Easiest Crops for Beginners - Ep. 244

[00:00:00] One thing that I am often asked by beginning gardeners is what is the easiest thing for them to grow? Now some of us just dive right into gardening headfirst, attempting to grow whatever our favorite veggies are regardless of how easy or difficult it is. Or without even considering that one might be more difficult than others. That was me. And ignorance is definitely bliss. Until you are unsuccessful and then it's just frustrating.

[00:00:28] So today on Just Grow Something I am going to cover some of the easiest things for a brand new gardener to grow. Whether that is in garden beds, in raised planters or in pots. We will talk about which growing zones they are appropriate for, what type of light requirements they have and any specific requirements that they prefer like temperature or how they germinate or whatever. Just because they are easy doesn't mean they won't appreciate a little attention to their preferences and that will only make them easier for you to get them to maturity. Let's dig in.

[00:00:58] Hey I'm Karen and what started as a small backyard garden 20 years ago turned into a lifelong passion for growing food. Now as a market farmer and horticulturist, I want to help you do the same. On this podcast I am your friend in the garden, teaching evidence-based techniques to help you grow your favorites and build confidence in your own garden space. So grab your garden journal and a cup of coffee and get ready to just grow something.

[00:01:21] So right now on the farm we are super busy getting all the rest of our cool season crops into the ground. The brassicas and all of the root veggies and the onions and potatoes all got planted in March along with spinach and salad turnips and sugar snap peas and all the leafy greens. And we are currently working on the succession of things like head lettuces and radishes.

[00:01:50] The greenhouse is like overflowing with all the warmer weather things like tomato and pepper plants plus all of the annual herbs that still need a little protection from the frost. And we are getting ready to start the first succession plantings of squash and cucumber plants indoors in anticipation of getting those out into the gardens in a few weeks. Plus we are spreading mulch and feeding the onions and garlic and laying down wood chips in between the beds.

[00:02:19] And I am trying to decide when the best time is for me to plant these summer blooming bulbs that I got. So if you listen to episode 240 about spring planted bulbs and perennials you remember I am doing more this year to be a little bit more aesthetically pleasing in my gardens rather than just planting flowers as companions.

[00:02:41] Well I ended up buying bulbs for dahlias, gladiolus, and a couple of different types of lilies. And so now I'm patiently waiting, well sort of patiently, for when I think the right time is to get those dug in. The lilies I think can stand some cooler soil temperatures, but the dahlias and the gladiolus definitely like it warmer so I am trying to be patient.

[00:03:05] Because you know, I needed to add one more task to my already overflowing plate of garden tasks by adding bulbs to the list, right? So fingers crossed that the effort pays off and that I reap the rewards by getting some beautiful blooms in the summer. I hope your garden and your garden plans are off to a rocking start this spring or finishing strongly this fall if you're one of my southern hemisphere gardeners.

[00:03:33] Okay, let's talk easy peasy veggie plants for the garden. The thing that I love about all of these plants is that you can grow them just about anywhere. So if you don't have in-ground space or space that isn't prepped for gardening yet, you can still grow these in planters and pots. So if you have a friend who is new to gardening, then this may be a good episode to send to them if they're wondering what they should grow and how they should grow it. The first one on my list is hands down lettuce.

[00:04:03] Super, super easy. I think most beginning gardeners can agree with me on this. Lettuce can be either direct sown in the garden or you can start them indoors to transplant outside. That is not necessary. Even in the coldest of regions, you generally have plenty of time to get lettuce in just by direct sowing it out in the garden. I will say if you are going to do either starting them indoors or buying them as transplants,

[00:04:30] usually I suggest just doing the head lettuces that way. And if you're going to do loose leaf, just throw them directly out into the soil. Makes it super easy. Lettuce can grow, generally speaking, in USDA zones 3 through 10. It starts to get a little too hot for them up in like, you know, zones 11 or so. But if you can provide it with some afternoon shade during the hottest part of the day and grow it during the coolest part of your year, you might have some luck.

