Learn How to Grow Your Own Leaves, Roots, and Fruit

My first attempt at starting a vegetable garden looked like this: I drove to a big box store, selected the most promising-looking tomato plants, strapped them into the backseat of my minivan, and planted them in a little plot in our backyard. No matter what I did, those plants never thrived, and the squirrels ran off with the few fruits that grew on the vines.

So much for my vision of picking sweet red fruits by the handful and eating them straight from the garden.

It wasn't until I planted some lettuce seeds given to me by a friend that I finally realized my dream of harvesting something from the garden every single day. It's just that my basket was filled with leaves, not fruit.

Over the years, I've developed a system for learning to garden by growing with your plants. Leaves are the first things a plant produces, so herbs and leafy greens are the best place to start. Once you're getting the hang of this gardening thing, you can try your hand at root crops like radishes and potatoes. And then, when you've got your setup right and are used to tending plants regularly, you can finally graduate to fruiting plants.

As you move from leaves to roots to fruit, you'll need to give your plants more sunlight, more space, and more time (that’s time for your plants to grow and time you’ll need to commit to tending, as well). If that sounds doable, then consider this your complete guide to growing your favorite herbs and vegetables organically.

Grow Your Own Herbs

If you've ever felt overwhelmed by the idea of starting a garden or if you've started but were disappointed by the results, try growing some herbs.

Herbs demand very little of you in terms of space, sun, or nutrients. Since most herbs are grown for their leaves, you’ll get to harvest from your plants almost as soon as they start growing. And the more you take from these generous little plants, the more they'll give you!

The main tending task is the most rewarding one: harvesting. Picking leaves for tonight’s dinner actually helps prevent pests, deters disease, and even encourages more leaf production. 

Overview of Growing Herbs

Setup: 

• Sandy loam soil 
• Raised bed or container with drainage holes (or amended soil that’s mounded if planting in ground)
• 4 to 8 hours of sunlight

Plant: 

• Direct seed annual herbs 1 to 4 per square foot
• Plant 1 to 2 perennial plants per square foot

Tend: 

• Add nitrogen when needed to boost leaf growth
• Water consistently and let plants dry out between watering
• Prune outer and lower leaves often

Harvest: 

• Cut from the outermost branches and work your way in
• Harvest frequently to encourage more leaf production
• Use harvests fresh or dry/freeze for future 

Now, let's look at some of my favorite herbs to grow.

Herbs in the Mint Plant Family

The mint family includes most of the herbs we use in our kitchens, everything from basil and rosemary to lavender, oregano, sage, mint, and thyme.

The majority of the mint family plants are perennials, meaning they grow throughout the warmest parts of the year, die back during the winter, and return from their roots in the spring. There is one key exception, and that’s basil.

Herbs in this family are remarkably easy to grow and will give you continuous harvests to enjoy.

Find guides for growing the most popular herbs in the mint family here:

• Learn how to grow your own organic mint.
• These 5 tips will keep rosemary plants happy.
• Here's how to grow and harvest organic thyme.
• Follow these tips to grow your own oregano.
• Check out this guide to growing lavender.
• Explore our favorite types of basil to grow and then read our basil growing guide.
• Grow sprig after fragrant sprig of sage with these tips.

Herbs in the Carrot Plant Family

Herbs in the carrot family include three of my favorites: cilantro, dill, and parsley. Cilantro and dill are the annual type—growing from seed to seed in one season. Parsley, a biennial, will, with optimal weather conditions, remain in the garden for two years before producing seeds. Once you know how to grow one of these herbs, you pretty much know how to grow the others. Plus, it's easy to save seeds from their beautiful little flowers and end up with a lifetime supply!

Here are tips to grow your own cilantro, parsley, and dill in an herb garden:

• Follow these steps to grow cilantro from seed and then save your own cilantro seeds (AKA coriander!).
• Use this guide to grow organic dill and then harvest dill seeds for next year.
• Check out our guide to growing organic parsley in the garden.

Grow Your Own Leafy Greens

After many seasons of trying (and failing) to grow tomatoes, I finally gave up on growing fruit and let my toddler scatter hundreds of seeds for lettuce, kale, arugula, and mustard greens all over our raised beds. For the next six months, we were harvesting greens every single day—enjoying salads and green smoothies and delicious, garden-fresh dishes, and sharing baskets full of kale with friends.

