10 easy, productive veggies to grow this year

Spring garden with chives, spinach and lettuce in the foreground

Saturday, February 14, 2026

So you want to try your hand at gardening and want to start with the easy ones.  What would those be?  Here are my top 10 easy crops to grow.  All can be grown in pots or the garden.

Basil-this herb is great in salads, sauces, and pesto.  Just plant it in a sunny location and forget it.  Basil thrives on neglect.  Only thing it doesn't like is the cold.  Put out after all danger of frost has passed.  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

Chives-another care free herb.  Wonderful in salads and on potatoes.  A perennial that comes back year after year with pretty lavender blooms in late spring that are pretty adds to home grown salads.  Gives you the taste of onions with continuous harvests.   Add chives to your garden

Dandelions-a super nutrition green that was brought over by European immigrants.  New leaves are great in salads, mature leaves are tasty wilted, and roots are great dried and used as a coffee replacement.  7 Ways Dandelion Tea Can Be Good for Your Health  Just make sure you only use dandelions that have not been sprayed with chemicals.  There are also cultivated dandelions with larger leaves and sweeter taste available.  Grow Cultivated Dandelions

Egyptian walking onions-my favorite onion to grow.  These guys are perennials.  They continue to multiply underground or by the bulbets they sprout on the tops of their leaves in early summer.  With their curly tops, they remind me of Medusa!  The bottoms get the size of leeks and have the taste of white onions.  The tops I use like chives.  Egyptian walking onions

Garlic-typically planted in the fall.  They can also be planted in the spring; the bulb just won't grow as large as when planted in the fall.  Garlic has not only wonderful taste, but a plethera of health benefits.   For more on garlic, see  Time to plant garlic! With growing tips...... 

Green beans-come in either bush or vine form.  Like basil, they like the summer weather so plant after the last frost.  Personally, I like the vining beans, called pole beans. Simply provide a trellis for them to climb up and pick frequently to keep them producing.  Bush beans have a flush of beans and then taper off for the rest of the season.  All beans have pretty flowers to boot.  They grow well in the ground or in pots.  For more on beans,  Growing beans

Spinach in a pot

Lettuce-I love fresh lettuce from the garden.  Spring is prime time for the sweetest lettuce ever.  You can grow lettuce even in the summer if you plant the right varieties.  Bolt-free, sweet summer lettuces  The best advice for lettuce is to keep the soil moist and when the temp's rise, give it some sun.  Everything you need to know about growing lettuce  By harvesting the bottom leaves, you can get a continuous harvest for weeks.  Let the plant go to flower and keep their seeds to replant.  Never ending salad from one packet of seeds 

Mustard-a super easy, spicy green to grow.  I love adding new leaves to salads.  Giant Red mustard is a self seeder.  It is one of the first to come up in the spring and self-seeds so you get new plants year after year.  There are many varieties at Baker Creek Heirloom seeds that are sweet and not peppery.  What’s growing in the garden in February?   I grow lettuce and greens both in pots and in the garden bed.

Peas-another easy to grow veggie in the legume family.  I prefer to grow snow peas.  You get a lot more from each plant.  Sweet, tastiness for spring salads.  Peas are planted as soon as the soil can be worked.  I like to plant peas in pots.  Time to plant peas!

Sprouting broccoli-if you love the taste of broccoli, this is one you should try.  You begin getting bite size broccoli florets in summer and continues until fall.  If your lettuce bolts in the heat of the summer, use sprouting broccoli leaves; they taste just like the florets!  Sprouting broccoli- a year round fav

These are my top 10 easiest to grow veggie recommendations.  Try one or two or all ten for your first garden!

What seeds to start indoors now (8 weeks before last frost)

Starting seeds in peat pods and Aerogarden

Sunday, February 8, 2026

There are several varieties of herbs, veggies and flowers that can be started this week indoors.  Many are the same that you could have started last week.  Planting another round will extend the harvest.  I like to start every 2 weeks for succession planting.  For our zone 7 garden, here are the ones you can sow indoors now.  

