10 easy to grow vegetables for beginners.

Growing your own veg has never been so popular. Its fresh, organic,  saves air miles, and plastic, plus its rewarding and saves money.

But, being honest, growing your own veg is not as easy as garden retailers suggest. Reading their blurb you could think that from one tomato plant, you will shortly open your own canning factory.  It is all about getting your gardening £. It is not good marketing to say  " buy this plant, it may be demanding, need lots of feeding, get various diseases, blight, and sulk because of the lack of warmth, sun, rain and eventually produce a crop". 

But that can be the case. Even after growing vegetables for years, most veggies are more disease prone and time-consuming than garden plants and capricious . In 2021, nearly all of my late lettuces bolted, and my fail-safe crops of onions, were not. Previous years have ranged from a glug of courgettes to a lightweight crop. This year beans were in abundance, and the Kale has flourished. 

Every year presents a different scenario, with the potential for brilliant success or occasional setbacks. But don't let that discourage you.

Without any doubt, some veg are easier to grow than others. Why not start by growing the easier veg. Listed below are the pick of the best easiest veg to grow. 

You'll notice I don't mention tomatoes on this page. Thats because they are lovely but a harder vegetable to grow, blight can be a problem.

All the bean family are easy to grow and even easy to raise from seed. They germinate easily, which avoids the cost of buying small plants. A packet of seed will remain viable for more than one season. Illustrated is Broad bean with a lovely crimson flower, scarlet and white runner beans, various coloured French beans and garden peas. 

They are not entirely disease free, broad beans get rusty and peas can get mildew, but they are fairly robust and give a good crop. 

They are not all grown the same way. Broad beans are very hardy. You can even plant them in autumn and they will overwinter, compared with the rest of the bean family, which are all slightly tender.

More  growing and planting information: Broad Beans, Runner Beans, French Beans and Peas. 

Video How to plant Beans

This video looks at the different planting and support requirements for the different types of beans.

Beans can be grown in containers, but the crop will be reduced as beans need space and a good number of plants to make a decent crop.

Onions and garlic do not need a lot to keep them happy.

Well drained soil and sun.

You may think that onions are a bit of an ordinary crop to grow, but they are reliable. It is always good to plant something in the veg garden that you can be (usually!) confident will turn a good harvest at the end of the year. So if you have blight, and bolting, and lack of pollination and other problems, the chances are your garlic, onions and spring onions will still do well.

The large fat bulbs of onions sit on the surface, and they store well and look good hanging up. 

Garlic and spring onions can be grown in containers, not so onions.

How to plant and grow onions and garlic