If you've been struggling with large, needy fruiting plants, take a step back and focus on growing your own salad greens. They're easy to grow, and you can take your first leaf harvests in a matter of weeks. Just be forewarned that the leaves you harvest from your own garden will taste a hundred times better than the leaves from the grocery store—it might just be homegrown greens or bust for the rest of your life!

Overview of Growing Leafy Greens

Setup: 

• 4+ hours of sunlight
• Raised bed or container (minimum of 6” tall) 
• Sandy loam soil
• Consistent water source
• Cool temps (35°F to 65°F)

Plant: 

• Plant smaller greens by seed
• Plant transplants for biennials like kale or Swiss chard
• Keep well watered until germination

Tend: 

• Cover with garden mesh or tulle to protect from pests
• Add nitrogen-rich fertilizer or compost when needed
• Water consistently

Harvest: 

• Cut the outer and lower leaves often
• Harvest weekly after 45 days
• Remove once plant bolts (produces flowers and seeds)

Arugula

Arugula is one of my favorite things to grow in the kitchen garden, and you can harvest baby arugula leaves in just 3 to 4 weeks. It's overall just a fast and easy plant that is sure to give even the most inexperienced of gardeners success.

Here are tips and guides you need to grow organic arugula:

• Read up on the benefits of growing your own arugula.
• Get the easy step by step to plant and grow arugula at home.
• Learn my three rules for harvesting arugula so that you get as many nutritious leaves from each plant as possible.

Spinach

Not only is spinach easy to grow, it's perfect for tossing into salads and green smoothies to amp up the nutrition. Those beautiful, glossy leaves are full of antioxidants, vitamins, and tons of fiber. Look for Bloomsdale Long Standing spinach seeds for the ultimate low-maintenance green.

Here's how to grow spinach from seed in your organic vegetable garden:

• Find the step-by-step guide to planting spinach seeds in your garden.
• Explore our full guide to growing organic spinach.
• Read up on why organic spinach costs so much more than regular spinach at the grocery store, but why we should buy it anyways (or grow your own).
• Here are the signs that your spinach is bolting and ready to be pulled from the garden.

Cabbage

I love adding crisp homegrown cabbage leaves in my salad bowl, but this beautiful veggie is also super versatile in the kitchen. The cool thing about growing your own is that you can branch out from the three or four standard varieties of cabbage you typically find at the grocery store. There are actually more than 400 types of cabbage—many of them surprisingly sweet—and the only way you'll get to taste them is by growing your own.

Here's how to grow cabbage in an organic kitchen garden:

• Explore our cabbage growing guide.
• Find troubleshooting tips if your cabbages aren't forming a head.
• Learn how to handle pests on cabbage leaves organically.
• Here are three signs your cabbage heads are ready to be harvested.

Kale

Kale is not only one of the best plants you can put in your body as far as nutrition, it's also super easy to grow in your garden (and looks beautiful). It's a biennial plant, which means it's highly motivated to stay alive in your garden for two years so that it can produce seeds. The best part about kale is the more you harvest from the leaves, the more the plant grows!

Find all the tips you need to grow kale in an organic kitchen garden:

• Explore the best varieties of kale to grow at home.
• Check out our ultimate guide to growing kale in the garden.
• Learn how to handle pests on kale plants.
• Find our tips for harvesting kale leaves so that you double your plants' production.

Swiss Chard

Swiss chard might be one of the most beautiful plants you can grow, and it's also so, so good for you. Both the stems and leaves are edible and jam-packed with Vitamins A, K, and C, plus magnesium and lots of antioxidants (including beta-carotene).

Like kale, Swiss chard is a biennial, which means it's pretty easy to grow and keep happy.

Here's how to grow Swiss chard in your organic vegetable garden:

• We've rounded up our top four tricks to growing giant Swiss chard leaves.
• Learn the best way to harvest Swiss chard leaves to encourage your plant to produce more and more leaves.

Spring Mix

Lettuce plants are some of the best plants for beginner gardeners to grow, and spring mix is basically a blend of the most delicious varieties of lettuces. Growing your own spring mix doesn't require a lot of space or tending—all you really need to do is keep things watered and then harvest the leaves frequently. Because lettuce plants only need 4 hours of sun per day to produce for you, you can grow them on a shaded balcony or in a windowsill.

