Easy to Grow Plants

             Hey folks! I imagine if you are reading this, you have probably read a similar post/list of this nature before, right? There are plenty of them out there on the interwebs, I'm sure, and, to be honest, I don't know what all most of them include on their own list. So, with that being said, here is my own list of easy to grow plants/fruits/herbs/veggies, from my experience. I apologize if they are repeats of what you have read in the past, but...I guess if you've read them in other posts, that means they really are easy to grow*, right? :)

 Monster butternut squash and a volunteer growing ON the garage!

1. Squash/Gourds. Seriously. Squash of any sort! Pumpkins, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, etc. We had volunteer butternut squash this year and even it has performed beautifully compared to the butternuts I actually planted on purpose. All of our vines are still growing and producing like crazy, even at the end of September here in Indiana! So much so that I am selling our extras.
   
   
   
   There's another one hiding in there too.

Pumpkins are also stupid easy to grow. We also have volunteer pumpkin vines that have already

given us 4 pumpkins of decent size. I'm sure you could sell them to locals for fall decoration.

Plus, I don't have experience to go on personally yet, but, I'm sure pie pumpkins are just as easy

to grow and, in our area, you can sell for about $1/pumpkin! That may not seem like a lot, but

hey, if it's a volunteer, you're making money off of it regardless! Plus, pie pumpkins are smaller

than “normal” pumpkins, if you are not familiar with them, so that's a pretty good price, imo.

Spaghetti squash is pretty easy to grow as well, from our first year experience with it, at least.

But...While it's produced somewhat decently, so far, John thinks we may have over-fertilized it

because the leaves have been getting all, well, bleh and yellowish. But, I still say it requires

minimal work, therefore stays on this list. (Note: This is one of the things we planted “later” in

the season, so that may be part of it.)

I'm not sure if these would fall into this family or not, but cucumbers grow like crazy too!

2. Tomatoes. I always thought tomatoes were hard to grow, for some reason. But, after this first year of trying them out for myself, they really aren't. Yes, it is highly suggested you put tomato cages up around your plants, but other than that, they will do their own thing...Even if you don't put tomato cages up and let them grow along the ground! Yes, they will be fine if you let them grow along the ground. However...(There's always a “however”, isn't there?) I've been picking my tomatoes early while they're still green because we've had so many squash bugs eating them up! So, don't let your squash grow next to them and they should be ok? We haven't had as many problems with our Roma tomatoes as our regular ones, for whatever reason.
   
   
   
    Can you see the bean pods hiding in there?

2. Black Beans. This is the first time I've tried to grow any kind of beans. Black beans are the ONLY kind of beans I will actually eat, so we threw some in the ground when we re-planted our squash and gourds and they're doing awesome! Even with some pumpkin vines kind of taking over some of the plants, they still seem to be doing well. Plus, I found out they're super easy when it comes to harvesting. There's no magical signs to look for when they're ready, exactly. You literally just leave them on the plant until the shells get all dry and papery! (Other bean varieties may be like this too, but again, these are the only kind I've ever personally grown.)
   
   
   
   
   
3. Bell peppers. Mmm, mm! I love me some bell peppers. This is my first time growing these too and they've been super easy. No problems with pests or anything. I even waited too long to plant a few transplants from the store and they still ended up growing and producing well...And are still going strong!
   
   
   
    Volunteer spinach
   
   
4. Spinach. Spinach can actually get a little crazy. Again, we were super lazy with our garden at the beginning of summer for various reasons and some things went to waste, to be totally honest, and spinach was one of them. Long story short, we actually had some volunteer spinach pop up from when we removed the plants that had bolted/gone to seed. So that was pretty cool. Plus, spinach doesn't take long to grow, you can grow it in the fall (it's actually better to plant it when it starts getting cooler out), and it will keep growing until it just gets too darn cold for it!
   
   
   
   
   
5. Chamomile. Yah, chamomile isn't a veggie, but hey, that's why I said plants in the title. ;) 1) It grows easily. 2) We transplanted some outside from indoor starts and they went cray-cray! Needless to say, I've been enjoying my sleepy-time chamomile tea at night.

(I'm not sure what happened to my numbering, but I could not fix it to save my life, so no, you're not crazy. There are 6 plants listed, not 5.)

*By “easy to grow”, I'm referring to plants that A) Grow like crazy by themselves B) And/or are volunteers and grow like crazy and/or C) Require minimal weeding to still grow like crazy with minimal “babying”.

Chances are, we've “met”, right? I'm lazy. I love my gardens, but...I simply don't have time or determination to weed the things every or every other day...Or every week, for that matter. The squash patch is getting out of hand, but it's to the point where I don't care. I'll just trample down the weeds in-between the plants and it will be fine, right? Yah, that's the kind of gardener I am!

             What are your favorite things to grow?