15 Healthiest Plants to Grow in the Kitchen Garden

Sometimes cooking meals is a well-thought-out task, where you gather all the necessary ingredients and cook however you’d prefer to. Other times, it’s a mad dash! You’re in a rush, out of onions, and want to make French onion soup. Or you just ran out of cloves and are trying to make garlic pasta.

No matter your cooking experiences, having edible plants in your backyard allows you to make the meals of your dreams. You’ll learn to rely on trusty chives, greens, and bitter but hardy Swiss chard leaves. Rather than rushing to the store for that missing onion, you’ll check your garden beds first.

Lettuce

	common name Lettuce
	botanical name Lactuca sativa
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 6-12”
	hardiness zones 2-11

Lettuce is easy to grow, prolific, and has few pests or diseases. It’s also incredibly nutritious! Lettuce provides you with many necessary minerals, vitamins, and fiber. It contains smaller compounds like carotenoids and chlorophyll that further boost its nutritional value. 

Eat a few leaves a day in salads, throw them in smoothies, or cook them into your favorite recipes substituting spinach. The plants are easy to harvest. Simply snip a few outer leaves, or let a head develop and chop it off in one go. 

After growing a single plant, you can leave it in your garden to bolt, flower, and produce seeds. The seeds sprout readily from USDA hardiness zones 2 through 11, making this a perfect reseeding option in the kitchen garden. ‘Buttercrunch’ is my favorite variety with delicious, tender greens. It stays smaller than most other types, making it an ideal type for containers. 

Cabbage

	common name Cabbage
	botanical name Brassica oleracea var. capitata
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 1-2’
	hardiness zones 1-9

Cabbage forms crunchy, juicy leaves that are essential for kimchi, sauerkraut, and other fermented concoctions. The chopped cabbage leaves feed lactic acid-producing bacteria and yeast, creating a bubbly, fizzy, and sour mix. These microbes are extremely beneficial for gut health.

Not only are the microbes good for your stomach, but so are the cabbage leaves! They contain plenty of fiber, vitamins, and minerals, working as leafy greens in your diet. Ferment them as described above, or, cook them in soups, stews, and meat marinades. You may also eat the fresh leaves in salads—chop them thin and let them marinate in dressing so they soften a bit. 

Many cabbage cultivars exist with beautiful colors and unique shapes. Try ‘Caraflex’ for small heads with pointed tips. The green heads stand out in the garden and work well in ornamental beds. Opt for ‘Red Acre’ if you prefer purple-colored heads that swell over six inches wide!

Swiss Chard

	common name Swiss Chard
	botanical name Beta vulgaris subsp. vulgaris
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 1-2’
	hardiness zones 2-11

Swiss chard is a leafy green like cabbage and lettuce. It’s a close relative of table and sugar beets, with bright red stems and thin, green leaves. A hardy specimen, Swiss chard survives frosts while other leafy greens like spinach and lettuce wilt and die. You’ll be able to cook with it for many months after planting.

Grow this green for its wealth of nutritional benefits. Swiss chard leaves have lots of fiber and they’re rich in vitamins A, B, C, and K. Chop them into soups and stews or blend them into a roux for a green, fiber-rich sauce. Swiss chard works like spinach in most recipes, and it tastes less bitter after you cook it. Remove chard bitterness with these easy steps:

After removing the bitterness, throw the wilted leaves into casseroles, sauces, and stews. New cultivars like ‘Perpetual Spinach’ are ideal if you’d like to eat the leaves fresh. They sprout tender, sweet leaves that lack the bitterness of other types. 

Broccoli

	common name Broccoli
	botanical name Brassica oleracea var. italica
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 1-3’
	hardiness zones 2-11

Every chef should grow broccoli! It’s a perfect addition to any dish—sauté it in stir fry, chop it into stew, or oven-bake it with other seasoned veggies. Broccoli boosts your meal’s nutritional content with plenty of vitamin C, calcium, potassium, and iron. 

Broccoli florets need six to eight hours of daily direct sunlight to thrive, and they like regular water during the growing season. Mature plants are frost-hardy, ideal as late fall or early spring crops. You can sow seeds indoors a month before you’d like to transplant them or direct sow outdoors when the soil temperature stays above 40°F (4°C). 

Onions

	common name Onions
	botanical name Allium cepa
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 1-2’
	hardiness zones 5-10

Onions are the secret ingredient of many favorite recipes. They’re subtle stars that add essential flavors and textures to meals. Grill, sauté, or bake chopped, whole, or sliced onions. Versatile, healthy, and delicious, these veggies are essential in kitchen gardens. 