[00:04:59] Lettuce actually can be grown in partial shade. So it can take full sun to part shade. So as long as you have like four hours of daylight, then you can grow lettuce. This also doesn't mean that you absolutely have to have four hours of continuous daylight. So this goes for all of these things that we're going to talk about. Any plant when we talk about whether it's full sun or it's part shade or whatever, however many hours you have is cumulative. It does not have to be all at once.

[00:05:25] So if something needs full sun and that's a minimum of six hours and you have three hours of morning sun and three hours of afternoon sun and the rest of the time the plant is in the shade, that's okay. You have full sun. You have six hours. So keep that in mind when you're figuring out whether or not you can grow any of these things. Lettuce can grow basically anywhere in a garden bed, in a raised planter, in a pot, almost any size pot. The only thing the pot size is going to limit is your yield.

[00:05:52] So if you can do something that's at least six inches deep and at least six inches across, that's going to give you a little bit more volume in terms of your lettuce. Lettuce can germinate in soil temperatures as cool as 40 degrees Fahrenheit all the way up to about 70 degrees Fahrenheit. So it's one of the earliest things that you can throw out there to kind of satisfy that itch to garden in the early spring. Air temperatures, it does best at between 45 and 75 Fahrenheit.

[00:06:18] So once it starts to get too hot, the lettuce is going to tend to get bitter. And then it's going to want to bolt, which means it wants to send up a stalk to throw seeds. So these are better planted on your cooler shoulder seasons or whenever your coolest part of the growing season is. The great thing about lettuce is it is very fast to germinate. It is very fast to grow and it can be harvested multiple times.

[00:06:43] So if it's a loose leaf version, you can just cut those leaves back and it will regrow. Or you can harvest the larger leaves and let the little smaller leaves continue to come up. If it's a head variety, you can still get some regrowth from the root base. So just leave a couple of inches after you cut that head off and leave that root base in the ground and it will come back with some little loose leaf versions of the lettuce. So you can get multiple harvests out of one planting.

[00:07:13] The other good thing about lettuce is it's a good introduction to succession planting because you can successively plant lettuces by two different methods. The first is by maturity date. So specifically if you're growing head lettuces or like head type lettuces that are meant to be cut and be loose, oftentimes you can plant different varieties that have different maturity dates, plant them all at the same time, and that way you have sort of a continuous harvest.

[00:07:40] So if you have one variety that matures in about 40 days, then you have another one that matures in about 50 days and another one at 60 days. Then you have a little bit of a window in between those maturity dates where you're harvesting off of one variety and when that one's done you're harvesting the next and then you're harvesting the next so you get a continuous harvest all the way through. The other way to do this is to stagger your planting dates. So you can do all the same variety or you can do varieties that all have around the same maturity date, whatever,

[00:08:08] and you can plan to plant them in intervals. So do your first planting, then wait two to three weeks and do the next planting, and then two to three weeks and do another one, and you get a continuous harvest that way. So this is a really good one to sort of play around and figure out how to do succession planting if you've never done it before. The next really easy crop for beginners is radishes. Radishes are really fast to germinate.

[00:08:33] They're really fast to mature, so they're great to plant with these lettuces because they also like similar soil temperatures. They will germinate in that 40 to 65 degree Fahrenheit range, and they like the air temperatures to be between 50 and 70 Fahrenheit. So they make nice little companions to grow in between your lettuces because the radishes are going to come more mature or going to mature more quickly than the lettuces will, and so by the time the lettuces need more room, the radishes are already going to be out.

[00:09:02] You definitely want to direct sow these in whatever container you're going to grow them in or directly out in the garden bed. They do not like to be transplanted. In fact, most root vegetables are going to kind of balk at being transplanted because by doing that you're disturbing that root system, and that can lead them to getting wonky, which there's really no ever a reason to have to start radishes indoors to transplant outside. Direct sowing them is just fine because they can germinate within like three to five days

[00:09:31] in those cooler soil temperatures, and they can mature in about three to four weeks. I have some radish varieties that I grow that mature in 21 days, and so, I mean, it couldn't be any easier. They do like a little bit more light than your lettuces. They prefer full sun about six hours or more, so if you're growing your lettuces in a part shade situation, then you may not want to companion your radishes with them. And the other thing to consider with radishes is the soil.

