What Plants to Grow in a Garden: Pick by Season, Space, Sun

The best plants to grow in your garden right now, in early June, are the ones that match your sun, soil, space, and how much time you actually want to spend. For most gardeners in temperate climates, that means tomatoes, courgettes, beans, basil, and summer flowers like marigolds are all go right now. If you're in a colder northern region (northern UK, upper Midwest US, Canada), you may have just cleared your last frost and this is exactly the moment to get warm-season crops in the ground. If you're somewhere hotter and drier, you're shifting toward heat-tolerant herbs, sweet potatoes, and drought-resilient flowers. This guide walks you through how to figure out your specific situation and gives you a concrete shortlist you can act on today.

Quick checklist: the four things to sort before you pick any plant

Before you browse seed catalogues or grab whatever looks good at the garden centre, spend ten minutes answering these four questions. They'll cut your options down from hundreds to a manageable shortlist that will actually work in your space.

• Sun: Count the hours of direct sun your plot gets on a clear day. Six or more hours means full sun — you can grow almost anything. Three to six hours is partial shade — salad leaves, herbs, and some flowers thrive here but tomatoes will struggle. Under three hours is deep shade — you're looking at ferns, hostas, and woodland plants rather than edibles.
• Soil: Dig down about 15cm (6 inches). Does it look dark and crumbly, or pale and sticky? Clay soil drains poorly and can leave roots sitting in water, which causes root rot — USU Extension research confirms this is a major plant killer. Sandy or loamy soil drains well and suits most vegetables and herbs. If you're unsure about drainage, pour water into a hole about 30cm deep and time how fast it disappears. Soils that drain more than 4 inches per hour are very well-drained; less than an inch per hour means you have a drainage problem to fix or work around.
• Space: Measure your actual growing area. A 1m x 2m bed sounds small but can fit a dozen lettuce plants, a courgette, and a row of radishes. Know whether you're working with open ground, a raised bed, or containers — the answer changes which plants make sense.
• Time: Be honest with yourself. A vegetable garden with tomatoes, squash, and beans needs watering most days in dry weather (about 1 inch of water per week is the standard rule of thumb). Herbs and perennial flowers need far less. If you have one hour a week, plan accordingly.

Season-first: what to plant right now vs. what to plan for later

It's early June, which is one of the most useful planting windows of the year in temperate climates. Warm-season crops that were started indoors in March or April are ready to go out now. In the UK, the RHS explicitly lists June as the time to plant out tomatoes and other warm crops that were started indoors, and notes that courgettes, marrows, and pumpkins can still be direct-sown outdoors in early June in southern England and south Wales. In the upper Midwest US, University of Minnesota Extension puts mid-May to early June as the window for beans, pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, melons, and celery, so if you haven't planted those yet, you're right at the edge of the window, not too late.

One important note if you're moving seedlings outside: harden them off first. That means setting them outside in a sheltered spot for increasing periods over 7 to 10 days before planting them in the ground. Skipping this step causes transplant shock, the leaves wilt, growth stalls, and sometimes the plant just gives up. Transplant on a cool, cloudy afternoon if possible.

For later in the season, start thinking about autumn crops. In mid-to-late June you can sow brassicas (kale, cabbage, broccoli) for autumn harvest. In July and August you can sow winter radishes, RHS guidance recommends sowing those in July or August, about 2cm deep, thinning to 15–20cm apart. Keep notes on what you plant and when, and you'll have a clear roadmap for succession planting.

Best plants to grow by goal

Edible plants: grow your own food

For food production in early summer, focus on high-yield, relatively fast crops. Courgettes are possibly the most rewarding vegetable for effort, one plant can produce more than you can eat. Beans are nearly foolproof if you water consistently. Tomatoes take more attention but the payoff is huge. If you want fast results, radishes germinate in 7 to 10 days and are ready to harvest in about 4 weeks. Carrots are straightforward in loose, sandy soil but can fork badly in clay, if your soil is heavy, grow them in a raised bed or deep container instead. Salad leaves give you continuous harvests if you cut the outer leaves rather than pulling the whole plant.