My first success growing plants from seed was with a packet of spring mix seeds called Rocky Top from Baker Creek. I don't joke around with my salad greens, so I'm serious when I say you need to prepare for the most amazing salad bowl ever.

Find all our resources to grow your own spring mix from seed:

• Explore the simplest setup for growing your own spring mix.
• Find step-by-step directions to grow lettuce from seed.
• Learn three different techniques to harvest lettuce.
• Here's what to do when your lettuce plants bolt, or go to seed.

Grow Your Own Roots

If you like surprises, then roots might be one of your favorite things to grow in the garden because you won't really know what you're getting until you—Surprise!—pull them up. When the thing you want to harvest grows underground, you have to accept that most of the magic will happen out of sight.

I'm sure you've heard the expression out of sight, out of mind. This might have been originally said about roots because they really don't ask much of you once you've got them planted. I consider them just a little bit more difficult to grow than herbs and salad greens, but not by much. What’s going on beneath the surface of the soil may be a mystery, but the things these crops need to be successful are simple and straightforward.

Because roots are essentially the storage unit for the plant, they retain their nutrients long after harvest. Roots are some of the most nutritious foods you can eat.

Overview of Growing Roots

Setup: 

• 6+ hours of sunlight
• Create a container or raised bed filled with loose sandy loam soil
• Water soil well 

Plant: 

• Space seeds in rows at least 2” to 4” apart from one another
• Cover lightly with compost
• Water in gently

Tend: 

• Don’t allow the soil to dry out before seeds have fully germinated
• Water 1" per week after germination
• Thin any plants that were too closely planted within 2 weeks of planting
• Keep area free of weeds
• Add organic potassium or phosphorus as side dressing to plants
• Successively plant new rows of root seeds for a continuous harvest

Harvest: 

• Test the top of each root crop to ensure its width is large enough for harvest
• Be sure garden is not too dry 
• Dig around base of plant to loosen roots, then gently tug on leaves of root plant
• Wash off roots, dry, and keep cool in storage

Let's look at some of our favorite roots to grow.

Radishes

Radishes are one of the easiest plants to grow in the kitchen garden. They're the fastest and least-demanding of all the roots, and that's saying something since root crops are pretty much a plant-them-and-forget-them bunch. Some people even claim radishes are the easiest plants to grow period, mostly because of their speed. You can go from seed to delicious harvest with some radishes in just 18 days!

Here's all you need to grow radishes in an organic vegetable garden:

• Follow these six steps to plant radishes from seed.
• Find quick success growing my favorite type of radishes, French Breakfast radishes.
• Here are my tips to thin and re-plant radishes growing too close together.
• Look for these three signs that your radishes are ready to be harvested.
• If you waited a little too long to harvest radishes, here are three ways to salvage them.
• Let one radish plant flower and follow these steps to save your own radish seeds.

Beets

If you're not already a member of the beets fan club, you'll become one once you taste how sweet and delicious a homegrown beet really is. Beets require very little work from you once you've got them planted and thinned. In fact, this is a great crop to grow if you're about to head out of town or if you only have a few minutes to garden each week. The moment you pull your first lumpy but oh, so juicy beetroot from the ground, you'll be eager to start the next round of seeds.

Here's all you need to grow your own organic beets in a vegetable garden:

• Follow these five super simple steps to grow beets from seed.
• We rounded up nine tips and tricks to help you grow the most delicious organic beets possible.
• Look for these signs that your beets are ready for harvest.

Carrots

The hardest part about growing your own carrots is handling the suspense that comes from not knowing what, if anything, is happening underground. Once you pull your first carrots from the soil, you'll be in awe of how something so nutritious and delicious can grow in a matter of months from a teeny, tiny seed. And all with very little effort from you!

Here's how to grow your own organic carrots from seed:

• Follow these three easy steps to plant carrots from seed.
• Here are the most important tending tasks to do while you're growing carrots.
• Keep an eye out for these three signs that your carrots are ready to be pulled.

Grow Your Own Tubers and Bulbs

Some of the crops that we lump into the root vegetable category are actually tubers and bulbs.

Tubers are fleshy underground stems that grow new plants through buds. Like roots, they're basically the storage unit for the entire plant. I might not be making tubers sound very appetizing, but if you've ever had a baked potato or french fries, you know they can be delicious!

