must-grow plant varieties for the home garden
My must-grow plants for the home garden. Over the years of vegetable gardening in Minnesota, I’ve grown and experimented with tons of plants. I’ve compiled a list of my all-time favorite vegetable and flower varieties from my backyard garden. These are the plants I love and grow season after season because of their flavor, productivity, dependability, disease resilience, and, of course, beauty and charm. My kitchen garden wouldn’t be complete without these staple plants.
Spring is here, Gardening is on the mind
Spring is drawing near; the sun’s out, and everything’s warming and waking up. Gardening is on the mind. At the start of each new gardening season, usually in Spring, I like to look back at previous years and see what worked and which plants I loved and want to grow again. I take account of all the plants and figure out which are worth making space for, how they performed and tasted, and make note of the ones I didn’t enjoy. In doing this, I’ve created a list of my must-grow plants for my kitchen garden. Of course this list changes a little every year as I try new varieties and find new favorites. So far, in my years of vegetable gardening in Minnesota, these are the plants I keep coming back to and enjoying having in my garden. My kitchen garden wouldn’t be complete without a few of these staple plant varieties.
Which plant varieties do you love to grow?
I provide a picture or two for each plant, a short description, a growing tip I’ve learned from multiple seasons growing that specific plant, and a link to a seed company where you can buy the seeds. Of course, these are my favorites based on my garden experience, but I’d also love to learn what varieties you love and make space for every year. Which plants grow well in your garden? Share a plant variety you love in the comments!
Must Grow Plant Varieties for the Home Garden
Sun Gold Tomatoes
Description: This variety is rare in grocery stores, so I love growing it. Its plump, sweet, thin-skinned tangerine-colored fruits are a firm cherry variety and make the perfect summer treat.
Growing Tip: Pick the tomatoes right before the heat of the day; I like to pick mid-morning. The more sun the plant receives, the more concentrated and sweeter the flavors.
Buy: Botanical Interests, Sun Gold Pole Tomatoes
Sweetheart Cherry Tomatoes
Description: This sweet, crunchy tomato has a slight heart shape. It is another one of my favorite snacking tomatoes. It keeps long on the vine, adding more flavor. This plant is a high-yield producer and keeps setting fruit the entire summer.
Growing Tip: Add plenty of organic matter to the soil like a good, dark, rich compost. Tomatoes love all the nutrients!
Marketmoore Cucumbers
Description: Crisp, delicious slicing cucumber. This variety is always a reliable and versatile vegetable. I enjoy using it for homemade pickles, snacking, salad, and more. I prefer to grow these on an arched trellis, creating a beautiful green focal point with cucumbers hanging from the trellis.
Growing Tip: Try to pick the cucumbers once they are smooth and dark green and 6-8 inches long.
Buy: Botanical Interests, Marketmoore Cucumbers
Black Beauty Zucchini
Description: This super productive, reliable, beautiful dark green summer squash needs plenty of room to grow and expand in a full sun spot. As a heavy feeder, I like to plant with nitrogen fixers, such as beans.
Growing Tip: Watch your plants as they begin to set fruit, and ideally, pick the zucchini young before they grow too large and the texture changes from tender to rough and rubbery. In the heat of the summer, be sure to give plenty of water, preferably in the mornings.
Buy: Baker Creek Rare Seeds, Black Beauty Zucchini Summer Squash
Lettuce Leaf Basil
Description: Giant lettuce-sized basil leaves with a delicious, fragrant, mild, sweet basil flavor. This unique kitchen herb is an excellent addition to your cooking. I love using it in salads or making lettuce leaf wraps. It’s a great way to add more flavor to your everyday cooking. The big wrinkly leaves are a beautiful addition to your garden as well with the leaves reaching about 6 inches in size.
Growing Tip: Does best in a full sun spot in your garden; give plenty of sunshine 8-12 hours daily.
Buy: Baker Creek Rare Seeds, Lettuce Leaf Basil
Butterhead Lettuce
Description: These soft, buttery-textured, sweet-tasting leaves are among my favorite lettuce varieties. They’re slow to bolt, heat tolerant, and delicious for all salads.
Growing Tip: Sow so the plant matures in spring or fall when the weather is cooler; the flavor will be sweeter and have a better, crunchier texture.