Herbs 

*Borage

*Calendula

*Chervil

*Chives

*Lavender

*Lovage

*Oregano

*Parsley

*Rosemary

*Sage

*Stevia

*Thyme

*Woad

Veggies/Fruits

*Amaranth

*Artichoke

*Asparagus

*Beets

*Broccoli

*Cardoon

*Cauliflower

*Chard

*Corn salad (mache)

*Eggplant

*French Dandelion

*Huckleberry

*Kohlrabi

*Spinach

*Cabbage

*Lettuce

*Okra

*Parsnip

*Peppers

*Tamarillo

Flowers and Ornamentals

*Blue Fescue

*Verbena

*Datura

*Salvia

*Hibiscus

*Impatiens

*Ageratum

*Aster, China

*Corn Cockle

*False Queen Anne's Lace

*Sweet Annie

*Bells of Ireland

*Calendula

*Cardoon

*Bachelor's Button

*Globe Amaranth

*Joe Pye Weed

*Kale, Ornamental

*Larkspur

*Monarda, Bee Balm

*Petunia

*Phlox

*Iceland Poppy

*Ptilotus

*Sanvitalia

*Statice

*Strawflower

*Sweet Pea

*Black-eyed Susan

For indoor seed starting how-to and tips:  Indoor seed starting how to and tips

If you are transplanting seedlings from indoors to outdoors, be sure to harden them to the conditions they will be transplanted to.  If in a greenhouse, cold frame or hot bed, you can take outdoors when temperatures are warm or maybe an unheated garage if the temps are close to the covered location you will be placing them.  "Hardening off" seedlings 

Most of the veggies and herbs listed are cool season producers.  For more on cool season gardening, see A spring edible garden. 

What to plant for the February edible and decorative garden

Greens in portable greenhouse

Saturday, February 7, 2026

February is the time the garden begins to wake up, readying itself for the growing season in the Midwest, Upper South edible garden.  There are a few veggies that can be seeded outdoors and many that can be started indoors to give you a jump on harvests.  Using season extending strategies can also help you harvest sooner.  

Outdoor seeding

There are a few cold hardy veggies that you can sow outdoors in February.  Just about any variety that touts "winter hardy" are great ones to try in the February garden.

*Spinach seed can be scatter sown and will sprout when the temps are right.  Grow spinach-a super nutritious, easy green

*Peas can be tucked into pots and in the garden.  My granny would plant as soon as the soil could be worked, even with a little ice still in the soil!  My fav are snow peas since you can eat the whole pod.  Time to plant peas!

*Fava or broad beans can also be planted as soon as the ground can be worked.  Grow a European favorite-the fava or broad bean
*This is the time of year that asparagus can be planted as soon as the soil can be worked.  You won't be able to harvest the spears this year, but it gives the crowns the time they need so you can get a few next season.

*Mache or corn salad is also a super winter hardy green that can be sown directly in the garden.   Growing fabulous lettuce and greens

If you have a cold frame or portable greenhouse, you can also sow other cold hardy veggies under cover and they will get sprouting like lettuce, radishes, broccoli, cabbage.  

Cold season crops for your edible garden

 Outdoor seed starting tips 

Outdoor transplants

*Blueberry bushes and shallots when soil can be worked.

*At the end of the month, hardened off veggie transplants of cabbage, endive, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, lettuce, onions, pac choi, rhubarb, radicchio, scallions, shallots and spinach can be planted outside.  A spring edible garden

*Many herb plants can also be planted at the end of the month.  Chives, fennel, horseradish, parsley and thyme.  Start a kitchen herb garden!

Early March garden

Indoor seeds to start

There are many veggies that can be started indoors.  The trick to indoor seed starting is to not get too anxious and start seeds way before you can plant them outdoors.  Indoor seed starting tips

Seeds to start indoors now are the ones you will plant outdoors at the end of February and beginning of March.  Be sure to harden them off (gradually get them used to the outdoor temperatures) before putting in the garden or outdoor pot.

Asparagus, artichokes, arugula, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, chard, Chinese cabbage, collards, eggplant, endive, fennel, kale, kohlrabi, leeks/onions/scallions/shallots/chives (if growing from seed), cold hardy lettuce, mache, marjoram, mizuna, mustard greens, pac choi, parsley, peas, radicchio, snow peas, sorrel, summer savory, spinach, and thyme.

