Starting your very first garden is both scary and exciting. You must be imagining how you’d have easy access to fresh vegetables that you’ve planted and grown yourself. However, you’ll soon realize it’s not as fun as you imagined it to be – there’s so much stuff you still don’t know. After a few mishaps, you’ll soon be ready to give up.
Don’t throw in the towel just yet. You don’t necessarily need a green thumb to start a vegetable garden right in your backyard. You just need to know the right plants to grow. Here are five vegetables to grow for beginners like you.
Lettuce
Good for salads and sandwiches, lettuce is very easy to grow. The best time to sow them is during summer and then you can start harvesting three weeks later. Remember to plant lettuce seeds in a pot and make sure they are well watered. If you need some leaves, you just cut some out and they’ll continue growing.
Radishes
A crunchy addition to salads, radishes grow quickly. You can grow them inside containers or directly into the ground all throughout the summer. The best time to sow them is four weeks after the last frost and then you can harvest after a month. This ensures that you have a succession of colorful and crunchy crops always ready for you.
Potatoes
Planting potatoes only require a bag or bin half-filled with compost. As soon as green shoots begin to show above the soil, you add more compost. Repeat this process several times until your container is full. And don’t forget to water them! It’s best to plant them toward the end of the first quarter of the year. By July to September, tip those bags and bins out and you’ll have plenty of potatoes to collect!
Onions
Onions are very easy to grow because they’re virtually maintenance-free. You just simply plant an onion bulb on well-drained soil. It’s best to do this during springtime so by the time autumn is about to end, you’ll have onions ready for harvest. When the leaves begin to yellow and die, lift them and expose them to sunshine to dry them out. Store them in a cool, dark, and airy spot.
Carrots
Another low-maintenance vegetable you can easily grow is a carrot. Carrots require just the basics: plant them, weed them, and harvest them. Plant the seeds into loose soil that’s free from stones. When the carrots are young, remember to keep the soil moist; as they mature, you can reduce watering. Carrots love to be exposed to the sun but partially shaded areas will do, too.
For beginners, do not let the lack of knowledge stop you from starting. Maintaining a vegetable garden is supposed to be a relaxing activity. The five vegetables mentioned above will allow you to exercise your green thumb without requiring too much skill or effort.
