Growing your own food comes with a lot of awesome benefits. However, it can also be really challenging, especially for beginners. Having said that, some foods are much easier to grow than others. So, if you are just getting started, it’s worth researching to see which produce you should start with.
Here, we’ll look at some of the easiest food to grow in a sustainable garden. This should give you an idea of which foods to start with.
Tomatoes
You’ll find most people who grow their own food started off with tomato plants. This is because tomatoes are by far one of the easiest foods to grow yourself. Cherry tomatoes are particularly popular as they tend to produce fruit fairly quickly. They are really easy to grow in containers too, given that they grow vertically.
There are lots of varieties of tomatoes you can grow. To start with, you’ll be better off with a bush variety such as the Romello tomato. These types don’t need any training; they simply need to be fed and watered in order to see them grow.
Salad Leaves
Salad leaves are another super-easy food to grow yourself. What’s great about these plants is that they produce a lot of salad leaves in one crop.
From seeds, many salad leaves take around three weeks to grow. Look out for seed mixes which advertise themselves as “speedy salad leaves”. This means they’ll grow extra quickly. They can also last year upon year, giving you fresh salad leaves each summer.
Potatoes
You don’t need as much space as you might think to grow your own potatoes. You can purchase special potato growing bags that you part-fill with compost. When the green shoots start to show above the compost, simply top it up a little to cover them. You’ll continue this process until the bag is full.
You just need to remember to water the plants for around 10 to 20 weeks. By that point, the foliage should be a yellow color. Tip everything out of the bag and rummage around to find the potatoes.
Garlic
Herbs are generally really easy to grow and garlic is no exception. All you’ll need is a wide, deep container to grow the bulbs in. They will need a lot of sunshine, but apart from that they require very little maintenance. Adding garlic to your meals adds so much flavor, and growing it yourself can save you a lot of money in the long term.
Beetroot
Finally, another easy food to grow yourself is beetroot. The great thing about beetroot is that it can grow in practically any climate and soil type. The container used to grow it in should be at least ten inches in depth. The plants will also require a good level of sunlight. However, they don’t require a lot of maintenance; simply water them as required until they grow.
So, there you have it – some of the easiest foods to grow yourself in a sustainable garden. All of the foods listed above are extremely simple to grow for beginners. So, pick one type to get started and see just how easy it is to grow your own produce.