• Courgette / zucchini — one or two plants is plenty; space them 90cm apart
• French beans or runner beans — direct sow in full sun, provide support for climbers
• Cherry tomatoes — more forgiving than large varieties; less prone to blossom end rot
• Lettuce and salad leaves — pick heat-tolerant varieties in summer, or grow in light shade
• Radishes — ideal gap-filler between larger plants; sow a few every two weeks
• Kale and Swiss chard — nearly indestructible; harvest outer leaves repeatedly
• Carrots — easy in light soil, tricky in clay; try 'Short 'n Sweet' or 'Chantenay' varieties in heavier ground

Flowers and aesthetics: making the garden look good

Planting for looks in June is satisfying because results come fast. Marigolds (both French and African types) are the workhorse of the summer garden, they flower continuously, deter aphids and whitefly, and look great alongside vegetables. Zinnias thrive in heat and produce an almost absurd number of flowers if you deadhead regularly. For something that self-seeds reliably and comes back year after year with minimal effort, nasturtiums are hard to beat, and they're edible too. If you have a shadier spot, impatiens and begonias do well where other flowering annuals fail. For longer-term structure in sunny beds, lavender, echinacea (coneflower), and rudbeckia are perennials that establish themselves over a season and return every year.

• Marigolds — full sun, drought-tolerant once established, great companion plant
• Zinnias — love heat, deadhead for continuous bloom, easy from seed
• Nasturtiums — grow in poor soil, edible flowers and leaves, self-seeds freely
• Lavender — needs full sun and excellent drainage; long-lived perennial
• Echinacea (coneflower) — pollinators love it, drought-tolerant perennial
• Impatiens or begonias — for partial to full shade spots where little else flowers

Herbs and medicinal plants: useful and low-maintenance

Herbs are the most practical thing most gardeners can grow. They're useful in the kitchen, most are easy, and they work in tiny spaces including windowsills. If you need ideas for what plants grow in small spaces, start with herbs and compact vegetables like basil, salad leaves, and radishes tiny spaces. The RHS confirms all commonly used culinary herbs are broadly easy to grow and do best in full sun with well-drained, fertile soil. Basil is the June priority, it hates cold and really comes into its own once temperatures settle above 15°C (60°F). Parsley, chives, and thyme are more forgiving and can tolerate partial shade. One strong caution: mint. It's incredibly useful and easy, but it spreads underground aggressively and will take over a bed if you let it. Grow mint in its own container. The RHS is explicit about this, and anyone who's tried to remove mint from a border will agree.

• Basil — needs heat and full sun; perfect for containers near a south-facing wall
• Mint — grow in a pot to prevent it taking over; great for tea and cooking
• Thyme — low-growing, drought-tolerant, excellent in rock gardens or container edges
• Chives — easy perennial; divide clumps every couple of years
• Parsley — biennial; sow fresh seed each year for best results; tolerates partial shade
• Echinacea — grown both for its flowers and its traditional medicinal use; a tough perennial
• Lavender — calming fragrance, attracts bees, used in teas and aromatherapy

Best plants for beginners and low-maintenance gardeners

If you're new to gardening or just don't have a lot of time, the worst thing you can do is start with fussy plants that need daily attention. The list below is based on what actually survives neglect, recovers from irregular watering, and still produces something worth having. These aren't consolation prizes, they're genuinely good plants that experienced gardeners grow too.

• Courgette — almost aggressively easy; the main risk is forgetting to harvest and finding a marrow-sized courgette hiding under a leaf
• Radishes — fastest return in the vegetable garden; results in under a month
• Kale — cold-hardy, pest-resistant compared to other brassicas, and you can harvest it for months
• Cherry tomatoes — 'Tumbling Tom' or 'Gardener's Delight' varieties are much more forgiving than beef tomatoes
• Marigolds — basically grows themselves in any reasonable soil with sun
• Chives — perennial herb that regrows after cutting; almost impossible to kill
• Nasturtiums — thrives in poor, unfed soil; give it rich compost and it produces fewer flowers
• Sunflowers — sow direct, water occasionally, enjoy a guaranteed result