Growing onions can be challenging. Pick the right onions for your climate, and you’ll have successful harvests. Long-day, intermediate-day, and short-day onions exist, and each type is best for particular regions. Use this chart to help you choose the right onions for your garden:

Onion Type	Required Summer Daylight Hours
Long-Day	14-16
Intermediate-Day	12-14
Short-Day	10-12

An excellent long-day type for cold regions is ‘Walla Walla.’ It swells early in the growing season, meaning growers in intermediate-day regions can try this variety. Warm climate gardeners should try short-day types like ‘Texas Early Grano’ or ‘Gabriella.’

Garlic

	common name Garlic
	botanical name Allium sativum
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 1-2’
	hardiness zones 4-9

A little bit of garlic goes a long way. Whether you use fresh, powdered, or preserved garlic, you know that a few cloves or a pinch of powder are all you need for a pungent, aromatic flavor. The applications are endless; make garlic bread, start a roux, or grind some up in salsa and pesto. 

Grow garlic in the kitchen garden to save hundreds of dollars on heads from the store. Garlic grows easily from zones 4 through 9 and loves sprouting in fertile, loose, and rich garden soil. Plant cloves outdoors in the fall if you live in a cold climate.

Warm climate gardeners in zone 9 should refrigerate the cloves for two to three months before planting them in the spring. Garlic requires a winter cold period to form a bulbous head full of individual cloves. Try softneck varieties in warm southern regions, and hardneck types in cold northern ones. 

Parsley

	common name Parsley
	botanical name Petroselinum crispum
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 8-36”
	hardiness zones 2-11

No kitchen garden is complete without herbs! Leafy herbal species have powerful flavors packed in their leaves. Parsley is one of the most indispensable herbs, offering great flavor whether it’s fresh or dried. Use it in tabbouleh, pasta sauce, or pizza sauce, and add fresh sprigs to finished meals as a flavorful garnish. 

Easy to grow, parsley may reseed itself when it’s happy. It’s a biennial plant that grows leaves in its first season and flowers and seeds the next. After harvesting the leaves, leave plants so they survive into their second year. They’ll form seeds you can collect as a backup for when you’d like to sow more parsley in your garden. 

Two main types of parsley exist: flat leaf and curled. Choose a lacy type like ‘Moss Curled’ for strongly flavored leaves and stems. Use ‘Flat Leaf’ if you prefer a more subtle taste in delicate, tender leaves. 

Basil

	common name Basil
	botanical name Ocimum basilicum
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 1-3’
	hardiness zones 10

Basil, like parsley, is necessary in the kitchen garden. It adds a flavor unlike any other herb; the taste is savory and sweet. This herb is best fresh, which is the number one reason why you should grow it yourself. Buying fresh basil from the store quickly grows expensive!

Not only is basil delicious, but it’s also incredibly nutritious. Fresh basil lends vitamins A and K and beneficial flavinoids to recipes, helping boost their health value. 

Although basil is only hardy outdoors in zone 10, it’s a great candidate for growing in a container indoors. It makes a cute houseplant! Place it in partial shade or bright indirect sunlight while it’s inside, and use grow lights if you can’t find any bright windows in your home. 

Beans

	common name Beans
	botanical name Phaseolus vulgaris
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 6-12’
	hardiness zones 2-11

There’s a bean for everyone! Whether you like lima, black, pinto, green, or garbanzo beans, you can grow them in your kitchen garden and eat them however you’d like. Pick fresh green pods off the bean vines to eat them raw, or let them harden and shrivel to collect dry beans. 

Beans are especially easy for beginner gardeners, requiring little to thrive. Plant them in full sun during the growing season, and keep their soil moist but not soggy. Give them a pole or trellis to climb up, and harvest the bean pods regularly to encourage the vines to grow more. 

There are countless bean varieties, and there’s sure to be a perfect one for you. Choose from two main types: pole and bush beans. Pole beans are tall, twining cultivars that may reach up to 12 feet tall with support. Use bush beans if you prefer shorter varieties. The disease-resistant variety ‘Provider’ is so bushy it doesn’t need support!

Squash

	common name Squash
	botanical name Cucurbita spp.
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 1-20’
	hardiness zones 2-11

Delicious, buttery, and savory, squash is one of the heartiest vegetables you can grow in a garden. Whether you choose summer or winter squash, each bite provides plenty of fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Summer squash has thin skin, grows quickly, and is extremely frost-tender. Winter squash has thick rinds on large fruits, and they resist mild frosts.

If you can’t decide on a squash type, try both! Grow summer squash from spring through summer, and winter squash from summer through fall. Choose a classic summer type like the yellow ‘Early Prolific Straightneck,’ or go for a green zucchini like ‘Black Beauty.’

