Beets

For me, beets are one of the easiest vegetables to grow, aside from tomatoes. I just love beets to death. They are so sweet and delicious. I can't get enough of them. I love them in salads, or just by themselves. It is safe to say that I am addicted to beets.

I plant my beets in starter trays, just like my tomatoes, lettuce, kale, and radishes. Once the two leaves appear, I spray the trays down every day to keep the soil moist. I keep the tray on the side of my house, where seedlings can get sun for most of the day, but not get a huge, brutal amount of the sun's rays. I have learned that beets grow quickly as tiny sprouts, but take longer as they mature. They could take up to two months to get big and round like a baseball. I try to pick my beets when they are not so big, because I have read that since they are younger, they will be sweeter too.

Sunflowers

Another easy plant to grow in your containers, garden, or flower bed, is sunflowers! There are different types of sunflowers to choose from. Dwarf/short sunflowers, non-seed producing sunflowers, and also different colored sunflowers that range from light yellow, yellow, to red, and even darker maroon colored ones!

My sister and I started our sunflowers at the very beginning of our gardening journey. It was one of the first things we ever planted, along with tomatoes. They were wonderful and grew fast! They are strong plants and bees love them! We planted them near our tomato plants, which I'm sure was a great benefit, because there were always bees around them, which led them to our tomato plants.

These sunflowers were so gorgeous and easy to take care of. They love fertilizer, water, and sunshine. 3 things that we could provide for it everyday. By winter however, when muggy, wet, and humid weather came, they did not fair well. By that time we would find powdery mildew growing on the stems and leaves. Same thing happened to our zinnia flowers. At the time, I did not know about homemade sprays to fend off mildew, so this year I will definitely be whipping some up and using them on my plants.

We had beautiful flowers for our dining table at dinner time. The only irritating thing we had to deal with was the pollen would fall down and gather on the table, which was easily solved with a quick wipe down.

Cherry Tomatoes

These are the easiest vegetable to grow! They grow quickly and if you plant around 4 seeds and grow them till they are mature, healthy and strong, you will have an abundance of fruit for you, your family, and friends. There is no way you would be able to eat it all by yourself!

Just remember to feed them with fertilizer (every 2 - 3 weeks) as they are growing, and do not forget to water them everyday (either early morning before the sun is burning hot, or later in the evening when the sun has set).

As my 4 tomato plants grew taller and taller, I realized would have to use a stake to help them stand up, because the weight of the tomatoes kept pulling the leaves and branches down to the ground. This would not be good because bugs, slugs, and water would likely damage and kill the baby tomatoes.

Here you can see my 4 cherry tomato plants all bunched together (too close, I've learned, now that I've been growing them for awhile). I know that they would do much better with a trellis of some kind, to help with air circulation and to keep little bugs from swarming the plants.