The 5 Easiest Vegetables to Grow at Home

With the current state of the economy, many people are growing their first vegetable gardens. Growing vegetables is easy and fun. Gardening is a great way to get regular exercise. Fresh vegetables are high in nutrients and taste so much better than vegetables that have spent days or weeks sitting in a truck or on store shelves.

There is a wide variety of vegetables that are easy to grow at home. All you need is a sunny patch of soil, well tilled and amended soil, regular watering and occasional weeding. Vegetables can be grown in containers, in raised beds, or directly in the ground. A good choice for a first time vegetable gardener is to grow summer vegetables.

First, choose the location. It will need at least eight hours of direct sun exposure each day. The next consideration is the soil. Containers can be filled with bagged potting soil for a really quick, easy garden. Digging amendments such as well rotted manure or compost into existing soil may be a more economical option. Determine the average last frost date to determine when to plant in your area. The Farmer's Almanac provides this information on their website.

Next, decide what to plant. Tomatoes are easy and can produce a lot of food in a small space. Tomato transplants are available from nurseries and garden centers in the spring. They should not be planted out without frost protection until two weeks after the average last frost date for your area. They will need support, either from a tomato cage or from stakes. Follow the instructions on the nursery tag regarding spacing.

Zucchini has a reputation for being a bountiful producer. Anyone who has ever grown zucchini, been related to someone who grows zucchini, or lived anywhere near anyone who grows zucchini knows that zucchini's reputation is well deserved. By the end of summer, you'll be trying to give them away. These can be planted from nursery transplants two weeks after the average last frost date. They can also be planted from seed on the last frost date if the soil is warm. These spread out and will need at least four square feet of ground space per plant.

Beans can be grown two ways. Bush varieties don't require support, but do need more space and are usually harvested all at the same time. Pole beans are better when space is limited because they grow up a trellis. They are harvested over several weeks. Both types are planted directly from seed following the directions of the package.

Cucumbers are another easy and prolific vegetable. Plant from seeds according to package instructions or plant transplants from the nursery. These vegetables can be allowed to spread over the ground or tied to a trellis if space is limited.

Pumpkins grow as easily as weeds. They require a bit more space that the other vegetables, but there is nothing like growing your own pumpkins for jack-o-lanterns. Again, just follow the directions of the seed package for the variety you are planting.

With just a little space, a few packages of seeds and a few transplants, you can grow a bumper crop of fresh vegetables. There can be significant cost savings in your food budget when you grow some of your own food. There are also numerous health benefits from the exercise and from consuming fresh vegetables.