Dozens of winter squash varieties are available across North America. My all-time favorite is the winter acorn squash, a white ribbed type that ripens during the cool months of autumn. Try the cultivar ‘Mashed Potatoes’ for creamy, savory flesh that tastes great on its own! 

Tomatoes

	common name Tomatoes
	botanical name Solanum lycopersicum
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 1-10’
	hardiness zones 3-11

Tomatoes are the most versatile vegetables. Large, juicy heirloom types are perfect for fresh eating, while Roma types excel in sauces and marinades. No matter what tomato variety you grow, you can use the edible fruits in dozens of cuisines. They’re necessary ingredients for Indian, Chinese, American, and Italian cuisines, among others.

Aside from their many culinary applications, tomatoes are excellent to grow for their high nutritional value. They may protect the body from various cancers, and they’re chock full of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals. The saying goes, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” but it should be a tomato!

Cherry, sauce, and heirloom tomatoes offer dozens of unique flavors, textures, and sizes. My favorite heirloom is the ‘Yellow Pear’ variety. It grows small, pear-shaped cherry tomatoes with yellow hues and savory flavors.

Peppers

	common name Peppers
	botanical name Capsicum spp.
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 1-4’
	hardiness zones 3-11

Peppers are similar to tomato plants. They grow well as annuals in cold regions and are perennial from zones 9 through 11. Grow a pepper plant in a container and bring it indoors during the winter for fresh peppers year-round. Spicy and mild varieties are common nowadays, so anyone can grow them regardless of their spice tolerance. 

A little bit of pepper goes a long way. The fruits are rich in vitamin C, with some bell peppers like ‘California Wonder’ offering more than oranges! While you may need two or three bell pepper plants, you often only need one or two spicy ones. They’re prolific producers, creating dozens of chiles on a single plant. 

For mild spice, opt for a good-performing variety like ‘Early Jalapeño.’ It’s frost-resistant, abundant, and drought-tolerant. Heat lovers should try an extremely spicy cultivar like ‘Bhut Jolokia,’ a ghost pepper. 

Strawberries

	common name Strawberries
	botanical name Fragaria x ananassa
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 6-12”
	hardiness zones 5-9

Chefs and gardeners both love strawberries. They’re easy to grow, abundant, and perennial in most zones. Strawberry plants send out “runners” during the growing season; runners are rooting stems that form new strawberry clones throughout the garden. Buy one plant this year and you’ll have dozens in the coming seasons!

Strawberry fruits are tremendously healthy. They’re full of fiber, sugar, and antioxidants, making them the perfect midday snack. They taste delicious in desserts, whether in a sundae at night or French toast in the morning! 

The most common strawberries are the garden hybrids of the botanical name Fragaria x ananassa. These hybrids form large, juicy, and sweet red fruits. Native strawberries are smaller, but they’re often tastier! Try the beach strawberry in western states, and the woodland or wild strawberries in eastern and northern ones. 

Goji Berries

	common name Goji Berries
	botanical name Lycium barbarum
	sun requirements Full sun
	height 3-8’
	hardiness zones 4-9

Goji berries are unlikely heroes in the kitchen. They’re exceptionally sweet when dry, working well as a date or prune substitute. The ripe orange berries are less sweet but they have more juice in them, and they’re perfect for fresh eating. A single bush can produce hundreds of berries a year, making this plant an ideal specimen for a prolific kitchen garden. 

Goji berry shrubs are tough—they resist frost, drought, and pests. They’re ideal container specimens, thriving in a ten-gallon or larger size container. Give them regular water, full sun, and ample airflow. 

These elusive berries are growing more popular each year. They’re a superfood, meaning they have more nutrients, minerals, and vitamins than most other fruits or vegetables. 

Blueberries

	common name Blueberries
	botanical name Vaccinium spp.
	sun requirements Full sun to partial shade
	height 4-12’
	hardiness zones 4-10

Rounding out this list is the humble blueberry! This blue fruit is another superfood like goji berries, packing incredible flavor and essential nutrients inside. Pop a few on your dish for a sweet touch, or make jelly, jam, and sauces with them. You can freeze fresh blueberries for up to a year and use them in smoothies and baked goods.

Dozens of blueberry species exist, and breeders combine them to form new, climate-hardy hybrid varieties. Blueberries aren’t just for cold zones! Whether you live in Florida, California, or Montana, you can grow these superfruits.

These healthy berries are good for your diet, and they grow off gorgeous shrubs that add ornamental interest to the landscape. Give them slightly acidic soil, consistent moisture, and ample airflow. Their leaves turn red-orange in the fall, adding warm autumn colors to your garden.