Buy: Botanical Interests, Buttercrunch Butterhead Lettuce
Sugar Snap Peas
Description: Crispy sweet pods are my favorite garden snack. They are frost-tolerant and taste best in cooler weather. They are also easy-to-grow staple vegetables in my garden.
Growing Tip: Pick regularly to increase harvest and plan your plantings to mature in early summer and fall when the weather is cool for a sweeter flavor.
Scallions (Bunching Onions)
Description: This is my favorite easy allium to grow. It is mild in onion flavor and a hardy plant perfect for overwintering and colder climates. It is a versatile staple ingredient in my kitchen, perfect for salads, soups, sauces, dips, and more.
Growing Tip: Start seeds in early spring for a summer harvest and July or August for fall use.
Buy: Johnny Seeds, Bunching Onions
Blue Lake 274 Bush Beans
Description: This is the most productive green bean variety I’ve ever grown. A bushy bean variety with excellent flavor, well suited for freezing. Delicious, quickly blanched, and tossed in butter, seasoned with salt, garlic, and a squeeze of lemon.
Growing Tip: Harvest when no thicker than a pencil. Any thicker, and the texture begins to get tough and less snappy and tender.
Buy: Botanical Interests, Blue Lake 274 Bush Beans
MN Midget Cantaloupe
Description: Golden yellow, intense, well-rounded, flavorful sweet melon. Homegrown melon is unlike anything you’ve ever tasted from the grocery store. 4-5” round fruits with a tender, juicy texture. This compact melon is great if you’re short on space but still want lots of melons.
Growing Tip: Harvest time for melons is essential. As harvest time gets closer, avoid watering to concentrate flavors. There are a few indicators to tell when your melon is ripe. One, the skin of the melon changes from green to brown or tan. Two, the melon will have a fruity aroma. Third, the closest tendril to the stem of the melon will be brown and dried up. Fourth, the fruit shouldn’t be difficult to detach from the vine.
Benary’s Giant Deep Red Zinnia’s
Description: Easy to grow, these stunning massive double deep ruby blooms are my favorite zinnia variety because of their size and the gorgeous pop of color they add to the garden.
Growing Tip: Plant in groups for maximum color impact. Continue to deadhead throughout the season to encourage strong bloom production.
Buy: Johnny Seeds, Benary’s Giant Deep Red Zinnia’s
Strawberry Blonde Calendula
Description: These calendulas have a charming old-fashioned look with an ombre of pinks, coral, and a deep ruby center. I love these flowers because they are fast-growing and produce many blooms. I like to plant them in the corner of a garden bed for a pop of color. They attract beneficial insects and repel ones like aphids and hornworms that aren’t as welcome in the garden.
Growing Tip: Continue to deadhead throughout the season to encourage blooms. I like to place the spent flowers, which I trim back into the soil to reseed themselves.
Double Sunking Sunflowers
Description: My most beloved sunflower variety is purely stunning in any space. These cheerful, giant, fully double sunflowers reach 6ft tall and have the most gorgeous fluffy, soft golden heads. I like to grow in groups or as a tall border for maximum visual impact.
Growing Tip: Give these flowers plenty of sun, water, and rich soil so they grow to their fullest potential. I share more specific sunflower growing tips in the blog post How to Grow Big Beautiful Sunflowers in your Home Garden.
Buy: Baker Creek Rare Seeds, Double Sunking Sunflowers
Lemon Gem Marigolds
Description: These are the most fragrant flowers in my garden. Beautifully delicate, bright yellow, lemony flowers with lacey, compact, dark green foliage.
Growing Tip: To encourage consistent blooms, remove faded flowers.
Buy: Lake Valley Seed, Lemon Gem Marigolds
Nasturtiums
Description: Nasturtiums are my go-to garden bed border flower. They also make an excellent trap crop and attract squash bugs away from squash plants. I love a jewel blend, like shown in the picture above, with bright oranges, yellows, and reds. Nasturtiums have the most beautiful rounded lily pad-shaped leaves that gracefully drape over garden beds and are a charming addition to a cottage garden style.
Growing Tip: Nasturtiums prefer moderate to consistent water. Especially in the heat of the summer, they can get wilty and dry quickly, so mulching the soil to reduce watering can be helpful.