19 Easiest Vegetables to Grow for Beginners

Sometimes it’s overwhelming trying to decide not only what vegetables to plant but what varieties are best to begin with! It’s fun to try new and unique varieties, but sometimes we just want to start with the basics.

Today I’m listing some of my favorite easiest vegetables to grow. Most of these I have tried myself and have found dependable. Others I have heard from many around the country in our Facebook group that they are great to start with. If you’re starting your first garden or have been frustrated trying to find the right crops, click below to listen or keep reading.

And if 19 aren’t enough, you can download my expanded list of 100+ dependable vegetable varieties for beginners here.

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Easiest Vegetables to Grow: Tomatoes

Tomatoes are many home gardeners’ first choice, but they’re not always easy to grow. If you want to get started with an easier-to-grow variety, the smaller the better. Cherry tomatoes of any kind are great options, as are determinate paste tomatoes like Romas. Here are my top easy-to-grow tomato varieties.

Matt’s Wild Cherry – This small tomato will produce a lot and they are great for snacking. They are prolific and do not require as much staking.

Juliet- These are a little bigger than cherry tomatoes and are very dependable. They produced before any other tomato in my garden and kept producing in the heat of the summer when others had stopped.

Roma- These are my go-to tomatoes because I can them for sauces and paste. They are a determinate variety so they are not as difficult to stake.

Early Girl and Better Boy- These have been recommended to me as great varieties for slicing tomatoes.

Easiest Vegetables to Grow: Beans

Once you get started on some of these basic varieties, you’ll be ready to have some fun trying out other varieties of green beans. But first, I recommend getting your feet wet with one of these:

Blue Lake – You can grow these as a pole bean or a bush bean. These have been my most dependable, even when I plant them too early or have a problem with pests.

Kentucky Wonder – I have had great harvests from my Kentucky Wonder plants. These tend to get tough sooner than my Blue Lake beans, but if I pick them early enough they are great.

Easiest Vegetables to Grow: Squash or Zucchini

You really can’t go wrong with any basic squash or zucchini variety, but these are a few of my top picks to begin with.

Yellow Crookneck – These are basic, dependable yellow squash that are great for beginning gardeners.

Black Beauty- These are basic zucchini that are fun to grow and delicious.

Lemon Squash – I haven’t tried this unique squash yet, but from what I hear, it may endure squash vine borers better than other varieties.

Easiest Vegetables to Grow: Cucumbers

Before you decide on a cucumber variety, identify whether you plan to grow them for slicing or pickling. While you can use some kinds interchangeably, pickling cucumbers’ skins are more suited to brines of pickles.

Marketmore 76 – This is a basic, and prolific, slicing cucumber.

Chicago Pickling – This pickler has given me good, consistent yields. Watch out for powdery mildew, though.

Easiest Vegetables to Grow: Lettuce

You really can’t go wrong with most varieties of lettuce. Though I’d steer gardeners in warmer climates away from head lettuces (we get too hot too quick for heading), other kinds are easy to grow. But out of all the ones I’ve grown, these have risen to the top of my list:

Paris Island Cos – This is a romaine lettuce that is very easy. It grows well and boasts a crunch ideal for salads or wraps.

Cosmo – This variety is a great choice for warmer climates because it has better bolt resistance, meaning that it will resist the heat for longer than other varieties.

Black Seeded Simpson- This is very dependable, but not as crisp as romaine varieties.

Easiest Vegetables to Grow: Carrots

The biggest challenge in growing carrots is keeping the soil moist enough until they germinate, which can take weeks. But once you’ve cleared that hurdle, these have been the most dependable varieties I’ve grown.

Danvers 126- I’ve found that I get a good harvest from this variety and they even have a good tolerance for heat. They are also consistent producers in my clay soil. (Still, I plant all my carrots in raised beds to help with root growth.)

Scarlett Nantes- These are beautiful, but I usually don’t get as big of a harvest as I do with the Danvers.

Easiest Vegetables to Grow: Peas

Whether you want to grow snap peas or shelling peas, these varieties are ones I’d recommend starting with.

Sugar Snap Peas- Cascadia and other varieties of sugar snap peas are all dependable. I’ll be trying Sugar Ann Peas this year as a space-saving variety.

Lincoln- These were a variety of shelling peas that did not need a trellis and produced great yields in my garden last year.

Green Arrow- I have grown these for many years. These are very productive and, growing 3-4 feet tall, require a trellis of some kind.

I hope that these different varieties of vegetables will be a good place for you to start when you want a good, dependable crop for your garden.

For even more than I mentioned here, make sure to download our FREE printable list!