Healthy Vegetables You Should Grow At Home

Five Vegetables Every Gardener Needs To Grow

All gardeners dream big. But, as planting time approaches, most gardeners realize they have to reign in their dreams a bit. Sure, it would be nice to have a gigantic garden filled with a produce aisle worth of vegetables. However, the reality is that time, space, and money must be considered. Most of us are not blessed with endless supplies of any of those items.

Given our limited resources (time, space, and/or money), how should we approach the desire to create a garden that will make us happy, and hopefully produce some delicious vegetables? Here is a list of vegetables to plant that should satisfy the want-to-be farmer, and give anyone a harvest to be proud of.

Tomatoes

Every garden, big or small, needs tomatoes. This is a fun vegetable to grow, takes up very little room when handled properly, and gives us great joy. Whether you choose a small variety, like a cherry tomato, or a big tomato, like a beefsteak, when you pick that first ripe tomato off the plant, there is a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction.

Part of the pleasure is the time it takes to ripen, especially if you choose a large variety of tomato. You will be watching a single tomato for days, counting the minute when you can pick it. There is a lot of fun in that, but there is also fun in picking lots of little cherry tomatoes and filling bowls and bowls with them. Either way, tomatoes are a must for any gardener because there is just so much fun (and lots of flavor!) in a nice ripe tomato.

Onions

This is a vegetable that is almost too easy to grow. Plant some onions, they get big, and you pick them. It can't get much easier than that. You can also decide if you want little tiny salad type onions or just leave them in the ground until they get to be cooking onion size. There is not much work to them and they can be used just about any time for any meal. The one bonus that you may not know about onions, though, is onions help keep pests out of your garden. Surround your garden with onions and critters don't want to bother trying to eat their way through the onions (which they don't enjoy) to get to the veggies they do enjoy.

Sugar Snap Peas

These lovely plants are as pretty as they are delicious. Some gardeners avoid planting them because they require room to climb and they have tendrils that curl around everything in their path. Peas also require cooler weather, which is both good and bad. You can plant them early, giving you a nice spring gift, but they will burn off as summer wears on if they are not shaded a bit.

The wonderful thing about these peas is they offer us several ways to enjoy them. Pick the peas before they develop and you have pea pods, great for stir fry and salads. Wait until the peas develop inside the pods and pick them, shell them, and you have peas ready for cooking, salads, or even to blend into cold soups. Then there are the pea vines, which can be clipped off, chopped, and eaten as a green in salads. Give these little peas room to grow and they will pay you back plenty!

Yellow Squash

This is a vegetable that needs very little tending to grow and even less preparation to eat. They are tender and have no real seeds, especially when picked when they should be picked, when they're small. You don't peel them or scoop out seeds. Just plant, water, pick, wash, chop, and eat. You can roast, grill, boil, or fry them. Throw them in a soup, salad, or a casserole. Any time you need a vegetable in a hurry, this is the one you can grab and go with. They also won't take over your garden like some of their relatives do.

Potatoes

Okay, I know what you're thinking; “Why potatoes? They seem so boring.” Yes, potatoes have a reputation of being dull, but, not if you choose the right potato. You don't need acres of boiling potatoes in your back yard. However, a little spot of tiny gold, new red, or even fingerling potatoes would be a welcome addition to your garden. And, they are fun to grow, especially if you have kids in the house. Potatoes grow in the ground, under the plants, so they are somewhat of a surprise when it comes time to dig them up. Every potato discovered is like a buried treasure. I guarantee, once you uncover your first crop of potatoes, you'll be hooked.

You don't need to go crazy digging up your entire yard to plant a garden. With just a small patch to grow these five vegetables, you will have the joy of harvesting a mix of treats that will be a delicious pleasure!