Do you love food? Do you have a green thumb? Then growing some of your own food in your garden can be a great way to add amazingly fresh flavor to you diet. Gardening is relaxing and rewarding, and many of the crops on this list don’t take up a ton of space, so they can grow in any yard! So give it a try and plant one of these delicious crops!
- Tomatoes - Tomatoes are one of the most common home-grown crops, and for good reason! They’re a staple of many of our favorite recipes, and taste incredible fresh off the vine! These should either be planted directly into the ground or in pots 6-12 inches in diameter (depending on the size of the plant/fruit). With so many varieties to choose from, it’s hard to go wrong with tomatoes!
- Basil - One of the perfect partners to the tomato (caprese salad is one of the greatest summer delicacies), basil is one of the easiest herbs to grow and care for. Best of all, it grows great in small pots! Be sure to get a draining pot, and water the basil frequently, as it somewhat fickle with water. Too much, and the leaves will turn a pale yellow color. Too little, and the plant will dry up and die. Healthy basil should have bright green, shiny leaves.
- Cucumbers - Cucumbers are a great addition to salad as well as a delicious snack in the form of pickles! Cucumbers are a vine plant, and can be grown along a fence or on a lager plot of flat ground. The only danger with growing them on the ground is the fruit will rot if it sits in puddles, so make sure your garden has good drainage! If you live in a warm enough climate, you may even get more than one harvest per season by replanting in mid-summer!
- Peppers - Peppers of all sorts are great home crops. Bell peppers are great on salads or in fajitas, while smaller, spicier peppers give a great kick to countless recipes. The longer the pepper is on the vine, the sweeter the pepper will become. In fact, red and green bell peppers are actually the same fruit! The only difference is the red peppers have been left on the vine longer.
- Mint - Mint is so easy to grow, you hardly have to do any work at all. Almost to a fault. Mint grows like a weed, and as such, needs to have a close eye kept on it. You’ll have no trouble getting it to grow in any climate (in fact, it is a perennial in most!), but getting it to stop can be tricky. For best results, keep it in a pot of its own to keep it under control, since it can overwhelm other plants. There are also dozens of varieties to choose from, from familiar flavors such as peppermint and spearmint, to more exotic variants such as pineapple and chocolate mint!
- Radish - Radishes have a delicious peppery flavor that are great on vegetable trays or in salads. The best part is, they’re super easy to grow at home! Typically planted with seeds as opposed to starter plants, radishes grow best in cool weather/shade, so make sure they don’t get too much sun! They grow very quickly and will be ready to dig up in no time!
- Raspberries - Raspberries are a great at home crop because they are perennial, and produce delicious fruit year after year! They raspberry bush requires fairly little supervision during the growing season, but in the off season, it needs to be pruned back considerably, since the bush can easily become overgrown. Raspberry bushes produced the most fruit in full sun with well drained soil.
