The act of cultivating your own vegetables for the dinner table, or even growing flowers for your lawn really does come with its share of health benefits. Research has shown time and time again that gardeners are far less likely to suffer from heart attacks. Not to mention that gardening is also a fantastic way for you to relieve stress too. If you want to get into gardening, then here are some of the best plants for the beginner gardener to get started with.
Best Plants And Vegetables For The Beginning Gardener
These are really hardy flowers and great for the beginning gardener. They are also more than resilient enough to withstand winter in some instances. The best thing about pansies is that there are 300 varieties available. Some of them are even bred to grow all year round too.
If you want to start growing pansies, then the best time for you to do this would be when the soil temperature is around 60 degrees. This tends to be around August for the northern climates. In southern climates, Pansies can be grown almost year-round.
Full-grown plants can easily be bought at your local garden store and they can be put right into the ground. If you plan on growing some from seed then this is also great. But you do have to make sure that they are spaced around 12 inches apart. Pansies do better in direct sunlight too, so do keep that in mind.
Tomatoes are fantastic if you are a beginner gardener and they are super hardy too. You should note that tomatoes tend to need a soil temperature of around 65 degrees. You should plant them 8 weeks before the frost arrives. It helps to plant them well in advance so you can start them indoors.
You also need to have one container for every two seeds. Plastic cups work great here. Make a few small holes in the bottom for drainage and then fill it with a high-quality compost mix. Then, place the seeds in there and mist it down with some water.
In around 10 days, they should sprout and before you know it, you will have your very own tomatoes underway! Just like pansies, tomatoes do come in a huge range of sizes and you will need to choose ones that are suited to the temperature you normally get in your garden.
Tomatoes and basil are a fantastic combination of authentic Italian dishes. And Basil is a great herb to grow for the beginning gardener as well. It is an awesome addition to the herb garden too.
Basil actually serves as a natural bug repellent and it can also keep unwanted insects away. Basil needs to have plenty of sunlight and it should also be arranged accordingly too. You need to plant them around 12 inches apart so that you can help them to grow.
Water them lightly when the soil feels dry, and when you do this, you will easily have a healthy plant that is able to produce leaves all-year-round.
It doesn’t matter whether you want to grow them for the seeds or whether you just like to look at them. Sunflowers are fantastic for first-time gardeners. They don’t need much fertilizing. And they are also ideal for colder temperatures.
Sunflowers really do need to have a very high level of light and they also need to be away from other plants. Sunflowers can grow really tall and they can also produce a lot of shade too. You really don’t want them overshadowing your entire garden.
You need to plant them in one-inch holes, and you also need to leave around 6 inches between each one. If you want to get the best result, then use some topsoil too.
Radish is an ideal crop for colder weather. The best thing about radish is that they develop very quickly in the colder seasons. They are also very good for the beginningr gardener too.
You need to arrange the seeds around one inch apart in half an inch of compost. They will grow incredibly fast, and you can usually harvest them 22 days after planting them. When you see them sprouting leaves, it’s time to thin out the row by pulling up every other radish. You can then re-plant these if they look to be doing well, but quite often, some of them will fail to sprout.
When you grow your own potatoes, you don’t have to worry about buying them ever again. You can buy potato growing tools online and these make it easier than ever for you to grow your own. Growing potatoes is a favorite for the beginning gardener because of how easy they are to grow. They are ideal for those who don’t have a large amount of garden space.
These are some of the easiest vegetables and plants for the beginning gardener. By planting the above mention plants you can bring success to your homestead garden in no time.
Our cold crops are in, lettuces, spinach and the likes, and herbs and potatoes go in today.
Fruit trees are getting planted on the 15th after the official last frost date and then we start the rotation of the beds:)
Great stuff Annie! I think it’s awesome how gardening is not only good for the environment but for our health as well! I’m going to get started with tomatoes, potatoes, and maybe even the pansies in my little home garden!
That’s awesome! Everyone should have a garden even if it is only a container on their patio!
Radishes and sunflowers are plants I used to grow when I worked with school gardening groups – the former because they grow so quickly and the latter because they grow so big!
I grow sunflowers too and I plant my radishes underneath. The shade from the sunflowers protects the radishes from too much sun here in Florida!