[00:10:01] You want a loose, well-draining soil that is free of any kind of rocks or other impedance because you can get misshapen roots if those radishes are growing and they bump into something in the soil. It's going to like immediately try to curl around it, so it's going to, you know, prevent that from happening if you can do the loose soil. The good news about this is radishes aren't super deep-rooted, so you only really need to have the soil, the top two inches of it, be that really loose, well-draining.

[00:10:28] The rest of the soil, you know, doesn't have to be as loose, so you can do it in some subpar soil if you have some good stuff on the top. And you can grow radishes in as cold a region as USDA Zone 2, all the way up to 10. So it's got a very, very wide range, making it super easy for beginners to get started with radishes. The next one is spinach. Now, spinach can either be direct sown directly out into the garden or you can start them indoors for transplant. It's fine either way.

[00:10:57] If you transplant it, it might suffer a little bit from some transplant shock, even if you have hardened it off, but generally it bounces back within a couple of days, so it's not too big of a deal. If you feel like you need to get a jump on the season or you're just wanting to play in the dirt, you can start them indoors to transplant out later. That's fine. But there are another one that will germinate in soil temperatures that are a little bit cooler. They technically say 40 degrees, but in my experience, it likes it a little bit warmer than that, so I would say probably 45 to 65 Fahrenheit for the soil temperatures. They do best with air temperatures that are between 45 and 75 Fahrenheit,

[00:11:27] so they are very cold tolerant. They grow very quickly. USDA zones 3 through 9 are probably your best bets for spinach. Again, if you're in a warmer zone and you want to try this during the coldest part of your year and you can do some partial shade to kind of block that afternoon sun, they will do just fine in full sun to partial shade, so a minimum of four hours on up to that six plus hours. Doesn't matter if it's in a garden bed or a raised planter or a pot.

[00:11:56] They will grow perfectly fine in all of those. You get to choose how you like to harvest it. You can either choose to harvest as baby leaf, and that means that you're just going to cut it to the ground and let it regrow, or you're going to pick the largest leaves and let the little baby leaves that are in the center continue to grow. Baby leaves are usually ready in about three to four weeks, so super, super quick growth on these. If you want the larger leaves, then it's just going to be another week or two before you get to the larger leaves, usually about six weeks,

[00:12:26] and you can do the same thing. Harvest the larger leaves on the outside and let the younger ones continue to grow on the inside. You get multiple harvests over a very long period of time with spinach, which is another reason why it's really great for beginners. It's kind of like plant it once and let it be done. It will go dormant in really hot weather, but then it usually will perk back up again and begin regrowing in the fall if your summer temperatures aren't too high. Like if you're consistently above 95 degrees Fahrenheit, okay, the spinach isn't going to do very well,

[00:12:54] but it can be planted again in the late summer for a fall harvest, or you can actually overwinter spinach very, very easily in the majority of these zones. So, and without really having to have much extra in terms of like row cover or anything. Like if you're in zone three, yes, I would absolutely recommend doing some row cover or some low tunnels, especially if you experience a lot of heavy snow load.

[00:13:20] But if you can get spinach to the stage that you like to harvest it at, we'll call that maturity, whatever version that is of you, whether it's the baby leaves or the larger ones. The larger ones do tend to do better over the winter time, but you know, you can do the smaller ones too. You can harvest off of it all winter long while it's kind of in that dormant state. And then as soon as the temperatures start to warm up in the spring and the daytime hours start to lengthen, then it's going to regrow

[00:13:49] and you're going to have a very, very early spring harvest. Now it will bolt shortly thereafter and you'll be able to tell the central leaves start to take on a completely different shape and a completely different texture and they start to taste different. So you'll know when it's going to start to send up those seed stocks. But by that point, you could have already planted a brand new crop of spinach for the spring. So that is the great thing. If you are a new beginner or if you're new to trying to overwinter plants,

