Grow These Fail-Proof Plants in Your Raised Beds

After gardening in three completely different climates, I narrowed my list of must-grow plants down to the 10 that I plant every year, no matter where I live. These plants are so easy that anyone can grow them if they have a raised bed set up.

Now, what distinguishes these plants from others? I'm glad you asked! Here are my requirements for something to qualify as a must-grow plant:

1. Requires minimal, if any, tending
2. Can be started by seed directly in the garden
3. Ready to harvest within 2 months of planting
4. Provides numerous harvests
5. Unlikely to suffer major pest or disease issues

To me, the most important requirement is the direct sowing one. An easy plant has to be something that you can push seeds into the soil as soon as the weather is right and then harvest within that same season — no head start indoors required.

Some of these plants grow best in warm weather and others cool, so between the 10, your garden will never be empty from the beginning of the growing season all the way to the very end.

I like to divide plants up by the production you can expect from them. So with that in mind, let's look at the easiest leaves, roots, and fruiting plants you can grow in your garden.

Arugula Is a Super Easy Plant to Grow

Growing Season: Cool, Warm, Hot

Leaves are already the simplest thing to grow, and out of all the leafy greens, arugula is the easiest to grow. You have to keep arugula watered to make sure it comes up from seed, but after that, your main job is just to harvest the leaves. That's why I consider this a no-brainer plant in the garden.

Begin planting seeds as soon as your soil is workable in the spring, and keep sowing seeds until your soil hardens with frost. Arugula only needs about 3 to 4 inches per plant in the garden, so you can really pack these in (you can even just scatter the seeds and let them grow where they land).

Short on sunlight? No problem. These leaves only need 4 to 6 hours of sunlight to be productive.

For each seed you plant, you'll get easily 3 to 4 bowlfuls of delicious salad. And once you've tasted homegrown arugula, you will never — I repeat, never — be able to go back to the grocery store variety. This one is your new garden BFF. 

Learn more about growing arugula.

Spring Mix Consists of Easy-Maintenance Plants

Growing Season: Cool

Before I grew spring mix, I'd been a complete fail in the garden. That's because I was trying to grow more complicated things like watermelons and tomatoes. But when I scattered spring mix all over my raised beds, I suddenly felt like Martha Stewart.

Spring mix is a delicious combo of low-maintenance lettuce plants. For each seed you plant, you'll get 2 to 3 bowls of leaves over a 60-day period before you have to start again. These lettuce plants grow great when your weather is nice and cool. All you have to do is scatter some seeds over your soil, keep them watered, and then harvest leaf after leaf. You'll have your own fresh and delicious homegrown salads for months.

Learn more about growing spring mix.

Spinach Produces Tons of Leaves

Growing Season: Cool to Cold (with frost protection)

Did you know that grocery store spinach loses 40 to 50% of its nutrients before it reaches your fork? Spinach is one of those plants that really needs to be eaten right after it's harvested. The best news is you can easily grow your own.

Spinach grows at a time when a lot of other plants don't. It loves really cool, even cold, weather, and it grows directly from seeds planted in the soil in just 30 to 45 days. Give each seed about 3 to 4 inches to grow, and then keep the seeds watered. The seedlings will be a little bit slower to take off than arugula and spring mix, but your production will be over the top.

Once you're harvesting more spinach than you know what to do with, start taking double harvests: half to enjoy fresh and the other half to freeze for summer. Those frozen leaves are great for cooked dishes and smoothies. That way, you'll never have to buy spinach from the grocery store again!

Learn more about growing spinach.

French Breakfast Radishes Are Easy Plants to Grow in the Garden

Growing Season: Cool

Overall, root crops need a little bit more space and time to grow in the garden than leafy greens. That being said, there's no faster-growing root than radishes, which take about 45 days from seed to harvest. My favorite variety, French Breakfast Radishes, grow in just 28 days!

French breakfasts have a milder flavor than other radish types — even my kids like to eat them. Plus, if you grow your own radishes, you get to eat the radish tops and the roots, doubling the production from each and every seed that you plant. (Bonus, those radish greens are really good for you!)

Radishes grow best with 6 hours of sunlight every day. They need about 2 to 3 inches between each seed. Once you've got your seeds all spaced out, all you have to do is keep them watered and thin any little guys that pop up too close to others in the first few weeks. Then get ready to harvest the most delicious radishes money can't buy.

Learn more about growing French breakfast radishes.

Carrots Are Easy to Grow from Seed

Growing Season: Cool to Cold (with frost protection)

Carrots are another easy-to-grow root crop. Carrots love cool weather and don't have any problem growing when there's a chance of frost. They're super easy to grow from seed, though they do take much longer to come up than radishes. Believe me, homegrown carrots are worth the wait!

The way carrots are grown really matters. You want to be sure that the soil around those carrot seeds is organic and natural because those roots are absorbing every little bit of nutrients around them. In this case, it's so important to grow your own so you know all the things that went into making these incredible roots. 

Learn more about growing carrots.