Indoor sowing/outdoor planting dates

Outdoor planting tips

Be sure to harden off any transplants that you grew from seed before planting in the garden or outdoor pot.  You'll need to get your transplants used to the outdoor temperatures and direct sun.  I like to plant outdoors when the forecast is for overcast skies and warmer temperatures for a few days.

For your portable greenhouses, you can grab plants from there to plant in the garden and start more seeds in the greenhouse.  

You can also use season extenders like portable greenhouses, row covers and cloches to protect your new transplants and give them a warming boost for growing.  The biggest issue with greenhouses and cloches in the spring is they can be 50 degrees warmer inside them than the outdoor air so you have to be diligent in opening them up when the temps start rising into the 40's and 50's on sunny days.  Extend the season with protection for plants

Spring garden prep

Before you start planting, be sure your garden is in tip top shape for the growing season.  Do a soil test to see what nutrients are needed.  Add the nutrients at the beginning of the month so they are available to the plants when they go into the ground.  I like to add fertilizer and worm castings to each planting hole.

The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals

 Be sure to also apply your mulch on top of the fertilizer and minerals you add to the garden.  This keeps them from being washed off or in the case of nitrogen, being released into the air.  Weed free, self fertilizing, till free garden beds

If this is your first time gardening and want to get started but not sure how, try this blog.  Easy kitchen garden

Happy gardening!  

February 2026 Edible Garden Planner

 

Sunday, February 1, 2026

With the days lengthening, plants know that spring is just around the corner.  In our garden, the daffodils and hyacinths have broken ground and the edible greens growing under cover are growing taller.  We are behind the last few years because of the polar vortex that is keeping us 20 degrees below normal.  Indoors, plants are increasing uptake of water, all plants are putting on more growth.  It won't be long before the forsythias are in bloom and edible perennials are breaking ground.   

When your soil is workable, it would be a great time to test it and add amendments so they are fully incorporated when you start planting and to support the rapid growth coming of your edible perennials.  You can buy a kit for testing, take a soil sample to your local extension office or send off a sample for a more rigorous soil analysis.   The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals...  If you don't want to go to the trouble of a soil test, add a well balanced, organic fertilizer to your garden bed, cover with compost, and top with mulch.

February is prime time to start seeds indoors and sow cold hardy seeds outdoors.  You  can get a jump on garden harvest by starting seeds indoors.  It is easy and a budget friendly option that allows you to get spring and summer harvests sooner and to grow many varieties not available at your neighborhood nursery or big box store.  Besides, it is fun to watch green things grow!

What to plant in the February edible garden  

Below is a calendar of what to start indoors and outdoors during the next month to get a jump on spring and summer harvests.  This is the earliest to start seedlings.  It is fine to start your seeds anytime after this timing as well.  To find your last frost date:  Frost date look up

Indoor seed starting dates (with an April 2 last frost date)

10-12 weeks prior to last frost (mid/end Jan in our Zone 7 garden)

Artichokes  Growing artichokes and cardoons

Arugula  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens

Bay  Start a kitchen herb garden!

Broccoli  How to grow broccoli and cauliflower

Cabbage  Cabbage is nutritious and easy to grow

Catnip

Celery  Give celery a try, an easy to grow garden staple

Chives  Add chives to your garden

Endive 

Escarole

Fennel  Growing fennel

Fenu

Horseradish

Leek, if starting from seed

Lettuce  Everything you need to know about growing lettuce

Mache

Mint

Mizuna

Onions, if starting from seed  Everything to know about growing onions

Parsley  Self-seeding crops, plant once and forget 'em

Peas  Time to plant peas!

Rhubarb

Shallots, if starting from seed  

Strawberries  Back yard strawberries

Summer savory  

Sorrel  Want a vegetable and fruit garden that you only have to plant once? Try perennials!