[00:14:19] spinach is hands down one of the easiest ones to do. I highly recommend it. I have been thrilled thus far this spring with how my rosebush from Heirloom Roses is performing in its pot after our absolutely frigid cold weather this past winter. It is continuing to put on beautiful, healthy foliage every day and I cannot wait for those gorgeous blooms to start appearing. I posted an update to this on social media and somebody commented on YouTube

[00:14:48] that they had tried the newer rose breeds out there with very little success but then switched to Heirloom Roses and those roses survived a New England winter in the ground when this gardener lost their Rose of Sharon as well as all of those expensive new rose breeds. So they are now sticking with Heirloom Roses for all their new plants. I'm very glad that others are finding success in this way and it bodes well for what I expect to be a successful year

[00:15:18] for me and my new rosebush. If you'd like to give Heirloom Roses a try for yourself, just head to HeirloomRoses.com and use code JUSTGROW to save 20% off your order of whichever beautiful roses you choose from their selection of over 700 varieties. HeirloomRoses.com with code JUSTGROW. The link is in the show notes. The next one is bush green beans. These you definitely want to direct sow. There's never really any reason

[00:15:48] to have to start green bean seeds indoors to transplant outside even if you are in a short season. So bush green beans will grow in USDA zones 3 through 10 relatively well. So even in those colder zones though, even though you have fewer days to your gardening season outdoors, bush green beans can still be planted and harvested from because they germinate very quickly

[00:16:16] and they have really prolific harvests but it's only over about a two to three week period. So even if you have a short season, you will still get a good harvest out of some bush green beans. And these also, again, can be done in just pots on a patio or on a deck and, you know, in raised planters or in garden beds. People have done these in green stock planters, those tower planters. They do prefer full sun. So we're looking at about six to eight hours is what their preference is.

[00:16:44] Soil temperatures between 60 and 75 Fahrenheit. Air temperatures, you know, 65, 70 on up to about 85. They will stop producing after you go above like that 85 Fahrenheit. They're not going to, you know, enjoy those hot temperatures. But if you have a longer growing season, you can absolutely do multiple plantings of green beans. You can either do them in succession, a couple of them in a row in the early part of the season and then take a break during the hottest part of your days

[00:17:14] and then do another crop for the fall. And you're golden. I mean, you will have so many green beans. They germinate very quickly. The bush green beans don't need any trellising. And so they're very easy to work with. The only thing that you have to consider with bush green beans is the harvesting. It can be a little backbreaking, bending over the little plants. So you might want a little, you know, something, a little scooch, you know, seat to sit on or put them up in raised planters to make it a little bit easier.

[00:17:43] This was probably my husband's biggest complaint when we grow bush green beans. And of course, we're growing, you know, several hundred row feet of bush green beans at one time and we're harvesting by hand. And that's backbreaking work. But if you're doing like a 10 foot row, just know that, yeah, it's going to be a little bit of effort to go ahead and harvest them. So if you want to do them in containers, that's a really good excuse to do them in containers. And again, they're going to produce over about a two to three week period and then they're going to be done. And you can, you know, have room in the garden for something else.

[00:18:12] So totally recommend bush type green beans as a beginner crop in the garden. My next recommendation for a beginner crop is cherry tomatoes. So if you're wanting to dip your toe into tomatoes, but maybe you're thinking they might be a little too high maintenance, cherry tomatoes are a great way to go. They don't tend to require as much maintenance in terms of like staking and pruning as like the larger slicing tomatoes. Generally speaking, you're going to want to start these indoors

[00:18:41] and then transplant them out in the garden or buy them as transplants. They'll grow well in USDA zones four through 11 as an annual. If you are in those warmer zones, you actually hand start them just outside directly into your garden beds. So long as the soil temperature is above 60 degrees Fahrenheit, they'll germinate just fine. So, but the rest of us, generally speaking, need to start these indoors and transplant them out when those soil temperatures warm up. I like to see the soil temperatures at a minimum of 65,

