Easiest vegetables to grow

[whatnow47]

I am already planning for spring and would like to turn a fairly large (ish) area that gets lots of sunshine into a vegetable patch. I already grow a few things in large pots so not a complete beginner.

What is the easiest thing you grow in terms of pest damage and yield? (Not worried too much about space and happy to buy some materials)

TIA

Courgette

Courgettes. I hope you like courgettes...

Yes I came on to say courgettes too 🙂

Carrots?
Just plant them where they will grow. No point in transplanting.

Then you need to thin them out.

My brother grew courgettes they were all diseased or something. They all dropped off and turned black

Perpetual spinach/Spinach beet
Swiss chard
Rocket
Squashes, including pumpkin, of which courgettes are the most prolific and easiest
Mooli and radish
Cavolo nero - grows in winter
Strawberries aren't a veg but they are easy
Potatoes

I was about to say courgettes (we're still reeling from the courgette glut of about 10 years ago when I grew 6 plants for 2 of us. DH now refuses to eat courgettes in any form!).

On a more positive note, stick some radishes in on top of whatever else you plant - they come up and are ready for harvesting miles ahead of anything else, and help you remember where your rows are.

Lettuce is pretty easy and doesn't seem to attract cabbage white caterpillars the same way that the brassicas (cabbage, cauliflower etc.) do.

Potatoes are a doddle - plant and forget, really. I've never had much success with tomatoes or cucumbers - living in the west of Ireland they tend to blow over before they stand a chance of ripening, but your area may be more forgiving.

If your soil's fairly deep and soft, carrots and parsnips are good. If stony, expect twisted, warped and generally misshapen root veg - which can be interesting.

Nasturtiums aren't something people generally think of as vegetables, but the leaves are lovely and peppery, and may help to distract the cabbage whites from your brassicas if you're brave enough to attempt them.

You've inspired me to go browse some seed catalogues!

I find spuds, peas and beans the easiest veg to grow. Salad leaves and tomatoes are fairly easy. I've had dozens of cucumbers this year - I used A frames for the first time to support them which they seemed to like.
We do really well with soft fruits- raspberries and blueberries don't seem to need much looking after, though blueberries is particular need protecting from the birds. Strawberries also quite easy.

I think learning to grow what you eat though is the best way to go, we get through a lot of soft fruit so it's good to grow it, we don't eat a lot of cabbage, sprouts etc so no point in growing them

courgette, butternut squash, pumpkins.
they need to be protected from slugs as seedlings but once they get going they are off.
cucamelon are great.
peas
tomatos

Thank you! This thread is so informative.

Melons are easy

Runner beans. They'll reliably produce whatever the weather. As long as you get past the baby plant stage when they're prone to slug and snail damage (same as courgettes), they'll keep on plodding on for months.

Thank you!

I'm already a keen courgette grower so something on those lines. How about Kale?

In my garden, the only things that produce reliably are chives, garlic and rosemary. And mint, which came with the house 35 years ago and I've been unsuccessfully trying to kill it ever since. It smells lovely and minty when we cut the grass!!

The tomatoes were fine for a few years, but after a bad blight year they get hit every time now. I grew courgettes once in big pots, and they were a success.

You'd need to protect all brassicas from pigeons and white fly, or else they get chomped.
Unless you live right near the sea, where whitefly don't seem to be?

Cabbage white, not white fly! Although they get that too.

I tend to grow a combination of easy to grow and things that are expensive buy for what it is or difficult to find. Also - grow what you eat!
If you are starting from scratch spend time on your layout, it is worth it. If you have a very small space don’t worry about crop rotation, the spores, diseases and bugs will get everywhere anyway.
Easy to grow - runner beans/courgettes/swiss chard/beetroot (check your soil and the variety), new potatoes (Anya is the best!), asparagus! Prepare the bed properly from the off and you will have a crop for 20 years. I have 3 varieties that takes me trough the season, early, mid and late. I have two rows and they are tightly packed. I ordered bare roots but ended up with less space than I thought, so planted the on top of each other they are fine and 9 years going strong. Raspberries but in tubs otherwise they go literally everywhere, they are quite invasive actually.

Expensive to buy for what it is - herbs!! They are essentially posh weeds. Grow what you use, most plants are perennial, also new potatoes! If you plant a bay - keep it in a pot.
Difficult to source - things like courgette flowers, garlic is a doddle to grow and garlic-in-the-green (so the bulbs are not cured) is a revelation
To grow tomatoes properly is actually quite a pita, so only grow extra special ones that you can’t buy/get otherwise.
Carrots and parsnips are not worth it imo - they are cheap enough and I have never won the carrot fly battle.
Cut flowers are so expensive, with a little planning you can have a small bit for cut flowers that will serve you v well. I have a row of the most beautiful yellow lillies that are cut mid June, I bought really good bulbs and they have been going about 10 years, I just leave them where they are and feed them well. They have had babies since and I get a very good ‘crop’ from them. See also tulips, special daffs, a fern, a white hydrangea etc. My cut flower bed is planted in rows and treated as a crop. Have a look at Sarah Raven for inspo. Peter Nyssen for the best bulbs.
Espaliered fruit trees around the boundary, you don’t need to buy the expensive ready ones they are easy to train, takes about 3/4 years for the basic tree but well worth it.
Blueberries- total waste if time.
Happy growing!
Sorry for the essay, I know it’s not quite what you asked 🙈

Kale is easy but you will get caterpillars

@FayCarew

Kale is easy but you will get caterpillars

Cavalo Nero, the crinkly black kale, doesn’t seem to be troubled with caterpillars. Or maybe it’s the nearby purple sprouting acting as a decoy.

What’s easy depends a good deal on your soil, climate, aspect. I can grow courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes, swiss chard. I have less success with beans and peas, and I can’t grow radish.

Chillis are easy and give a good deal of satisfaction. They’re very pretty.

Broad beans are easy. I normally sow the seeds in October/November and they are ready before anything else needs sowing in the spring, a great use of space.

Courgettes and runner beans

I had success with runner beans this year. Grew from seed, built a support with canes, 6 plants and loads of beans from them. They are so expensive to buy and frozen ones are a bit soggy, so worthwhile to grow at home if you like them. My nan showed me how to cut them when I was a little girl and froze them in batches for the rest of the year.

I’ve only grown tomatoes, carrots and potatoes so. Need some ideas for next springtime as we’re probably moving house just before Christmas.

Also when I had an allotment, beetroot was easy and delicious, courgettes, as others have said, sweetcorn, and something else expensive, asparagus was easy to grow, once established. Chard and similar also good. Peas never did well.

Mangetout and sugar snap peas are easier than ordinary peas, simply because you get more to each from each pod, so even small crops are useful.