Gardening is a very rewarding activity. However, if you’ve never planted a garden before, it’s hard to know exactly where to start. Especially when it comes to deciding what to plant!

For first-time gardeners, it’s best to stick with a few basic greens for the first year. By gardening this way, it will allow you to learn the ins and outs of gardening without worrying about special products that require extra attention.

So what exactly should you grow in your garden? Here is a list of ten crops that are generally easy to grow and should be garden staples.

1. Tomatoes – It goes without saying that every garden should have at least one tomato plant. Even if you’re just growing in a container, plant a cherry tomato. Freshly grown tomatoes have a flavor that you will never find in one from the grocery store. Once you’ve grown up, you will never want to eat anything else!
2. Sweet corn – Summer and ears of corn: what could be better? Arrange a large pot of fresh corn on the cob for your family or cook them with the husk on the grill.
3. Carrots – Carrots have to be one of the simplest crops to grow. Just make a furrow, drop the tiny seeds, and wait for the tops of the fern carrots to sprout out of the ground. You will want to slim them down after they reach a few inches in height. If you don’t thin them, your carrots will be very thin! Give them room to grow thin.
4. Peppers – Like tomatoes, peppers are easy to grow and very showy. If you don’t have a large garden, toss a couple of bell pepper plants into a container or mix them with your flower. They are beautiful to look at and add a bit of spice to your diet too!
5. Pumpkins – Now the pumpkins take up a lot of space because they spread out. But if you have kids, growing your own pumpkin is a lot of fun! They will enjoy going to the garden and checking on Jack’s progress all summer long. You could even get some yard work out of them!
6. Pumpkin – Like pumpkins, squash takes up space due to the creeping nature of plants. But squash is a delicious summer food, so you’ll want to plant one or two. Do not plant too many because they produce well. You may be leaving zucchini on your neighbor’s porch if you plant a lot!
7. Cucumbers – This is another vegetable that is a perfect gift for the summer. Freshly cut cucumbers are refreshing on a hot summer day. Plus, if you sow enough, you can make pickles!
8. Green peas – That’s right, just a few simple peas. Peas are great to plant because they are ready to be harvested earlier than most other plants. So you can enjoy delicious fresh peas before anything else is ripe! But be careful, the peas are small. You think there are a lot of peas planted in the garden until you start shelling them!
9. Potatoes – On the other side of the peas, we have potatoes that are not ready to harvest until after the first frost. If you are planting red potatoes, you can dig them up earlier as red potatoes are often preferred to be smaller.
10. Beetroot – Red beet is another root crop like carrots. They are very easy to grow and, like red potatoes, you can start digging them early if you prefer to eat them small.

Please note that this list is a suggestion. Do not plant anything that you or your family will not eat. It’s just not worth your time and effort. If you grow vegetables that your family likes to eat, gardening will be more enjoyable for the whole family!