[00:19:11] 60 to 65 on up to 75 Fahrenheit. Air temperatures best between 70 and 85. They will grow on those cooler air temperatures. Once you get above like 90 degrees Fahrenheit, then we start to have problems with them not wanting to ripen, which, you know, can be a problem. But then once the temperatures start to come back down again, then they will start to ripen up with no problem. The cherry tomatoes can absolutely be done in a large container on a deck. I just recommend

[00:19:39] that you use a trellis or a stake of some sort and the bigger the pot, the better. So we want something that's a minimum of 12 inches deep, 12 inches across. The bigger the pot, the better and more robust our root system can be and that's going to support more flowering and fruiting. Cherry tomatoes do prefer full sun, so you're looking at six to eight hours here. But the reason I like them for beginners is, yeah, they, you know, they're easier to manage

[00:20:09] if they're staked or caged in some way. It's also easier to harvest off of them, but you don't have to. And there are a lot of smaller cherry tomato varieties that I have grown in hanging baskets. And of course, they're not staked in those hanging baskets. They just kind of, you know, come down over the sides and you can harvest off of them that way. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a high maintenance plant. They're fast growing. They do a really high yield per plant and they're not super particular on their maintenance.

[00:20:38] So the only thing to remember with cherry tomatoes is that rain events, especially when it's been very dry and even then you have a ton of rain hit, would even overwatering can cause cherry tomatoes to split open. So they're taking up a lot of water in a very short period of time and those thin little skins just can't contain everything and so they'll split open. This is not a big deal if it's, you know, you're going out there and you're harvesting

[00:21:07] right away after it happens. I wouldn't harvest those and bring them in if they, if it's been a day or two and they've been sitting out there split open, like that's just a breeding to ground for like bacteria and disease and stuff and you probably don't want to be eating that. But if you're out there right away after the rain event and you're able to pick them and they split later after you've brought them in or they've just split on the vine, they're still absolutely edible. If you want to prevent this splitting, number one, make sure that you're watering routinely. So with everything, we want, you know, less frequent,

[00:21:36] more thorough waterings but we want to make sure we're consistent about it. But if you're not watering and you're relying on Mother Nature like we have a lot of the time with our tomatoes and it's been very dry and all of a sudden you see that there's going to be a really heavy rainfall, I actually tend to go out and pick them just a little bit early. So I'll go out and I will harvest anything that looks like it's pretty close to being ripe and let it just kind of ripen on the counter in a brown paper bag rather than leaving it out there and waiting until

[00:22:05] it's perfectly ripe but then knowing that it very well might split because we have rain coming in. So for me, it's like better safe than sorry. But other than that, there really aren't any real particular considerations for cherry tomatoes which is why I think they're really good for beginners. So next up is zucchini or any type of a summer squash specifically bush type plants. Now, before you come at me as a Midwest gardener talking about how easy it is to grow zucchini, I am not taking into consideration

[00:22:34] any pests or diseases with this list, okay? So if you live somewhere where there's squash bugs and vine bores and cucumber beetles like me and zucchini and summer squashes can be kind of challenging to grow, that is not what I'm talking about, okay? Zucchini as a plant on its own is absolutely just down, hands down, it's one of the easiest things that you can grow which is why there are so many memes like talking about sneaking zucchini onto your neighbor's porch and running away

[00:23:04] because once you get them growing, they're very prolific and unless you are in an area like mine where you're inundated with squash pests, there aren't a whole lot of pests that plague them in other areas. I mean, not even aphids or anything so they are typically very, very easy for beginners to grow. You can direct sow them right in place outside or you can start them indoors for transplant either way. The easiest thing to do is just direct sow them as soon as the soil temperature reaches about 65 Fahrenheit,

