If you’re new to vegetable growing, or want the benefits of growing your own without spending hours in the garden, step this way! I’ve been growing vegetables since I was knee high to a cauliflower, but I still feel like a beginner - probably because I can’t resist trying new varieties every year. But there are a few super easy vegetables to grow that I rely on year after year, because they’re such an easy win and I know I’m guaranteed a good crop. If you want to harvest big with the smallest of effort, read on for my top ten easy to grow vegetables.

Jump to:

• Tomatoes
• Courgettes
• Lettuce
• Garlic
• Spinach
• Chillies
• Carrots
• Peas
• Climbing beans
• Spring onions
• More challenging veg

1. Tomatoes

Why?

If you’ve never grown your own tomatoes, I’m so excited for you - the taste and smell are something else. 

Shop bought tomatoes don’t come close to home grown because they’re not allowed to ripen fully on the vine and develop their natural sweetness.

How easy is it?

Gratifyingly easy for the amount of tomatoes you get. Cordon tomatoes (the tall ones) need supporting as they grow, but if you don’t want to bother with this, go for a bush variety or one that’s recommended for pots. 

Top tip

The one thing you can’t avoid with tomato plants is feeding them. Get a good potassium rich tomato feed (or make your own) and use it every two weeks from when the flowers develop. It makes all the difference!

Best varieties

Award winning Gardener’s Delight is one of the most reliable tomatoes you can grow, with a great flavour and heavy crops. It does need some support though, so if you’d rather skip that, try Tumbling Tom in a pot or hanging basket.

2. Courgettes

Why?

They’re ridiculously expensive in the shops and nothing to shout about. Pick them when they’re small for the best flavour. You can also eat the flowers - stuff them with ricotta and deep fry them for a seriously impressive starter.

How easy is it?

I hope you like courgettes, because once these get going, you’ll have a new hobby of working out how many courgettes you can use every day. Heavy cropping doesn’t come close! For a laugh, you can leave one to grow into a marrow. 

Top tip

Give them plenty of space. The plants don’t look big to start with, but they need to be planted at least 60cm apart to allow them to spread out properly. 

Best varieties

I’ve never met a courgette that wasn’t a piece of cake to grow, but El Greco brings award winning flavour and an open habit to the table, making it a breeze to pick. Yellow variety Atena Polka looks fancy but is equally low maintenance.

3. Lettuce

Why?

No more forgotten bag of decomposing salad in the bottom of the fridge - if you’ve got your own lettuces growing in the garden you can just go out each day, pick a few leaves and more will grow. 100% healthier and actually tastes of something!

How easy is it?

You’ll need to watch out for slugs and snails, but apart from that you won’t have any trouble. Your lettuce will keep on growing right throughout the summer.

Top tip

If the weather forecast looks a bit chilly, cover your lettuces with bubblewrap or garden fleece overnight. (Weigh it down with stones or use tent pegs.)

Best varieties

For summer planting I love baby leaf varieties, as they look so fresh and appetising on the table. For autumn plantings I’ve had the most success with Winter Density - it lasts for months!

4. Garlic 

Why?

If you love garlic, wait until you try it really fresh. These plants take up very little space and even help to keep the bugs off your other vegetables.

How easy is it?

Plant it, walk away and forget about it until harvest time.

Top tip

You’ll know it’s time to pull up your garlic bulbs when the leaves start to wilt and turn yellow. Leave them to dry, then you can store them or use them fresh.

Best varieties

You can’t beat Isle of Wight garlic - it’s so good they have an annual festival devoted to it! This variety has always come up well for me, with practically no effort.

5. Spinach

Why?

Amazingly healthy, full of essential minerals and delicious in a vast range of dishes. When it’s fresh from your own garden you can eat it raw in salads or add it to whatever’s cooking. Pick what you need and more will grow.

How easy is it?

Like all leafy vegetables, you’ll need to take some preventative measures against slugs, but apart from that it’s hardy, crops repeatedly and produces its first leaves in 4-6 weeks so it’s an easy win.

Top tip

Grow it in pots near the back door so you can easily grab a handful for your smoothie.

Best varieties

Perpetual Spinach is a lovely old variety, an RHS award winner for its hardiness, flavour and prolific cropping. Plus you can plant it in either spring or autumn.

6. Chillies

Why?

It can be difficult to find really good chillies in the shops, or specialist ones for Caribbean and South Asian dishes - growing your own will really elevate your cooking and save you a packet.