8-10 weeks prior to last frost (end Jan/early February in our Zone 7 garden)

Bee balm

Celeriac

Eggplant  Eggplant-add this native from India to your garden

Kale  Collards and kale in your garden

Kohlrabi  Kohlrabi-a less well known spring vegetable

Lavender  Using herbs, flowers and fruit for flavored sugars and salts

Lovage

Marjoram

Mustard  Mustard greens

Oregano

Rosemary  Make your own "Herbes de Provence"

Scallions, if starting from seed

Spinach  Grow spinach-a super nutritious, easy green

Thyme

Turnips  All about turnips

For a full seed starting calendar through April, Indoor Seed Starting Calendar

For both seed sowing and outdoor transplant timing for edibles and flowers, Indoor sowing/outdoor planting dates

Outdoor plantings in February  

Asparagus, fruit trees and bushes, garlic, grapes, shallots, spinach and peas seeds can be planted in the garden as soon as the soil can be worked.  Outdoor seed sowing seed starting times  If gardening in mulched flower beds, I clear a small slit in the mulch and then sow the seeds and cover with potting soil.  Most seedlings are not quite strong enough to break through mulch.  As soon as they are fairly sturdy, I bring the mulch back in around the plants.

Seedlings in Aerogarden seed starting system

Seed Starting Tips

What are the tricks to successful indoor seed starting?  The most surefire I have found with a gadget is the Aerogarden with the seed starting tray.  I have almost 100% germination rate with it.

When starting in coir/peat pots, the key is using sterile seed starting mix, pots and containers.  You can make your own seed starting mix with peat moss or coir (renewable), compost, and vermiculite.  Just be sure to heat the compost to at least 150 degrees for 20 minutes to kill any pathogens before using to start seeds.

After filling the pots with sterile seed starting mix, plant the seeds at the recommended depth and water at the bottom (watering from the top can dislodge seeds).  After the mix has absorbed the water, the pots are ready to put in a catch pan.  Make sure any catch pan that you use has been thoroughly washed in a bleach solution so all pathogens are killed.  You want the soil mix moist and not sopping wet.

 Keep soil moist, but not wet, with the heating pad on during the day and off at night if using until seedling emerges.  You can use a spray bottle to spritz the soil to keep it moist.  Once seedling emerges, remove the heating pad.  If you don't have a grow light, place the tray in a south facing window for the best light.  I will use a heating mat when I start the summer lovers.

Indoor seed starting how to and tips

Ideal soil temperatures for starting your seeds

Make your own peat pots

Make sure you label your seedlings as soon as you plant them; you may think you will remember 2 months from now what was where, but likely not.  I put the plant marker in the coir pot with the name on it when I plant the seed.  You can also keep a piece of paper under the seed starter that has captured for each cell what is planted in the cell.  

Your seedling’s first leaves are not “true” leaves; think of them as baby teeth.  The second sets of leaves are their true leaves.  They are ready to be hardened off when they have their first set of true leaves.  Seedlings must be hardened and not just thrown outside.  You take them out a little at a time, gradually increasing their exposure to sun and cold, only during the daytime.  I try and plant when there is a warm spell with clouds forecasted to minimize the shock.

There are great selections of herbs and veggies at nurseries and big box stores nowadays so you have many options just waiting until spring is officially here and picking up what looks good at your nearby store in a couple of months.  This is also a great back up if your first seed starting adventure goes a little awry...........

If you are putting in new garden beds as we are this year, here are some tips.  Put in a new garden bed the easy way-really  

I put together my 2026 garden plan early last month.  I'll continue to have my edibles in the flower beds and to also combine flowers with edibles in pots.  I did a lot of new perennials (edibles and ornamentals) from seed last year for the new beds we put in.  I'll fill in the holes from the ones that didn't make it with some other perennials.  I also have some more thyme and daffodils to put around the perimeter of the last bed we put in.  I'll have plenty of thyme and daffodils I can separate for those spots.  

Battle of the voles  Quick tip-how I keep the deer away  

My 2026 Decorative and Edible Garden Plan

Surprising veggies that can be grown in pots  

Veggies for small spaces

  Here is what I definitely have in my garden every year or make sure I still have enough in the freezer to last another year:  herbs, chives, onions, spinach, lettuce as well as summer greens for salads, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant, summer and winter squash, green beans, snow peas and lots of flowers!

