10 Easy to Grow Plants for Gardening Beginners

Four Easy to Grow Plants for Indoors

These easy-care indoor plants require little in terms of watering and feeding. Like all indoor plants, however, they will benefit from occasional TLC and adequate light. Growing them in pretty pots will enhance their appeal and your home décor.

1. Aloe Aristata

Aloe is a succulent plant with geometric spiny leaves growing in a rosette pattern. One of the best aloe for growing indoors is Aloe Aristata, the Torch Plant. Dark green leaves have white spots throughout with small white spikes along the edges, the effect being a rhythmic pleasant color combination.

Aristata requires bright sunlight for several hours a day and is ideal by a south-facing window with direct light. Watering once every two weeks should suffice. Since aloe’s originated in hot, dry climes, avoid cold drafts to keep this plant happy. 

2. Jade Plant (Crassula Ovata)

Another succulent, the Jade Plant is a pretty, vivid green houseplant with rounded, fleshy leaves. Bright red edges provide an attractive contrast. It grows into a small bushy shrub shape. The Jade Plant is easy-care, requires little attention, and is content with a drink every couple of weeks. It does, however, require several hours of bright sunlight most days.

3. Living Stones (Lithops)

This fascinating group of succulents is commonly called “living stones” because they have a stone or pebble-like appearance. They make great conversation pieces for visitors to your home.

An extensive range of colors and shade tones are found in this plant group. Give them lots of sunlight but little water as they are extremely drought tolerant. You can find out more about Lithops at the Mediterranean Garden Society.

4. Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum)

One of the best plants for gardening beginners is the Peace Lily, a popular houseplant. Long dark glossy green leaves give a sense of lush growth. It flowers on long stems, producing white flowers with a sail-like appearance. The Peace Lily prefers filtered light and benefits from light feeding when flowering. Fertilizer helps to extend the flowering period and produce multiple large blooms.

The plant has a curious reputation for removing toxins from the air, such as carbon monoxide and formaldehyde.

Four Outdoor Plants for Gardening Beginners

5. Butterfly Bush (Buddleja Davidii)

The Butterfly Bush is a quickly growing evergreen bush. Drought-hardy, cold-tolerant, and growing in most soil types, it’s a smart choice for the gardening beginner. Insect or animal pests rarely bother them.

Butterfly bushes flower in summer, producing long spires of flowers in white, blue, or purple tones. They are a good background plant in shrubberies or growing along low to medium fences, providing privacy for the yard. While they have a sprawling growth habit, they are easily pruned back if you wish to change the shape or reduce the height.

6. Calendula Officinalis (Pot Marigold)

The Calendula must be one of the easiest plants to grow, producing vigorous plants with vibrant orange blooms. It sprouts from seed so readily that it is hardly worth buying seedlings. Throw the seeds on a patch of soil, cover them lightly with dirt, and see them sprout in just a few days.

Calendula flower profusely with a long blooming season, from early spring through to early winter. Their intense orange colors are perfect for making a dark corner glow with color. Drought-tolerant and cold-hardy, the plants do not require feeding to bloom. Unless you’re experiencing extreme weather conditions, Calendula requires truly little care or effort to maintain, making it one of the best plants for gardening beginners.

The plant so readily self-seeds that it may be wise to keep it in pots as it can take over garden plots.

7. Daylilies (Hemerocallis)

The Daylily is a flamboyant flowering perennial, with bright yellow, orange, pink, red, and purple colors dominant. While its blooms are short-lived — lasting only a day — the plant flowers profusely, providing long-lasting color in the garden. Daylilies are hardy plants, withstanding high temperatures, and require little care to maintain.

There are more than 60,00 cultivars of daylilies available. You can select varieties that rebloom - e.g., in spring and then again in autumn. You can also choose and then mix varieties that flower at different times from spring to autumn, extending the flowering season.

8. Geraniums (Pelargonium)

Another of the 10 easy to grow plants is the cheerful geranium, a worldwide favorite in the home garden. Geraniums are a mainstay in window boxes, hanging baskets, and pots as they put on a great floral show for many months. They strike readily from cuttings with little fuss and establish quickly. Flower colors are mostly in pink, red, and purple tones, with some white strains. The flowers form large rounded dense clusters in many varieties, making a striking display in garden beds or pots.

Care is simple, with only occasional watering needed and deadheading of flowers to extend the blooming season.

Two Herb and Veggie Plants for Gardening Beginners

9. Thyme (Thymus)

Thyme is a popular seasoning ingredient used by cooks the world over. While there are more than 100 thyme species, three are commonly used to flavor food. These are the Common Thyme (Vulgaris), Lemon Thyme (Citriodorus), and Pizza Thyme (Pulegloidea).

Thyme is a highly aromatic perennial herb. Once established, it is drought-tolerant, cold, and heat-tolerant. It requires little maintenance, only the occasional watering and perhaps a cutback if it has sprawled.

10. Radishes (Raphanus sativus)

Radishes are a favorite salad ingredient; their cool, crisp crunch contrasts with softer salad vegetables such as lettuce and tomato. They sprout easily from seed, with some varieties appearing as quickly as three days. Quick growing radishes can be ready to harvest in as early as three weeks. Some popular types of radish are Cherry Belle, Daikon, and French Breakfast. With hundreds of radish varieties available, you can try several crops a year to find your favorite.

Give them full sun, a little feed, and water, and you’ll be harvesting and crunching away on your radishes in no time.