10 Plants You Should ALWAYS Grow

I've worked in over 500 clients gardens in three different climates and these are the 10 plants I will always grow every single year. And you should too. At the end of this video, I'm going to tell you how you can grow all these plants for free. So let's get into it. Five of these plants grow when there's a chance of frost, so they're going to do great when it's cool outside. And then I also have five varieties that grow great when there is no chance of frost and it's nice and hot and we're in the middle of summer. And so these 10 plants will ensure that your garden is never empty from the beginning of the growing season all the way to the end of the year. I love to divide plants by the production that they give us leaves, roots and fruit. That's the name of my second book. If you haven't read it yet, we'll put a link below this video. So let's start out with the easiest things to grow, which are leaves. And these are the leaves that we grow. When it is cool outside, there's a chance of frost, maybe even snow. These greens thrive in your garden and they're so easy to plant from seed. So let's start with the easiest no brainer plant in the garden and that is arugula. Arugula only needs about 3 to 4 inches per seed in the garden. Less than 4 to 6 hours of sunlight. You're barely going to have to tend this plant. You're just going to water it to be sure it comes up from seed. Then your main job is just to harvest it. Arugula will give you one seed, will give you two to three, maybe even four bowl fulls of delicious salad. And once you've tasted homegrown arugula, you will never, I repeat, never be able to go back to the grocery store variety. This one is your new garden bff. Next up is Spring Mix. This is the plant that taught me how to garden. I was a complete fail in the garden when I tried more complicated things like tomatoes and potatoes. But when I planted this seed, I felt like Martha Stewart. Just one seed from this packet I will give you two to three of those boxes worth of production before you have to start again. These grow great in the cold weather. All you have to do is water it a little bit and then cut it and you'll have loads of delicious salad for months on end. Did you know that grocery store spinach loses 40 to 50% of its nutrients before it reaches your fork? Spinach is one of those plants that really needs to be eaten right after it's harvested. And the best news is the you can grow your own. And spinach grows at a time when a lot of other plants don't. Spinach loves really cool, even cold weather, and it grows directly from seed planted in the soil. You're going to give each seed about 3 to 4 inches. All you got to do is keep it watered. It's a little bit slower to come up than arugula and spring mix, but the production is over the top. Moving on from leaves to roots. These need a little bit more space and time in the garden, but they're still so prolific, especially if you grow your own. There is no faster growing root than radishes. These go from seed to harvest in less than 45 days. And this is my favorite radish variety, the French Breakfast. It's a milder flavor and it's something even my kids like to eat. Plus, if you grow your own radishes, you get to eat the radish tops and the roots, doubling the production from each and every seed that you plant. Radishes need about 2 to 3 inches between each seed. They need about 6 hours of sun every day. All, all you gotta do is keep them watered and thinned in the first few weeks, and you'll be harvesting delicious radishes that you can eat for months on end. The next fruit to grow in the cool season when there's still a chance of frost, are carrots. Carrots grow very easily from seed. They're going to take a lot longer than radishes, but believe me, they are worth the wait. The way carrots are grown really matters. You want to be sure that the soil around those carrot seeds is, is organic and natural because those roots are absorbing every little piece of nutrient around them. So in this case, it's so important to grow your own. So you know all the things that went in to making these incredible roots. Last but not least for the time when there's still a chance of frost are peas. Sugar snap peas, to be specific. This is my favorite protein to grow in the cooler parts of the year. And oh my gosh, the flavor is amazing. These are going to grow on a trellis, so they work really well together with all these other plants. Peas grow so great from seed. You want to soak these overnight and then plant them one about every four to five inches along a trellis. These are going to grow, they're going to take longer. They need about 75 to 90 days to start fruiting. But once they start producing peas, they are going to keep producing peas for many weeks to come. So these are the seeds that I grow every single cool season. Whether it's the spring or the fall, anytime there is a chance of these five plants are for sure going into my garden. Let me tell you how they all fit into one bed. First, along the outside of the bed, I'm going to have all my greens. These are the ones I'm going to pick the most often, and they are the most prolific producers. Plus they take up so little space, I can just kind of smoosh them in anywhere I want to. Then in the middle of the bed on middle rows, I'm going to have my root crops, radishes and carrots, growing a little bit more slowly, not really needing much tending, and then ready for me to pick when I'm ready to pick them. And then finally, right down the middle of my beds or going over two beds with an arch trellis, I'm going to grow my peas. These take longer and they need the space to reach up, get more sunlight and grow and stretch as they produce fruit. All these plants grow so well together