For different garden ideas, here are a few to choose from:   Heirloom Sicilian kitchen garden, Small space French kitchen garden, Start a kitchen herb garden!  Children's edible garden  Colonial Vegetable Garden

For first time or busy gardeners, Easy kitchen garden 

Hang on, Spring is almost here!

My 2026 Gardening Goals

Saturday, January 31, 2026

I looked back on my 2025 gardening goals to see how I did and what I want to strive for the 2026 gardening season for my edible and decorative garden.  I did pretty well against my goals.  Now is a good time to develop this coming year's goals with specifics.

 My 2025 goals were to have a plan, make it beautiful, maximize the production, attract pollinators, try new things and be proactive on pests.  I think I did decent against my goals.  My biggest regrets on last year's garden was our tomato and potato harvest was not what I had hoped.

I think the 6 overall goals are the same I want this year with some changes in how to take them the next step for the current garden.

Goal 1:  Have a plan.  I started planning at the end of the fall season what I needed to plant for 2026 so I wouldn't plant too much, plant a variety that didn't do well, or forget a variety that I wanted to try.  I wrote it all down this past fall and put together my 2026 plan so I am good there. My 2026 Decorative and Edible Garden Plan  I was successful in deterring the voles with my thyme and daffodil planting.  I'll just need to add them around the one new bed we put in in late fall.  I also have ordered a few heat and disease tolerant varieties to keep production through the summer going. 

Goal 2:  Make it beautiful.  My flower beds are dual purpose, production of edibles, fragrance and decorative.  Many flowers are edible, too.  Flowers that are edible  Many of the perennials I planted in 2025 did well.  I'll have to fill in the few gaps of the ones that don't make it through the winter.  My focus for beautifying is the hill next to the house that is not mowable.  I spread many seeds of annuals and perennials in the fall.  I'll do the same in late spring to hopefully get self-seeders going.  I'll also transplant the many flower volunteers that come up in the garden beds to the hill.  

Goal 3:  Maximize the production of edibles.  Continue succession planting.  Want continuous harvests? Succession planting!  Be more ruthless in pulling out what is past its prime to make room for the next round/season of edibles.  Continue to add compost to the beds each spring or fall.  Continue to do soil testing and work to get pH at the optimum level for edibles, 6.5-7.5.  The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals  Have ordered more heat  tolerant and disease resistant tomatoes for the heat waves we are having nowadays to keep tomatoes coming.  For potatoes, I will either take the sides down from the potato boxes when I plant or I won't plant them in the boxes so they get the sun they need early in the season to produce spuds.  Also ordered disease resistant cucumbers as the ones last year succumbed in August to disease.

I planted many bulbets of garlic this past fall and separated cloves.  I will need to keep an eye on them and space them out once the bulbets sprout in the spring so they can develop.  My potato onions didn't do much at all in their current spot.  I've been watering with whey to get the pH down in the optimal range for them but if they don't develop a lot of greenery come spring, I'll need to find another spot for them.

We bought a shed that we are converting into a greenhouse, potting shed and gardening storage.  After it is completed, I'll be figuring out how to leverage it for the garden.

Goal 4:  Attract pollinators.  As I chose the perennials, annuals and edibles, I will keep an eye to how helpful they are in providing food and habitat for pollinators.  All my pots with edibles include flowers.  Decorative container gardening for edibles  I'll be sure to have the water bath and keep the landing spot I added last year for both birds and insects.  I added a bee hive last year.  The marigolds, cock's comb and zinnias were buzzing in late summer and fall with bees.  I'll continue to plant these annuals for them.

Goal 5:  Try new things.  I am always seeing new varieties to try so that is not a hard thing to do.  It's more about improving all aspects of the garden.  I will continue to look for ways to improve productivity and deter pests naturally, like planting Dragon's Radish next to sprouting broccoli to deter caterpillars.  Part of my garden plan will be making sure I have a strongly scented plant about every 6 feet to deter deer.  This can be marigolds or herbs.    

Goal 6:  Be proactive.  I live in the country so no matter how well your garden plan is for deer defense, they are going to get really hungry come spring and again in the fall or doing any prolonged drought.  I want to continue to be proactive in keeping my deer deterrents refreshed before they get hungry enough that herbs don't keep them out of the garden.