[00:23:34] boom, put them out there and they will germinate for you just fine. They like air temperatures best between 70 and 85 Fahrenheit so definitely a summer crop. They do prefer full sun so we're looking at 6 to 8 hours or so but you can absolutely do them in large containers. You'd want your container probably a minimum of 12 inches, I would say 18 inches deep if you can do it because they do tend to have deep roots and of course larger soil mass than the larger the root mass

[00:24:04] can be and the larger your plant can be which means the more prolific it can be. You can grow zucchinis or summer squashes or corgettes I believe they call them in Europe in growing zones 3 through about 10. In zones 11 you know those warmer areas you might face a lot of blossom drop just because of the heat but you know USDA zones on the cooler side you absolutely can start these indoors for transplant for when it starts to get warm.

[00:24:33] The reason I think these are good for beginners again very prolific production with not a whole lot of maintenance. Yes you have people who stake them and tie them up and do all that sort of thing like trellising with them but that's not necessary and I have had summer squash plants that were every bit of 3 feet across and 2 foot tall and just continued to produce all season long. So if you're a beginner or you've never grown zucchini before make sure

[00:25:03] that you research how what the average yield is for zucchinis and summer squashes before you decide how many you're going to plant. So you don't end up being that person who has to go and sneak the squash onto your neighbor's porch because you have it coming out of your ears right? Consider what you're going to use it for. Consider how much of it you're going to use and whether or not you want to preserve any of it when you're deciding how many of these that you want to grow but I absolutely recommend zucchini as a beginning garter plant. The next one

[00:25:32] is swish chard. Now if you're not a fan of swish chard I get it but the cool thing about chard is just like spinach you can harvest it at just about any stage so you can do baby leaf and just toss it loose into your salads. Like one of our favorite things to make is a spring mix that is baby chard, baby kale, loose leaf lettuce and then if I want to spice it up a little bit then we throw some baby arugula in there as well. It's fabulous. But we also grow our chard to where they're huge leaves and we sell them by very

[00:26:02] colorful bunches because we grow the rainbow chard and they're very stunning and eye catching. So you can you know swish chard is pretty versatile. You can direct sew it out into the garden. You can start it indoors to transplant out. The fun thing if you are going to start them indoors or if you buy transplants this is fun for everybody but also kids get a kick out of this. If you're growing multicolored swish chard it comes in red, pink, white, yellow, green, whatever color you're growing when you pull that

[00:26:32] plant out of its pot and you look at the roots, the roots are the same color as the stalk on the shard. So if you're growing a red shard those roots are going to be red. They're really cool looking. I have a picture somewhere I'll see if I can find it and post it of I think three of our shard plants that I was transplanting was like yellow and white and red or something all lined up and all you see is these bright colored root balls. They're really really cool. You can typically grow shard in

[00:27:01] USDA zones three through about ten absolutely in pots if you want and they don't have to be that big especially depending on how large you want these to get. If you want the bigger shard you at least want it to be a minimum of about eight inches deep but if you're just doing baby shard it doesn't have to be that big of a pot. This is another one that will take some partial shade so full sun is fine but part shade you know four hours or so four to six hours is perfectly fine for shard. It does like those cooler temperatures so

[00:27:31] you can germinate them in soil temperatures as cool as 45 Fahrenheit. Prefers it a little bit warmer it can go up as high as 70 Fahrenheit but the air temperatures kind of matter here too between 50 and 75 Fahrenheit although they will tolerate beyond that range so this is kind of their preferred temperatures but they will tolerate some heat and some cold which is one of the reasons why I recommend it for beginners because it's kind of flexible in terms of you know the leaves can be continuously harvested

[00:28:01] so if you're harvesting those larger leaves and leaving the smaller leaves to grow even if you're doing the baby leaf it will continue to grow for you all season long even more so if you're doing the much larger leaves and you're harvesting that way. This is another one that will tend to kind of go dormant when the air temperatures get too warm but that will pick up again if your temperatures are not too too hot in the summertime like here in most cases unless I can provide it with some

