Gardening as a beginner is a challenge, but it is definitely a way to start to become self-sufficient and support yourself when a situation arises that you have to be self-sufficient. Currently, I am writing this in the middle of the pandemic from the Coronavirus. Well, the food scarcity that so many people are experiencing at the current time got me to think about gardening and how this one love that I have actually has helped me keep a fairly stable source of food on my table.
Granted, I do own a farm so I have an advantage over some people on that aspect, but I will tell you that even with that advantage I am able to grow quite a bit more food, but here is some great ideas on what type of vegetables are very easy to grow from seed and in some cases can alleviate your food crisis in as little as a month. Other, foods are going to take a little bit longer to grow, but overall they definitely give you a sense of food independence and being in control of some of your own food. The best part is all of these that I am recommending can be grown from seed and in smaller spaces, like a pot, if you are very limited on space.
Lettuce
Lettuce is a great vegetable to grow and tends to grow quick. Now, if you are growing lettuce you need to make sure you use leaf variety, which grows faster and in my experience is a lot easier to grow. With the leaf lettuce you can use a smaller pot even to grow as it does not require a lot of space to grow enough for a salad.
To grow the lettuce all you have to do is get some dirt in a pot and spread the seed. Then you cover the seeds with some additional dirt and water. After just a few days, sometimes in as short as 3 days you can find little bits of green coming up and that would be the start of your lettuce. To get the lettuce up to the point that you can start to eat it, the lettuce needs to grow for about at least 2 weeks to get a nice leaf, but to be honest I tend to let it go up to 3 weeks before I harvest a bunch of lettuce to eat.
Spinach
Spinach is one vegetable that not a lot of people like to eat, unless you are Popeye the Sailor Man. However, I will be honest it is one food that has a lot of vitamins that will help you in getting to boost your energy and actually help to expand your palate. It is very important, though, if you want to have a good meal with spinach that you take your time to prepare it properly. Preparing this properly provides you with a great tasting meal and one that will taste great for the meal.
The growing process for the spinach is definitely one that is very easy to do and all you have to do is follow the same list as the lettuce above. When you do this it tends to give you the best production of spinach and it also makes it quite a bit easier for you to enjoy the food that you are growing. Now, as a side note, like the lettuce the smaller the leaves the more tender they tend to be. If the leaves start to get too old it can start to get a bitter taste to the leaves.
Peas
Quite often, people look at peas as a food that is mainly used in Asian dishes and one that they are not going to be eating a lot of. Well, that does tend to be the case, but it is a plant that is very easy to grow and provides you with plenty of nutrition as well. The downside is kids tend to turn their nose up to peas and that makes it very difficult for the peas to be grown in a home with a lot of kids because so many kids turn their nose up to the peas that they could be eating.
With peas, they do require a little bit more in the way of space. The peas can be grown in a pot and I would recommend having some wooden stakes in the sides of the pot with some strings hanging down to give the peas something to grow up onto. The peas do tend to take at least 2 months to grow and produce a pea pod. The pod then takes about another month to get filled in and ready for you to eat. It is important to keep an eye on the pods and use great care when you are harvesting the peas. By using great care you do not damage the plant and in some cases can get 2 or even 3 harvests off of a single plant.
Green Beans
This is one food that almost everyone knows about and have had at some point in time. The best part is the green beans tend to be a very versatile vegetable. The downside is storage for green beans can be tricky and can last for a couple of weeks on the shelf without refrigeration, refrigeration does extend out the life. However, if you want to do long term preservation you only have the option of freezing, pickling, or canning. Yes, I do know you can make a salt brine for beans, but for the purposes of this article that can b a challenge and one that I would not recommend for a new gardener or someone just now making their own food.
One aspect of green beans before you even think about planting them is how much space you have available and if you want to have bush beans or pole beans. These are the two common types of beans, but the bush beans will grow into a bush style plant and the pole plants tend to grow quite a bit taller and will vine up almost anything quite a bit worse than the bush beans. When you are growing green beans you can pretty much follow the advice that we gave to the peas from above.
Kale
Now, Kale is one food that has become an acquired taste for a lot of people. However, I have to say that Kale is often considered a superfood for the vitamin content it has. Not to mention, if it is prepared properly, it is definitely one vegetable that can provide you quite a bit of nutrition and great taste. I really love having Kale in soup and a simple Google search makes it quite a bit easier for you to find some of the various soup dishes.
To grow the kale it is very simple as well as you just have to get a pot with some potting soil and then put a few seeds in. Pretty much the same as lettuce, but with kale, the harvest is a little bit different in the fact that you just harvest what you need of the leaves. Now, it is important to keep an eye on the kale and if you let it go, it will grow back the next year.
As you can tell the vegetables I mentioned are ones that are commonly found in the grocery store. At the same time, they tend to be dietary staples for a lot of people. With that in mind, you will like the fact that these are all foods that can be grown in pots and have a small little bit of food growing at your home. Just remember that these plants are going to take time to grow and make the food that you are going to enjoy. Then you have the added factor that you grew the food yourself and do not have to worry about it being in short supply when you need to have it or if you want some fresh produce without having to go to the store.