Bulbs are modified stems that contain underground buds with overlapping leaves. Edible bulbs include garlic, onions, and leeks.

Like roots, tubers and bulbs are extremely easy to grow. Once you plant them, you can basically forget about them for months.

Overview of Growing Tubers and Bulbs

Setup: 

• 8+ hours of sunlight
• Dig at least 6” to 12” in a row garden or raised bed
• Amend the soil with 1:1 ratio of fresh finished compost to topsoil
• Fill bottom of planting holes with phosphorus-rich fertilizer

Plant: 

• Place tubers or cloves 3” to 4” deep with roots pointed down (eyes up) and spaced 6” to 12” apart
• Cover with 4” of compost-amended soil
• Water in well

Tend: 

• Water 1" per week
• Keep area free of weeds
• Hill compost or soil around main stems of plants, but not too high

Harvest: 

• Begin harvesting when leaves start to turn brown or fall over 
• Leave in a cool and dry place to cure before consuming

Let's look at some of our favorite tubers and bulbs to grow.

Potatoes

Digging up potatoes at the end of a long growing season might just be one of the simplest, purest joys your garden can give you. It's like a treasure hunt right there in your backyard.

Potatoes grow by multiplying underground, all while producing a significant amount of leafy growth above ground. By the time you pull up your potato plant, each little piece you planted will now be attached to five or six more tubers via underground stems. Even though I know what to expect, it feels like a marvel every time I get to witness this potato math in real life.

Here's all you need to grow your own organic potatoes in the vegetable garden:

• Follow these six steps to grow your own organic potatoes.
• Learn what it means when your potato plant flowers.
• Look for these three signs your potatoes are ready for harvest and then follow these steps to dig 'em up!

Garlic

All you have to do is plant cloves and then let them work their magic of turning themselves into entire bulbs over the next nine months or so. That's right: garlic does take about the same time to form as little humans. The wait will be worth it though when you have your own super flavorful garlic bulbs!

Here are our top tips for growing your own garlic:

• Figure out which type of garlic grows best in your climate and then follow these steps to plant it.
• Learn how to tend garlic during the many months it'll spend in your garden.
• Look for these signs your garlic is ready to be harvested.

Grow Your Own Fruits

All right, y'all, we're playing in the big leagues now. Hopefully you've gotten the hang of this gardening thing by growing lots of leaves and roots before you attempt to grow fruiting plants. These plants are large and need lots of tender loving care from you while they grow. Specifically, you'll have to prune and water and nourish them regularly if you want to enjoy all the sweet fruits your garden has to offer.

Overview of Growing Fruit

Setup: 

• 8+ hours of sunlight
• Raised garden beds at least 12” to 18” tall filled with sandy loam soil
• Automated watering system like drip irrigation

Plant: 

• Install plant supports like trellises to support vining and large plants
• Dig holes for fruiting plants that are the depth of the plant and twice the width
• Add transplants and/or seeds into the garden in designated spots along trellises with ample space between plants
• Water in thoroughly

Tend: 

• Water every other day for the first 2 weeks and maintain at least 1” of water per week during growing season
• Fertilize with nitrogen in the first few weeks of growth, then potassium and phosphorus at time of flowering and fruiting
• Prune plants regularly to prevent disease or decay and promote fruit growth
• Trellis or support vining and large plants once per week
• Protect plants from pests and/or weather with physical barriers and protective measures

Harvest: 

• Harvest first fruits as soon as they show signs of ripeness
• Pick ripening fruits weekly to encourage more production
• Top off plants when 4 weeks away from frost
• Pick final plants before weather changes and ripen indoors

Now, let's look at some of our favorite fruits to grow.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are basically the crown jewels of a kitchen garden. Everyone wants to grow them.

A word to the tomato wise, though: Tomatoes take up a lot of space in the garden and need to grow for a long time before you can take your first harvest. Of course, the results will be so sweet and 100 percent worth the space and time commitment.

Just do yourself (and your plants) a favor and skip the tomato cages.

We've rounded up everything you need to grow bowls and bowls of delicious tomatoes:

• Grow one of these easy-going but super-productive tomato varieties.
• Check out our complete guide to growing tomatoes organically.
• Learn how to prune your tomatoes to maximize fruit size or production.
• Here's a detailed guide to fertilizing your tomato plants, including the best organic fertilizers.
• Consider this your definitive guide to growing tomatoes up an arch trellis. If you don't have an arch trellis, here's how you can set up a simple vertical growing system called a Florida weave.
• Ever wondered how many tomatoes you can harvest from each plant? Or how long it takes a tomato to ripen on the vine? We've got answers.

