The best overall plant for your first garden
So you don't have much of a green thumb, you say? Well, no worries there, you probably won't kill a Kimberly Queen Fern unless you set out to do so intentionally. These hardy, handsome plants can thrive in all sorts of environments, from a shaded porch to the corner of the bathroom to your back yard. They can survive with minimal fertilization and only need watering when their soil gets dry. And ferns grow larger and larger if given space, so use them to fill a yard.
Planted outside, a Kimberly Queen Fern can bask in the sun for multiple hours a day, but partial shade is also just fine. Indoors, the fern will serve as a natural humidifier and detoxifier, cleaning and freshening the air in your home or workplace. Just note that a Kimberly Queen Fern doesn't do well with freezing temperatures, so you'll have to cover or move them in the wintertime.
Pros: Can be planted almost anywhere, minimal maintenance required, purifies indoor air
Cons: Cannot survive in cold weather
Buy a Kimberly Queen Fern from The Home Depot for $22.62The best easy-to-grow veggies
With a packet of Seedz Certified Organic Carrot Seeds, you could grow enough carrots to feed a small army. Or at least, a large family. Growing carrots is easy: Once the ambient outdoor temperature stays above 50 degrees (the ideal temperature range is between 60 and 70 degrees), simply plant the seeds a half-inch under the soil and a half-inch apart from one another. Then water them lightly, just enough to keep the soil moist. Just make sure you plant your carrot seeds where they will get plenty of sun.
If it seems like every seed is sprouting, consider thinning the ranks of the seedlings by cutting some of the sprouts at soil level so that the remaining sprouts are a few inches apart. They will let you know when they are ready by poking a portion of the edible root (the orange part) above ground. Also, consider starting yours early, like I do, in planters under a grow light, then moving them to the soil once the outside temperature is right.
While growing carrots is easy, it does require the right soil. Good soil for carrots is free of rocks and roots and is rich in nutrients. For best results, use a raised planter bed or dig out some earth and turn it with a bag of nutrient-rich soil from a nursery or hardware store. You carrots should be ready to pull and enjoy in about two months time, more or less.
Pros: Tasty and nutritious, easy to grow with little effort, large quantity of seeds
Cons: Requires specific soil conditions
Get a Packet of Seedz Certified Organic Carrot Seeds on Amazon for $7.88The best flowering shrub
Hydrangeas are robust plants that dazzle with huge, colorful blooms for more than three months out of the year, needing minimal maintenance. I know this personally not because of the huge hydrangea in my front yard that comes back bigger and brighter every year, but because of the one in the back I forgot about and left fully untended for three seasons and that nevertheless, flowers just fine.
In the winter, this Zinfin Doll Hydrangea will go dormant, only to come roaring back to life in the springtime, sporting multiple large pink and white flowers. After several years, a single hydrangea bush could grow to be as big as 8-feet across, filling your yard with welcome color.
Hydrangea blooms look great on the bush, of course, but they are also suitable as cut flowers arranged in a vase indoors. And with just a bit of trimming during the winter, these flowers will come back bigger and better each and every year. A single hydrangea bush looks lovely on its own, but they can also be massed to make borders or clustered with other shrubs, trees, or flowers.
Pros: Ready to plant, huge colorful blooms, extended blooming season
Cons: Plant looks scraggly in the winter
Buy a Proven Winners Zinfin Doll Hardy Hydrangea from The Home Depot for $28.14The best flowers to grow from seed
Usually, one selects decorative flowers for their color above all other factors. Be they red roses, white and yellow daffodils, or violets, we choose a flower that will provide a dose of a certain color to our garden, patio, or planters. With a packet of Seed Needs Swiss Giants Pansy seeds, however, it's a different story. You plant pansies when you want all sorts of rich, vibrant colors brightening your property. At full bloom, these pansies will burst with different shades of yellows, pinks, reds, whites, and purples.
While the mix of bright and bold colors is the best thing about these Swiss Giants Pansies, their ease of planting and care are almost equally lovely. Simply sow them about a hal- inch under healthy topsoil and then keep the soil moist. So long as you plant your pansy seeds after the last frost of the season, you can count on shoots poking up within a couple of weeks and the first flowers blooming within a few weeks more. In the right conditions, you will enjoy colorful flowers for weeks or even months after that. I use them wherever I need extra color, such as between hedges and along the back fence.
Pros: Beautiful blend of colors, easy to plant, grow well in full sun to partial shade
Cons: Highly susceptible to cold temperatures
Buy a two-pack of Seed Needs Swiss Giants Pansy Seeds from Amazon for $8.85The best blend of succulents
Succulents have seen a marked uptick in popularity in the last few years, and for a number of good reasons. First, they're handsome plants that are charming when small and striking when large. Second, they can be grown just about anywhere, depending on the local climate. They won't love being left outside in the freezing wintertime; we had succulents all over our yard when we lived in Southern California, but home is now New York, so the succulents are indoors.
Perhaps the best thing about succulent plants is that they are really easy to care for. Just water them every few weeks and they're good to go. (If you live in the desert, water a bit more often than that.) As succulents hold their moisture in their leaves, they don't require huge root structures, so they do well in all sorts of soil and planting arrangements. Many can even be planted hanging sideways to create a living wall installation.
The Shop Succulents Radiant Rosette Collection comes with as few as four hand-picked plants or can be ordered in a volume up to dozens and dozens of individual succulents. They are the ideal easy-care plant for the person who has neither the time nor the wherewithal to care for more needy species of flora.
If you're wondering what it's like to have plants shipped to you, one Amazon customer says that all of her succulents arrived "in perfect condition," while many reported that they would be ordering more succulents from the Shop Succulents soon.
Pros: Great indoors or outdoors, require minimal care, succulents can last for years
Cons: Customers can't choose the exact succulent types
Buy a 12-Piece Shop Succulents Radiant Rosette Collection from Amazon for $23.99The best tomato plant
According to a study conducted by the National Gardening Association, 86% of American households that have a garden in which they grow food, plant tomatoes. When you order a Bonnie Plants Better Boy Tomato plant, you'll join those ranks in no time at all. It was our first successful food plant, and we now grow at least four varieties each year, Better Boys always among them.
The young tomato seedling arrives ready to be put into the dirt right away, and it will thrive in garden beds, large planters boxes, or in individual pots. Within a period of two months after planting, you should begin to harvest your first delicious, nutritious homegrown Better Boy tomatoes. The plant will then continue producing tomatoes for a number of weeks, easily offsetting the cost many times over thanks to the bounty of food you reap.
Growing tomatoes is a satisfying, relatively easy gardening project, especially when Bonnie Plants handles the first part of the process, raising the plant from seed to seedling. To grow the best possible tomatoes, you will need decent soil, lots of direct sunlight, and some supporting hardware, such as a tomato cone or trellis. You will also need to water the tomato plants regularly and will ideally feed the plants at least once or twice during their growth cycle.
The Bonnie Plants Better Boy Tomato plant can also be found as a four-pack for purchase.
Pros: Nutritious and delicious, plants arrive ready for immediate planting, quick and reliable shipping
Cons: Tomatoes require occasional hands-on support to thrive
Buy a Bonnie Plants Better Boy Tomato Plant from The Home Depot for $4.98