in just one bed, they cover all my nutritional needs and they all produce throughout the cool season. So I've got something to harvest pretty much every single single day of the growing season. We're more than halfway through my top 10 plants to grow every single year in your garden. And the last ones are the ones we grow in the warm and the hot seasons when there is no chance of frost. By the way, don't forget, I'm going to show you how you can grow all these plants, these 10 plants for free next year. So stay to the end. I've got lots of details to share. As I picked out these 10 varieties, I had one rule that I would not budge on. I had to be able to grow this plant successfully within the season by simply taking a seed and putting it in the soil outside. So with that said, let's move on to something that's quite uncharacteristic for the warm and hot seasons. Taking seeds and simply putting them right in the soil as soon as the soil warms up. My favorite is bush beans. These things are givers. In fact, this variety is provider. They just provide again and again. In fact, one bean seed will give you bowl fulls of harvest that you can use as your main course for dinner all summer long. This is the perfect protein. It's a great way to have a plant based diet. And you can grow bush beans Pretty much anywhere. Just plant one seed every four to six inches. Grow it either in the middle of your beds or alongside the edges of your beds. These kind of grow wherever you try to push them in. They need about eight hours of sunlight, just a little bit of water to get them going, and then your job is just to pick the beans when they show up on the bush. Next up is zucchini. Have you heard the joke about gardeners literally taking bags of zucchini and just putting them on their neighbor's doorsteps because they grew so much? This is why I had to include zucchini in my top 10 plants to grow, because it is so prolific. You'll get lots of fruit from each and every seed that you plant, and you can plant these several times per season. So at the very beginning of the summer, halfway through the summer, and even if you have a warm fall, you can plant them one more time. One seed is going to give you 8, 10, 15 fruit from just one seed, and all you got to do is stick it in the soil. Next up is cucumbers. This is the true summer fruit. I know it doesn't taste sweet like a watermelon, but it is so easy to grow and so juicy. And our bodies are absolutely crave water and hydration in the middle of the hottest months. And cucumbers provide just that. I also love having cucumbers for all kinds of fresh salads in the summer. And don't forget the pickles. You're going to plant one seed every three to four inches at the base of a trellis. These are going to grow up in the middle of your beds and they're going to produce tons of fruit all season long. My final must grow plant is one that you can't eat. Well, I actually think you might be able to eat it, but I don't think you'll want to. This is actually providing food not for you, but for the bees and the butterflies. And trust me on this one, the more food you give the bees, the more food the bees will give you. So I love to plant zinnias all throughout my summer garden because they absolutely feed the pollinators. And the more pollinators you can welcome into your garden, the better. So let's talk about how all these plants can work together in a summer garden. First, you're going to have your bush beans planted all around the edge of the bed. These are going to drape over the edges and fruit for you all season. So you can just come pick some beans and bring them inside and make A delicious dish. Then you're going to have your zucchini. These are going to take up the majority of the interior of the bed. These are big plants. Each one needs one to two square feet to grow. You're going to grow them and let them take up the middle part of the bed. They're going to give you so much fruit for every single plant. Then you're going to have trellises right in the center of the bed as an obelisk. Or you can have an arch that connects two beds, and on that trellis, you're going to grow loads of cucumbers. These are going to fruit and flower all season long and give you lots of growth from something in the middle of the thin air. And then finally, right in between all of those beans, you're going to put zinnia seeds. Pretty much every time you plant a bean, I want you to plant a zinnia right next to it. Having these zinnias planted throughout your bed and especially around the border of your garden is going to give you protection from pests and also welcome pollinators in to help those beans, cucumbers and zucchini produce loads of fruit. And there you have it. These are the 10 plants I will grow next year and the year after that and for many years to come. And I really, truly believe you should grow these 10 plants, too. And now for the moment we've all been waiting for. How in the world you could grow all these plants for free, and I really mean for free. This year, we are giving away 1 million seed packages for for free. All 10 of these varieties are going to go to 100,000 different gardeners. So I'm hoping you're watching this in time to claim yours. To do so, all you gotta do is head to the bottom of this video and check out the link to learn more. So tell me, which of the 10 plants are you the most excited to grow in your garden next year? Put it in the comments below and maybe I'll make a video on how to grow it in your garden. Don't forget to like this video and please don't forget to share it with your friends and family and get Everybody growing these 10 plants with next year. And of course, please subscribe. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you in your garden next time.