Sugar Snap Peas Are a Snap to Grow

Growing Season: Cool

Sugar snap peas are my favorite protein to grow in the cooler parts of the year, when there's still a chance of frost. Their flavor is unlike anything you can find at the grocery store.

Your peas will need a strong trellis to climb. Peas grow so great from seed if you soak them overnight first and then plant them one every 4 to 5 inches along a trellis. Peas do need about 75 to 90 days to start fruiting, but once they're mature, they keep producing for weeks to come, if not months.

Peas are a for-sure plant for me to grow every spring and fall in my garden.

Learn more about growing sugar snap peas.

Bush Beans Are the Easiest Plants to Keep Alive

Growing Season: Warm

In the garden world, bush beans are givers, not takers. In fact, my favorite variety of bush beans to grow is called "provider" because it just keeps giving more and more.

One bean seed planted in your garden will give you bowls and bowls of harvest all summer long. Beans are a wonderful source of protein from your garden, so you can make your diet more plant-based. Plus, you can grow bush beans pretty much anywhere in your bed, even right alongside the edge. I love tucking these seeds into blank spots in my garden. Just give them about 4 to 6 inches to spread out.

Bush beans, like other warm season plants, grow only when there is no chance of frost. Beans need about 8 hours of sunlight to be productive. Water these plants at the beginning to get them going, and then your biggest job is just to keep them well picked.

Learn more about growing bush beans.

Zucchini Is a Super-Productive Plant

Growing Season: Warm

Have you heard the joke about gardeners donating zucchini to their neighbors because they grew so much? Zucchini is so prolific I just had to include it in my top 10 plants to grow. You'll get lots of fruit from each and every seed that you plant, and you can plant these several times per season: at the very beginning of summer, halfway through summer, and even once more if you have a warm fall.

One seed is going to give you a dozen or so pieces of fruit, and all you have to do is stick those seeds in warm soil and give them a square foot to grow.

Learn more about growing zucchini.

Cucumbers Are an Easy Fruiting Plant to Grow

Growing Season: Warm

Cucumbers are the true low-maintenance plants of summer. The resulting fruit might not taste as sweet as watermelons, but they're so easy to grow (and just as juicy!). You'll get your harvest in about 65 days, just when your body is craving hydration in the warmest months. Cucumbers will give you all the H2O you need.

I love harvesting cucumbers for fresh summer salads. And don't forget, you can make pickles to have for the rest of the year.

Space your cucumber seeds about 3 to 4 inches apart along the base of a trellis. Keep these plants watered, and you'll get fruit all season long.

Learn more about growing cucumbers.

Zinnias Are the Easiest Flower to Grow

Growing Season: Warm to Hot

My final must-grow plant is one that you can't eat. Well, the blooms are technically edible, but they don't taste great. Grow zinnias to provide food for the bees and the butterflies, not for you. Trust me, the more food you give the pollinators, the more food they'll give you (by pollinating your fruiting plants, of course).

I love to scatter zinnia seeds throughout my vegetable garden as soon as the last frost date has passed. They bloom in under 65 days, and as soon as those first brightly colored flowers bust out, you'll welcome every pollinator around into your garden.

Learn more about growing zinnias.

Where to Grow These Easy Plants

To make growing these easy plants even easier, I'm going to show you how to grow them all together. Below, you'll find two planting plans: one for the plants that grow best in the cool season and another for the warm season.

Cool Season Planting Plan

The cool season is your time to grow arugula, spring mix, spinach, radishes, carrots, and sugar snap peas.

Pack all your leafy greens in around the outside of your bed. These are the plants you'll pick from the most because they're the most prolific producers, so you want them to be within easy reach. Toward the middle of the bed, plant rows of radishes and carrots. In the center of the bed, add a couple obelisk trellises to support your sugar snap peas. These take longer to produce and need the most sunlight, so you'll give them prime raised bed real estate.

These plants grow so well together in the same bed. They cover all your nutritional needs and will give you tons of produce throughout the cool season. You'll have something to harvest almost every single day.

Here's how I'd lay out a cool season garden bed:

Warm Season Planting Plan

The warm season is when arugula, bush beans, zucchini, cucumbers, and zinnias grow best.

First, plant bush beans, arugula, and zinnias all around the border of the bed. Your bush beans will drape over the edge of the bed, which makes it super easy to pick beans, bring them inside, and make a delicious side dish. For every bean seed you plant, make sure to add a zinnia seed right next to it. Having these zinnias planted around your bed will help protect your garden from pests and ensure your fruiting plants are as productive as possible.

Zucchini will take up the majority of the interior of your bed. These are big plants; each one needs 1 to 2 square feet of space to grow. But they'll be worth the space. You'll get so much fruit from every single plant.

The trellises in the middle of your bed will play host this season to cucumbers. These will fruit and flower all season long and give you tons of growth, all for very little horizontal space in your raised beds.

Here's how I'd plant up a summer garden bed:

Time to Grow These Easy Plants

And there you have it. Those are the 10 plants I will grow next year and the year after that and for many years to come. And I really, truly believe you should grow these 10 plants, too. Share this post with your friends and family, so we can all grow these easy plants this year and have the most beautiful, productive gardens ever!