How easy is it?

If chillies have enough sun they’ll work brilliantly - pots on a windowsill are perfect and I always get enough to freeze and dry from mine. You will need to watch out for whitefly though, as they can get out of hand unless you catch them early.

Top tips

For the best crop, give your chillies a tomato feed every two weeks from when the blossom appears. Your chillies will turn from green to their final colour as they ripen, but you can pick them at any stage.

Best varieties

Chillies are a matter of personal preference - they’re all easy, so go for the variety you love and the heat you can handle. My favourites are Jalapenos because they’re just so versatile and Apache because they’re great for small space gardening.

7. Carrots

Why?

Home grown carrots are juicy, sweet and never dry - you don’t even have to don’t peel them, just a quick scrub will do because they’re not covered in chemicals. No more paying over the odds at the farmers market for fancy ones.

How easy is it?

Carrots need a bit of space, a nice loose sandy soil and good soil depth to form properly - once you’ve got this sorted, you probably won’t have to bother much until harvest time.

Top tip

Plant your carrots alongside something strong smelling like mint, parsley, leeks or garlic to keep the carrot flies away.

Best varieties

I don’t grow standard orange carrots because they’re cheap enough in the shops and honestly, if you can grow purple and yellow ones, why wouldn’t you? These full size carrots do need a bit of soil depth, so if you’re growing in a small space or pots, choose the more petite (and really tasty) Chantenay.

8. Peas

Why?

I thought I didn’t like peas until I started growing them - they’re like a different vegetable. So sweet you can eat them straight from the pod.

How easy is it?

Peas don’t demand much beyond a sunny place in the garden and a well-draining soil, and can fit into a narrow space. Most need a trellis or support to scramble up, but you can also get varieties that don’t.

Top tip

Grow your young plants on in a length of guttering or rectangular planter, then when it’s time to transplant them  outdoors, you can remove the whole lot at once and you’ve got a ready made row!

Best varieties

Hurst Greenshaft is a heavy cropper that’ll fill your freezer - it does need a trellis or support, but is pretty trouble free. Tom Thumb is a small plant that gives you full size peapods - you can grow it in a pot, windowbox or in the spaces between your other crops, with no support needed.

9. Climbing beans

Why?

For sheer quantity of crops, it’s hard to beat climbing beans. They seem to improve almost any meal and have the added bonus of really lovely flowers.

How easy is it?

These grow very easily but be careful not to plant them out too early as slugs can decimate young plants.

Top tip

Don’t be daunted by climbing plants that need support - it’s easier than you think and you can even make it into a design feature.

Best varieties

Tendergreen french beans are very prolific, and best of all, need no support. I’ve also chosen Enorma runner beans because although they need support, they’ll reward you with a freezer full of exhibition quality veg for very little effort.

10. Spring onions

Why?

They take up very little space, grow fast and cost megabucks in the shops.

How easy is it?

Spring onions are ideal for growing in containers - they even do well in windowboxes! All onions are pretty easy but these will reward you with a crop within weeks.

Top tip

This is a good crop for areas of your garden that perhaps don’t have the best soil - if spring onions are grown in soil that’s too rich, they’ll produce too much leafy growth.

Best varieties

White Lisbon has been the gardener's go-to for over 250 years, but they’re all great for beginners. Plant lots and you’ll be harvesting them from June to October.

More challenging veg to grow

As a keen experimenter with weird and wonderful veg, it pains me to say it, but there are some vegetables that defeated me and which are probably best left to those with more time, space and patience. These are the crops I tried so you don’t have to!

Sweetcorn

An absolute monster. To be fair, I think this would be fine if you have a lot of space. And I’m talking more than the 2m x 1m raised bed I put them in, because they filled it! They looked very impressive, but for the few anaemic looking mini cobs I managed to harvest before the weather turned, the space could have been better used.

Aubergine

I love aubergines, but after trying to grow them for three years running, I haven’t even managed to get flowers on the plants, let alone fruit. It’s probably because I started them from seed so they didn’t get a long enough growing season - they also need a lot of sun.

Cauliflower

One word: caterpillars.

Turnip

From ten plants, I got one single, solitary turnip which was so hard it broke my paring knife - I think the soil needed to be looser.

Pepper

They need a LOT of sun - my lean-to conservatory with a leaky roof in Yorkshire just didn’t cut it. You might have more success further south, though.