[00:28:30] afternoon shade our shard is usually done by about midsummer like it just can't handle the heat but if I do it somewhere where it's going to get some afternoon shade then it'll keep going all season long with not a problem so Swiss shard is another one that I would recommend and also if you've tried beets and you like beet greens but you haven't actually been able to get your beets to grow and you just want to stick with the green part of it Swiss shard is a cousin to beets so it's the same kind of texture and flavor sometimes not quite as earthy I

[00:28:59] think as beet greens but still a reasonable substitute the next one would be bush type cucumbers so cucumbers in any case can be direct zone or they can start it be started indoors and transplanted outside they do pretty well in USDA growing zones for through 10 you can do these in pots and the reason that the bush type ones are you know so easy for beginners is because you don't have to worry about a trellis you don't have to worry about training them so if you have a large pot

[00:29:29] that you can throw some seeds into they're going to be pretty prolific producers these bush type cucumbers will continue to grow and produce for a much longer period of time I think sometimes than the ones that require trellising which is why I like them for beginners they do like full sun so between six and eight hours a day and they do best with air temperatures between 70 and 85 Fahrenheit and the soil temperatures need to be about a minimum of 65 Fahrenheit before you try planting them or transplanting them outside

[00:29:59] okay and the next one I know people have some strong feelings on and that is kale so you either are very pro kale or you are very anti kale and I get it I don't know why it's so polarizing but if you do like kale know that it is very easy to grow you can either direct sew it or you can transplant them it doesn't care either way it will germinate very quickly and grow fairly quickly regardless of how you plant it you can do this generally speaking USDA hardiness zones three through nine

[00:30:28] once you get warmer than that kale is going to struggle just because it's a brassica and brassicas have a hard time with the heat if you are in one of those warmer zones and you can grow it during the coolest part of your year and also provide it with some afternoon shade then you can likely go ahead and grow kale in zones 10 and 11 you just have to have some special considerations there it will take part shade so that's another one where if you have a corner of your gardening area

[00:30:57] that doesn't get full sun and you're looking for something to grow kale can be one of those things with all of these plants that are part shade or can tolerate part shade the only thing that you're going to notice is that they will grow to maturity a little bit more slowly than if they were in the full sun other than that the growth habits and the yield should be pretty much the same kale will is another one that will germinate in the cooler soil temperatures so they say

[00:31:27] a minimum of 40 I actually prefer 45 to 50 for for kale on up to about 70 Fahrenheit in terms of soil temperature and the air temperature can be as cool as 45 degrees Fahrenheit all the way up to 75 it does like the cooler temperatures but it will tolerate the heat this is another one that produces over a very long period of time and that you can choose to harvest in at any stage basically so you can harvest it for the baby kale I mentioned we put baby

[00:31:56] kale into our spring mix along with the shard and that kind of stuff but you can also wait until kale is really large if you you know want to chiffonade it or whatever to cook it down when you harvest it for like baby leaf you can cut it all the way off and just let it regrow that way or you can harvest like the larger leaves and leave the smaller ones depends on how meticulous you want to be when it starts to get larger you harvest those larger outer leaves and the center will continue to

[00:32:25] grow as it grows it starts to develop a stalk in the center very similar to what you would see in a brussel sprouts right so you get this tall stalk and you'll be harvesting those leaves all the way around that stalk as they're growing and you'll always have the new growth coming in at the top eventually this plant is going to look kind of like a palm tree it's going to be kind of bare going all the way up and it's going to have this little plume at the top of the fresh growth

[00:32:54] so however you choose to harvest it it's going to have a very extended period of time that you get to harvest it this just like the spinach is going to do the same thing in the hottest part of the season it will likely go dormant and then pick up growth again when the temperatures cool off if you're in a very hot area in the summertime you're over 95 degrees Fahrenheit for an extended period of time it's not going to be super happy with that but again you can replant in the late summer for a

