7 Foolproof Vegetables Anyone Can Grow
Niki Jabbour
Whether you’re breaking ground on your first vegetable garden or have been growing food for decades, planting easy-to-grow crops is a great way to ensure a bumper crop of homegrown veggies. Below are 7 of the most reliable vegetables to plant in a home garden:
1) Leaf lettuce
Lettuce is the most popular salad green grown in home gardens and for good reason - it’s delicious, versatile, and quick to go from seed to harvest! There are various types of lettuce including romaine, butterhead, and iceberg, but leaf lettuce is the fastest and easiest to grow. I direct sow seeds for leaf lettuce in mid to late spring planting the seeds 5 cm apart, eventually thinning them to 15 cm apart. Within a month baby greens are ready to pick or you can wait until the loose heads have formed, about 50 days from seeding. Outstanding varieties include ‘Black Seeded Simpson’, ‘Red Salad Bowl’, and ‘Lollo Rossa’.
2) Cucumbers
Oh boy, who doesn’t love the delicious crunch of a home-grown cucumber? This heat-loving vegetable is easy to grow in a home garden, but you’ll need to wait to plant until the last frost has passed and the weather has warmed. Direct seed or transplant cucumbers into the garden spacing them 30 cm apart. Seeds should be planted 1 cm deep. For the longest harvest, sow more seeds a month later. This will keep you in garden fresh cucumbers until frost. I love growing varieties like ‘Lemon’, ‘Suyo Long’, and ‘Lisboa’.
3) Potatoes
Potatoes are productive and easy to grow with most plants yielding 3 to 5 pounds of tubers. It’s best to buy seed potatoes from your local garden centre - don’t plant grocery store potatoes as they may have been treated with a sprout inhibitor. Plant potatoes in mid to late spring in trenches 10 to 15 cm deep. I space each seed potato 30 cm apart with rows spaced 45 cm apart. As the plants grow, hill soil up around the stems to ensure the tubers are well buried. Once the plants flower in mid-summer you can start to harvest baby potatoes or if you’d rather mature tubers, wait until autumn frost kills the plants.
4) Bush beans
Bush beans are one of the easiest and most reliable vegetables to grow. They’re also fairly quick to go from seed to harvest with most varieties producing tender pods 50 to 55 days from seeding. I direct seed bush beans in late spring, once the risk of frost has passed. Plant the seeds 1 to 2 cm deep in a sunny garden bed with fertile soil. I space the seeds 5 cm apart, eventually thinning the plants 10 cm apart. For a non-stop crop of snap beans, sow more seeds 3 weeks after the initial planting. My favourite varieties include ‘Mascotte’, ‘Provider’, ‘Pencil Pod Black Wax’, and ‘Royal Burgundy’.
5) Peas
Peas are a cool season crop and one that is best planted in early to mid-spring. There are three main types of peas: snap peas, shell peas, and sugar peas. My go-to pea is ‘Sugar Snap’, a snap variety with plump edible pods that are crisp and sweet. Before planting, read the seed packet of your selected pea variety to find out the mature plant height. Most peas form vines and need a trellis or netting to support their growth. Once the pods begin to form, harvest often to encourage heavy flower and pod production.
6) Cherry tomatoes
Tomatoes have a reputation for being fussy and while large-fruited tomatoes like beefsteaks need extra attention, most cherry tomatoes are not hard to grow. Plus, the plants are incredibly productive often yielding up to a hundred super sweet fruits. Boost success by planting cherry tomatoes in a sunny garden bed with fertile soil and, if you’re growing a tall variety like ‘Sungold’, insert a stake at planting time. As the plants grow, tie new growth to the stake every week. Fertilize with a liquid tomato fertilizer every 2 to 3 weeks and deep water weekly if there has been no rain. Standout cherry tomato varieties include ‘Sweet Million’, ‘Rapunzel’, and ‘Black Cherry’.
7) Swiss Chard
Swiss chard is one of the most productive greens you can grow, but it’s also incredibly beautiful! I plant it in my raised beds, as well as in pots on my sunny deck. Swiss chard plants grow about 60 to 75 cm tall with large deep green leaves that, depending on the variety, also having eye-catching colourful stalks. ‘Bright Lights’ is a classic chard with crinkly green and bronze leaves held above gold, red, pink, white, and orange stems. Dazzling! I also love ‘Peppermint’ chard, a variety with hot pink and white striped stems and dark green foliage. I direct sow Swiss chard seeds in mid-spring planting them 5 cm apart and eventually thinning the plants 10 to 15 cm apart.
