The #1 question everyone worries about is what to start with in the garden? Should it be vegetables 🥗, flowers 💐 or perennial plants 🌳? Well, the choice is really up to you. I wanted to try growing my own vegetables and slowly am starting to grow some flowers to liven up the spaces. So if that interests you, I’m going to try to help you choose the best plants & vegetables you can grow very easily in your kitchen garden!
By the way, congratulations on taking the first step towards setting up a kitchen garden. I started mine a year back and it’s been the most rewarding experience. I’m also writing about the kitchen garden I’ve set up in my apartment complex 🏡. You can read about that here.
How to choose the plants for your kitchen garden?
What to grow – Bumper List
The easiest vegetables to get started with in your garden
The vegetables to try if you’re up for a challenge
My first 5
How to choose the plants for your kitchen garden?
While I’ll talk about a lot of vegetables you can get started with, there are some parameters based on which you should choose which vegetables you’d want to grow.
- Are you looking for something you can try out fast? Pick vegetables which have short growth cycles. Something like spinach or lettuce 🥬.
- You should definitely pick vegetables suited to the weather. Here’s a handy vegetable calendar 🗓 you can use to pick which vegetables will grow best in what time of the year.
- What’s your interest and expertise level? Some vegetables are extremely easy to grow, while some of them might need some skill to make sure you get the desired results.
- Most importantly, pick the plants you want to grow and will get the biggest kick out of. 😃
What to grow – Bumper List
Here’s the 🎉 bumper list of vegetables you can try to grow in your kitchen garden and I’ve also tried adding some information to each plant to help you make that choice.
| Vegetable name | Weather | Growth Cycle | Expertise Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baby spinach | 15-30°C | Short | Beginner 🔰 |
| Spinach | 15-30°C | Short | Beginner 🔰 |
| Spinach red | 15-30°C | Short | Beginner 🔰 |
| Fenugreek / Methi | 15-28°C | Short | Beginner 🔰 |
| Mustard | 10-25°C | Short | Beginner 🔰 |
| Pak Choi / Chinese Cabbage | 15-22°C | Short | Beginner 🔰 |
| Radish (white/red) | 10-20°C | Short | Beginner 🔰 |
| Cluster beans | 25-38°C | Medium | Beginner 🔰 |
| Coriander | 20-30°C | Medium | Beginner 🔰 |
| Mint | 20-40°C | Medium | Beginner 🔰 |
| Peas | 15-30°C | Medium | Beginner 🔰 |
| Carrot | 7-23°C | Long | Beginner 🔰 |
| Beetroot | July to Nov | Medium | Competent 🧐 |
| Bitter gourd | 18-30°C | Medium | Competent 🧐 |
| Bottle gourd | 18-30°C | Medium | Competent 🧐 |
| Cucumber | 25-35°C | Medium | Competent 🧐 |
| French beans | 10-27°C | Medium | Competent 🧐 |
| Kakri | 25-35°C | Medium | Competent 🧐 |
| Lady finger | 22-35°C | Medium | Competent 🧐 |
| Snake gourd | 25-38°C | Medium | Competent 🧐 |
| Ornamental Chilli | 20-30°C | Medium | Competent 🧐 |
| Watermelon | 20-25°C | Medium | Competent 🧐 |
| Tinda | 25-32°C | Medium | Competent 🧐 |
| Yard beans | 18-35°C | Medium | Competent 🧐 |
| Muskmelon | 18-30°C | Medium to Long | Competent 🧐 |
| Chilli | 20-30°C | Medium to Long | Competent 🧐 |
| Brinjal (Purple, Green) | 13-25°C | Long | Competent 🧐 |
| Cabbage | Cool moist climate | Long | Competent 🧐 |
| Capsicum (Green / Yellow) | < 30°C | Long | Competent 🧐 |
| Onion | 15-35°C | Long | Competent 🧐 |
| Pumpkin | 25-38°C | Long | Competent 🧐 |
| Tomato | 21-24°C | Long | Competent 🧐 |
| Turnip | 12-16°C | Long | Competent 🧐 |
| Ridge gourd | 25-35°C | Medium | Slightly Advanced 👨🏼🌾 |
| Sponge Gourd | 25-28°C | Medium | Slightly Advanced 👨🏼🌾 |
| Garlic Chives | 5-30°C | Medium | Slightly Advanced 👨🏼🌾 |
| Broccoli | 15-30°C | Long | Slightly Advanced 👨🏼🌾 |
| Cauliflower | 10-25°C | Long | Slightly Advanced 👨🏼🌾 |
| Asparagus | 10-15°C | Long | Slightly Advanced 👨🏼🌾 |
| Papaya | 25-38°C | Very long | Slightly Advanced 👨🏼🌾 |
The easiest vegetables to get started with
You’ll notice that the green leafy vegetables are the easiest to grow and care for in a kitchen garden. They also are quick to harvest and you can enjoy the fruits of your labour fast.
- Your leafy greens – Spinach, Methi, Mustard, Coriander, Mint
- Pak Choi / Chinese Cabbage
- Radish (white/red)
- Cluster beans
- Peas
I’d recommend you start with one of this category (Beginner 🔰 level with a short 🕐 growing cycle) to keep the motivation up. Often times, I’ve felt lost when a plant has taken too long and it’s not fun losing patience on your first try
If you’re looking for a challenge, try these
While none of the vegetables here need you to be an farming ninja, some gourds and other vegetables might need a little extra care and patience. My sponge gourd kept growing male flowers but I got no fruit since none of the flowers were female. So I had to look up certain ways to improve production. If you’re still up for a challenge 💪🏼 these vegetables are the ones to go for:
- Ridge gourd, Sponge Gourd
- Broccoli, Cauliflower
- Pumpkin
- Papaya
- Capsicum
My recommendation would be to pick 1 challenging vegetable / fruit along with others to have a deeper sense of accomplishment.
My First 5
Which ones are you going to start planting? My first picks were
- Spinach 🍃,
- Tomato 🍅,
- Mint 🌱,
- Lady Finger
- and Sponge Gourd
As you can see, I picked some easy vegetables, and 1 challenging one. I also picked the vegetables based on what I’d love to see grow as well as the weather conditions which would suit the seeds the best. Out of my first batch, I harvested some great Spinach and Mint. Even the lady fingers turned out fine. Tomatoes and Sponge Gourd were problematic but it turned out to be a great learning experience for me.
💡Helpful tip: Try googling for “<vegetable name> growing conditions India” to find out the best articles on growing these vegetables in your garden. Happy foresting!