[00:33:23] harvest in the fall you can also allow your kale to get to some maturity before your kind of dormant period over the winter time kicks in and you can continue to harvest off of it over the winter time and then it will have this fresh flush of growth in the early spring as soon as the temperatures are conducive and as soon as the day length starts to lengthen and you will have that super early early harvest while you're you know planting fresh kale plants in the spring so

[00:33:53] again tolerates frost tolerates heat tolerates poor soil so you can practically grow kale anywhere and produces over a nice long period of time which is why I think it's so great for beginners and then finally we have one that comes with a little bit of a caveat because it is easy to grow once you get it going and I'm talking about carrots yes they

[00:34:22] are divas I have said this before but they are easy to grow once you get them going the only reason carrots are divas is because they really need that consistent moisture when they are trying to germinate and it can take them up to three weeks to germinate so if you are new at growing carrots and or even if you're not new at growing carrots I mean sometimes they're just finicky okay at least in my experience so you definitely want to direct sow these again they're a root vegetable so we don't want to disturb them we want to sow them

[00:34:52] directly wherever they're going to grow yes this can be a pot you can do deep pots about 12 inches deep and just space them appropriately in the pots and you can get a really good carrot harvest that way USDA hardiness zones 3 through 10 anything warmer than that they don't tend to do very well and they do want full sun so we're talking six or more hours a day the one thing is the soil just like our radishes the carrots like a loose well draining soil they like a sandy soil so if you can grow these

[00:35:21] in like raised planters or pots of some sort where you have a little bit more control over the texture and the composition of your soil I highly recommend that I have done really great carrots in ground a couple of times in a couple of different beds but my like knockout harvests of carrots have always come in my planter box direct planters that's just because I can control that soil texture so you just want it to be free

[00:35:51] again of those rocks or anything chunky so they're not growing in and around anything right the main thing with carrots is when you plant them make sure that you have a way to keep them consistently moist so if this means you water them in really well and then you put a layer of burlap over top and you water the burlap to keep it in contact with that soil to keep it moist fine do that for me I toss a loose thing of a layer of straw over

[00:36:20] the top and then I water that and then I will put insect netting over top that lays directly on in contact with the straw and water that into and that way it's keeping it pretty consistently moist moist and then of course I just have to pull that insect netting up when they start to pop up this they come right through the straw with no problem they will germinate in cool soil temperature so 45 to 70 Fahrenheit is perfectly fine they just want that consistent moisture so if you can get them to that point where they actually

[00:36:50] germinate then after that it's easy peasy the only thing that you have to worry about with carrots is just thinning them out to make sure that they have enough space between them so they can get to their full size they don't want to be competing with each other and they also don't want to be competing with weeds or anything either but carrots are great to plant in like individual rows and then plant radishes in between them because the radishes because they germinate so quickly like in a matter of a couple of days you will see where the

[00:37:19] radishes are and then now you know where your carrots are because when something can take like three weeks to germinate sometimes you forget where they are in that bed or whatever you're growing them in so having something else in between those lines of carrots that pops up right away kind of gives you an idea of where they're growing so yes I say carrots are divas but because you can direct sow them and there's not a whole lot of maintenance or you know pruning or anything else

[00:37:48] to go with them as long as you can give them consistent moisture I think carrots are perfectly fine for a beginner so other than carrots all of these crops that we talked about share some specific commonalities that make them beginner friendly veggies for the garden most of them have very fast germination and very fast growth not a whole lot in terms of pester disease problems with a few exceptions there I know don't come at me about those squash bugs they have a fairly wide growing window and a fairly wide temperature

[00:38:17] tolerance and they are all suitable for containers or raised beds or in ground planting they can practically be grown anywhere so I hope that that gives you a starting point for starting your gardening journey or helping someone else to start theirs coincidentally these are all great crops to grow with kids in the garden because they require less maintenance and most of them grow pretty quickly which provides some instant gratification for

[00:38:46] the kids I did an episode all about gardening with kids quite some time ago and I will leave a link to that in the show notes so until next time my gardening friends keep on cultivating that dream garden and we'll talk again soon record this and then hopefully it recorded properly this time