Peppers

Peppers are at the top of many gardeners' to-grow list. And it's easy to see why. Pepper plants are attractive, they don't take up too much room, and it's so much fun to watch the fruits grow and change colors. Pepper plants are also a great fruiting plant (yes, a jalapeño is technically a fruit!) for beginners. That's because they're much more forgiving of watering conditions than their tomato cousins.

If you pop a pepper plant in your garden when it's nice and warm outside and give it some care, you'll soon be picking a bushel of homegrown peppers (maybe even a peck, though you'll have to pickle them yourself if you want them to be pickled peppers).

Here are our top tips for growing peppers in your vegetable garden:

• Here's how to grow organic jalapeño peppers.
• If you want a milder pepper, try growing your own shishito peppers.

Cucumbers

Sure, tomatoes get a lot of the attention, but even my teenagers agree there's nothing better than a cucumber straight from the vine. (And you'll be pleasantly surprised at just how many little cukes you can get from each vine!)

I will say that growing cucumbers can be a bit tricky. You have to make sure the flowers get pollinated, the plants need a lot of water, and they're prone to powdery mildew and squash vine borer issues.

Don't let this prevent you from leveling your gardening up and growing your own cucumbers. When you're standing in the garden with cucumber juice dripping down your chin, you'll know you have arrived in kitchen garden heaven.

Find everything you need to grow cucumbers in your vegetable garden here:

• Learn how to grow your own cucumbers from seed.
• Here's how to hand pollinate your cucumber flowers to ensure you end up with lots of little cukes.
• Read up on why we recommend growing your cucumbers on a trellis.
• Follow these tips to treat and prevent squash vine borer attacks and powdery mildew.

Summer Squash and Zucchini

If you're used to growing tomatoes and waiting impatiently for those little fruits to just ripen already, you'll be amazed at how a huge crookneck squash can grow inches in a couple days! Summer squash and zucchini plants are incredibly productive once they start producing.

Summer squashes are some of the most popular vegetables to grow, but you'll need to stay vigilant against pests and disease if you want your tender-skinned rewards at the end of the summer.

Here's all the resources you'll need to grow your own bucket of summer squash and zucchini:

• Read this step-by-step guide to grow zucchini from seed.
• Learn how to prune squash so that you can grow it in a raised garden bed without taking up a ton of space.
• We've got the steps to pollinate your squash and zucchini flowers by hand to increase your fruit production.
• Follow these tips to treat and prevent squash vine borer attacks and powdery mildew.

Beans

Beans are the easiest fruiting plant you can grow in the vegetable garden. They grow quickly, require little tending, thrive in most climates, and produce large quantities of pods for harvest. Bush beans are the perfect little plants to fill in empty spaces in your raised beds, and pole beans look beautiful snaking up a trellis.

Plant some bean seeds in your garden, and in just a couple months, you'll be harvesting your own fresh beans. (Props to you if any of those delicious little pods actually make it into your kitchen before getting eaten!)

Find all our tips to grow organic beans at home here:

• Follow these three simple steps to plant beans.
• Check out this guide to grow organic bush beans.
• If you have a structure for beans to climb, here's how to grow your own pole beans.

Peas

Peas, like beans, are super easy to grow, and they improve the overall health of your soil. My favorite type of peas to plant in my kitchen garden are sugar snap peas, a delightful blend between snow peas and garden peas. Tender yet crisp and so, so delicious, they're a real treat to eat straight from the vine.

Growing your own peas means you get an added bonus. In addition to the pods, you can also enjoy the pea shoots, which are a wonderful way to add texture to salads and stir fries.

Growing your own peas is a snap with these guides:

• Follow these three easy steps to plant peas in your garden.
• Consider this your complete guide to growing organic peas.
• Increase your pea production with these four tips.

Learn How to Grow with Gardenary

If you're still learning how to garden, you've come to the right place. We'll teach you how to nourish plants at every stage of growth, starting with leaves, then roots, and finally flowers and fruit. Even if your progress is slow, there will be delicious rewards waiting for you!

Thanks for being here and making the garden an ordinary part of your life!