10 Beginner-Friendly Crops to Grow + 3 Garden-Starting Basics You Need to Know

Welcome to Bri Books! Embarking on the journey of creating your garden is thrilling, but can also be filled with challenges. In this episode, I'm revealing the 10 most beginner-friendly garden fruits and veggies to grow, along with 3 garden-starting basics you need to know. 

3 Garden-Starting Basics

1. 1:20 - Don’t try to grow the grocery store! It’s easy to overwhelm yourself when you're beginning your garden journey. Instead, focus on growing the herbs, veggies, and fruits that you enjoy. Grow your garden through the lens of the crops you look forward to eating and cooking with. 

2. 2:45 - Keep pollinators top of mind! Growing a mix of flowers, herbs, and veggies helps the overall pollinator ecosystem. When in doubt, throw some flower seeds out! 

3. 3:20 - Get to know your land! Monitor and notice the amount of light your garden gets throughout the day, and keep track of soil conditions--what happens to the area during heavy rains? Intense heat? Does it have any shade. cover? You want your garden to be built in a sunny, well-draining area with nutrient-rich soil. 

10 Beginner-Friendly Crops

1. 4:15 - Salad greens, kale, and spinach: Starting your garden journey with green leafys is rewarding because they grow relatively quickly (seed to salad in 21-30 days). 

2. 5:00 - Cucumbers: Cucumbers can go from seed to salad in about 40-45 days. Cucumbers love cool weather, making them perfect for late spring. Pro tip: Trellis your cucumbers up the stems/ stalks of your sunflower plants! 

3. 5:50 - Zuchinni: Zuchinni thrives in the garden. Zuchinni plants grow wide and large, and the leaves arebeautiful and luscious, providing excellent shade for smaller plants. Zuchinni are tastiest when younger, so picking zucchini after about a week of growth helps to encourage more growth. 

4. 6:50 - Tomatoes: I recommend growing at least two varieites of tomatoes in your garden: one snacking tomato (sun gold, cherry tomatoes, etc), and one recipe tomato (Moneymaker, Beefsteak, Black Krim, etc.)

5. 7:30 - Beans or Peas: Peas and beans are great beginner-friendly and kid-friendly crops in the garden. Kids love to watch the pods form! They thrive during spring and summer, and well into fall.

6. 8:40 - Peppers: For beginners, growing peppers is a great idea. Focus on compact peppers like thai chili peppers, shishito peppers, and gochu peppers. These grow in compact bushes and keep producing until the end of season. 

7. 9:30 - Potatoes: The more you ignore potatoes, the more they love you. Potatoes grow well in solitude--once you plant them, leave them alone until the potato plant dies back, signaling that it’s time to harvest the tubers underground. For first-time gardeners, growing potatoes in a milk crate or felt container is easiest.

8. 10:35 - Herbs: Focus on growing the herbs you like to eat at home (like basil, rosemary, mint, lemon balm). Herbs are a great great starting point if you’re beginning your gardening journey and you're endeavoring to include more flavor in your daily meals.

9. 11:15 - Flowers: Flowers are a necessary (and often overlooked) part of the garden. Flowers like marigonlds, zinnia, calendula, cosmos, and nastirtium are beginner-friendly, thanks to their low-maintenance nature and ability to attract pollinators. 

10. 12:00 - Strawberries: Strawberries grow very well in containers, making them perfect for any and all gardens. Whether it’s in a hanging pot, a raised bed, or a felt container, strawberries are low-maintenance and high-yield. 

11. 12:30 - Radishes: Radishes can be sown as soon as early spring breaks through.  They go from seed to salad in about 21-30 days, a fastgrowing and nutrient-dense crop that helps kick off the season.

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