Over the last few weeks, I’ve been wondering what should I plant in my vegetable garden. Now that spring is here we need to get moving because our “vegetable” garden will need to be planted soon!
Fun fact: did you know most of what many people grow in their “vegetable” gardens are actually fruits?! Tomatoes = fruit. Cucumber= fruit. #FunFact
We are not pro-gardeners by any means but we do our best year after year. The last few years our crop has been quite plentiful!
We hope that this year is the same.
When it comes to what we plant, we choose based on what our family eats and what we WANT to grow. Part of the fun for us is trying to grow new things and therefore trying new foods!
The first year we grew what we wanted but found we had much more of things we didn’t actually eat. An example of this is jalapeños and habaneros. We grew an entire bed of hot peppers and rarely used them!
Believe it or not, we still have some dried and canned hot peppers from that season nearly 4 years ago.
So what will we be growing this year? I want to talk about each of the seeds we know we will grow and why.
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GREEN BEANS
Growing green beans is a great starter plant for any family. They are quick to sprout, can grow in abundance, and are delicious right off the vine. (at least my kids think so … me, not so much. I like mine cooked.)
In 2019 our green bean plants were nearly 10 feet long and grew well into the fall!
CUCUMBERS
Although they take up a large amount of space (we typically fill one bed with cucumbers) our family eats these almost every day. The kids LOVE cucumbers for snacks which makes cucumbers the perfect choice for our garden.
I feel like cucumbers are a great beginner plant but they can definitely have their challenges.
RELATED: Check out Epic Gardening on YouTube for AWESOME beginner tips!
TOMATOES
Always our easiest plant to grow for some reason, tomatoes are a no brainer for our garden. There is something amazing about eating a sun-warmed tomato straight from the vine.
When it comes to tomato variety we like to keep them smaller so they don’t get mealy. Our favorites are cherry tomatoes and Roma tomatoes.
Did you know you can get some pretty good deals on Amazon for vegetable seeds? I found this set of 30 vegetable and herb seeds and it’s a great price! Plus it comes straight to your door.
RELATED: Vegan Amazon Favorites
EGGPLANT
We did eggplant the last two years and really enjoyed it! They are super tasty to dice up and put in pasta sauce but there are so many other ways to use them too.
I haven’t decided how many plants we will do this year but I’m guessing 2-4.
BELL PEPPERS
Always a favorite here, we actually decided to plant the seeds from some red bell peppers we bought from the store. Last year we bought seeds for “rainbow peppers” and all we got were purple peppers…which tasted like green peppers. And we don’t like green peppers much. So this seemed like a much better option!
RELATED: Bell peppers are one of our favorite snacks to add to our kids snack plates!
SUGAR SNAP PEAS
We’ve never done sugar snap peas but we made a new little trellis pot out of a crib frame (thanks to my child for breaking the bed!) and it will be the perfect sugar snap pea home!I’ve heard they can be difficult to grow so if you have any tips for growing sugar snap peas, please share them!
GREEN ONIONS
These are so easy to grow and take up very little space. Last year was the first year we did them and it was awesome because we could leave them until we needed them and they just kept growing!
Cantaloupe
Last year we threw a seed from a cantaloupe we bought into the garden and when we checked back a few weeks later it had sprouted! We were totally impressed when we saw it grew a tiny cantaloupe!
Last year we planted it way to late in the season so we did not get to harvest the little guy but this year will be different… We already have cantaloupe seeds sprouted!
Zucchini
If you want a plant that is easy to grow and produces an abundance of fruit, this is a great one! You can even freeze any extras you have and use it for zucchini bread and similar goodies in the colder months.
Another fun thing to do is spiralize them! If you’ve never made “zoodles” you’ should give them a try after you grow your own. This vegetable spiralizer is super fun for any kitchen.
Kale/Lettuce/Spinach
A no brainer for the vegan family (haha) we will grow lettuces again although we haven’t had the best of luck with them in the past. Kale is easy as it’s pretty hearty but lettuce has been more challenging in the past. We had an aphid problem in 2018 and it grossed me out way too much.
RELATED: 4 Tips For How To Go Plant-Based
Herbs
A lot of the herbs I choose to grow are just based on having things that smell good and that fill space.
One that we do use every year is basil and that is already growing for us now. Other herbs we will grow outside (we already have an Aerogarden inside with them growing through winter) are chives, dill, rosemary, and sage!
Pumpkins
This is another one we want to try this hear for fun and for the possibility of having surprises when fall comes.
Not sure what type we will grow or if they will work but it will be fun to try!
To follow along as our garden gets put together, be sure to follow me on Instagram!
Like I said we are definitely not professional gardeners and we don’t have a huge amount of land for it. However, considering our lifestyle choices (following a plant-based vegan diet), it makes sense to grow what we can!
Do you have a garden? What do you grow? Is there one thing that you ALWAYS grow year after year?
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