especially Lacinato (dino) kale. It doesn't bolt as quickly as other types, and grows well in large containers or the ground. The trunks can get very large and I just keep picking off the lower leaves. Also Portuguese Kale, which is really a type of Collard similar to Georgia Collard, but with even larger leaves. My Georgia had yellow flowers like most kales, whereas the Portuguese Kale had white flowers. This plant became perennial and green most of the year, even in the mild frosts that we have here, in N. California coast inland valley.

Salad greens like lettuce or spinach if you like raw salads. Mustard greens or kale if you like or want to try cooking greens. Try growing them with Carol Deppe’s eat all greens method so you can harvest the whole plants to maximize yield.

Steve Thorn wrote:What would you recommend to a brand new gardener as the easiest vegetable to grow?

For me and my area, I would recommend cucumbers!

These were one of the first things I personally grew, and survived when everything else didn't do so well.

Reasons I would recommend them...

1) They sprout easily from being planted directly in the soil.

2) They grow quickly, usually even in poor soils.

3) They can grow among weeds due to their fast growth and climbing vines.

Can you think of anything I've missed about cucumbers being easy to grow?

What would you recommend to a new gardener as the easiest vegetable to grow?

I must suggest carrots, radish, peas.

Steve Thorn wrote:What would you recommend to a brand new gardener as the easiest vegetable to grow?

For me and my area, I would recommend cucumbers!

These were one of the first things I personally grew, and survived when everything else didn't do so well.

Reasons I would recommend them...

1) They sprout easily from being planted directly in the soil.

2) They grow quickly, usually even in poor soils.

3) They can grow among weeds due to their fast growth and climbing vines.

Can you think of anything I've missed about cucumbers being easy to grow?

What would you recommend to a new gardener as the easiest vegetable to grow?

I would recommend Bell pepper because I tried out growing bell pepper from scrap last year last summer, and it turned out surprisingly great. It took hardly two months to grow completely, and I must say it was the easiest vegetable I ever grew on my lawn. Also, when it comes to nutrition, bell pepper contains fats of less than 1 gram, and also it is rich in multiple vitamins and low in calories and carbohydrates.  

Dandelions are prolific here.  The young leaves make nutritious salad greens and The root can be dried and roasted to make coffee.

I would suggest what folks always suggest when you are trying to engage children in gardening: Radishes. They  sprout very quickly and give you a crop in 21-25 days. They are not fussy when it comes to soil type and they are very forgiving. Also, they grow well in cold weather.

I am in Southern Wisconsin, zone 5a. We have legendary soil here, "Black Earth," and relatively few pests, from what I understand. Lots of beetles but they're fairly easily trapped (I've not had to; they've left my yard alone), but plenty of deer and rabbits. A simple scarecrow of sweaty clothes can help keep them at bay (just hang the garments up around the garden) OR little mesh/thin cloth baggies of human hair from the hairbrush! Put them on stakes, cages, on the fence if you have one, or wherever they can be hung up off the ground. One baggie of hair should cover at least 3m radius of garden. The scent of hooman is what you're after to spook critters away. Cats & dogs are good at spookin', too.

Here are the easiest, most prolific plants I've had:

1. Kohlrabi, Brassica olearcea. It's radish-like, biggish, with edible leaves. Tasty both raw and cooked!

2. Black Mustard, Brassica nigra. (only variety with which I have experience) I am so in love with this plant. Planted a Mesclun mix seed packet one year, and almost all the plants continued to self-seed, but the mustard was most robust! It will take the f*** over!! Leave them close together for leggy plants (bolted) with lots of seeds for your dhal, curry, prepared mustard, or medicinal salve, poultice, or hot compress (can help fight winter illness), or give each plant a good meter radius of space for some serious leaves!! I s**t you not, each plant can grow to a meter wide at the base, and like 2m tall. The old leaves at the bottom get super large and the plant tapers up like a cone, with the mild young leaves near the top. Then the cute yellow flowers shoot up and it's rather majestic, if you ask me. The leaves are piquant, especially as they get mature and large. Beloved by bees!

3. Beets, Beta vulgaris. (I just learned these are in the amaranth family! Redness!) Surprised no one has mentioned these beauties because they are a staple in Wisconsin veggie gardens. Maybe other soils cannot support them? I love them raw, roasted (with a little oil or ghee and wrapped in its own leaf 😉), and pickled, and the greens are my favorite of them all, and they are huuuuge! I've never done so, but I'm sure a dye could be prepared from these, and also sugar!

Bonus herb (not a vegetable): Garden sage, Salvia officinalis. It is a hardy evergreen subshrub that actually survives Wisconsin's harsh winters! You can pluck aromatic leaves all year round!! It is such an impressive plant to me; I love the woody trunk and its gnarly forms. Also beloved by bees!

I have three years experience as a beginning gardener and, while I haven't figured out all the ways to do it wrong yet, I can offer this advice:

1. Get starts from a neighbor or local farmers' market. If you must start from seed then grow radishes.
2. If you live in a sometimes cool sometimes hot place, try 5-6 different plants, a mix of spring and summer crops. Then when it is a bad year for tomatoes, at least you will have some lettuce. Up here it seems like between peas, lettuce, tomatoes and winter squash, something will survive to the table.

Help! Looks like I put too many speckled peas on here for Microgreens pea shoots, and more issues. How can I remedy it at this point?
Thanks! 🪴

Sarah Rivkin wrote:Help! Looks like I put too many speckled peas on here for Microgreens pea shoots, and more issues. How can I remedy it at this point?

If it were me, I'd take two more containers, preferably deeper ones, and transplant gently, starting with the ones on top, or if that doesn't work, starting from one end. You've got little to loose...

If I had a garden area that needed some nitrogen, I might actually transplant some of them to there. I've got a few bins that I've been thinking need peas planted in them, as the beans that are there are summer beans and are looking rather sad! Pre-germinating the seeds has the advantage of fewer days of careful watering in our drought, but the seeds are more delicate and will need careful handling. There are pros and cons to everything!

Sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes). If you can’t find some wild ones they sometimes have the tubers at Whole Foods or you can order them online.