Matching plants to your climate and region

Climate is probably the biggest variable in garden success, and it's the one most guides gloss over. In the US, the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard reference, it divides the country into zones based on average annual minimum temperatures. Your zone number tells you which perennials will survive winter in your area. If you're in Zone 5 (like Minnesota or Chicago), lavender and rosemary may not overwinter reliably; if you're in Zone 9 (like parts of California or Texas), you're growing year-round and your summer garden starts in February. Check your current zone because the map was updated recently and some areas have shifted.

In the UK, the RHS uses its own hardiness rating system with temperature ranges (H1 through H7, down to below -20°C for the hardiest). Most annual vegetables are H1 or tender, which is why you don't direct-sow tomatoes in March in the UK, they'd get frosted. The RHS notes that gardeners in northern UK areas should wait until after the last frost before planting out summer bedding and seed-raised plants, which in some parts of Scotland can mean late May or early June.

If you garden in a city, your microclimate may be warmer than surrounding rural areas due to the urban heat island effect. For a London-specific shortlist, focus on hardy varieties and choose plants that tolerate the city's microclimate and seasonal changes best plants to grow in London. That can extend your growing season but also means heat stress is a bigger issue in summer. Plants with good shade options and regular watering will do better. City growing also opens up more container and vertical growing possibilities, which connects to a whole set of recommendations around what works in small urban plots. If you’re choosing the best plants to grow in small garden spaces, focus on compact, container-friendly varieties with reliable yields. If you want to try city-friendly growing, focus on plants that tolerate containers, limited light, and heat swings grow in cities.

Container gardening vs. growing in the ground

Containers and in-ground beds aren't interchangeable. Each has real strengths and real limits, and the best choice depends on what you're working with. If you have good garden soil with decent drainage and sun, in-ground planting is almost always more forgiving, the soil volume is large, temperature stays steadier, and you water less often. Containers are the answer when your soil is terrible (heavy clay, contaminated, non-existent), when you're on a patio or balcony, or when you want to control soil conditions precisely.

Watering is where containers really differ from ground beds. Containers dry out fast, especially in summer heat and wind, and the drainage situation matters enormously. West Virginia University Extension warns that blocked drainage holes cause waterlogging and root rot. The RHS recommends watering until you see water start to come from the drainage holes, which is a useful practical guide. University of Illinois Extension adds a critical point: never use garden soil in containers. It compacts, drains poorly, and creates exactly the waterlogged root conditions that kill plants. Use a proper peat-free compost mix.

For gardeners working with raised beds or garden boxes, you get many of the soil-control benefits of containers without the watering intensity. A raised bed with good compost-rich soil gives you almost perfect conditions for most vegetables and herbs. If you're thinking about what plants work specifically well in raised beds or compact growing spaces, those setups have their own nuances worth exploring separately. A raised bed or garden box setup can be a great way to grow many of the same crops in a more controlled space, as long as you choose varieties that fit the container depth best plants to grow in garden box.

How to actually get your plants growing: buying, spacing, watering, and fixing problems

Buying plants vs. growing from seed

In early June, most vegetables are still best grown from seed direct-sown into the ground, beans, courgettes, radishes, carrots, and salad leaves all go straight in. But if you missed the indoor sowing window for tomatoes and peppers, buy transplants from a garden centre now rather than starting from seed. A healthy transplant will catch up. For flowers, both options work, marigolds and zinnias grow easily from direct-sown seed, but if you want instant colour, buy plug plants or pots and transplant them out.

Spacing: don't crowd your plants

Crowding is one of the most common beginner mistakes. Plants that are too close together compete for light, water, and nutrients, get poor air circulation, and become disease-prone. As a rough guide: tomatoes need 60–90cm between plants, courgettes at least 90cm, beans about 10–15cm in the row with 45cm between rows, and salad leaves can be planted much closer at 15–20cm. For radishes, RHS guidance for winter varieties recommends thinning to 15–20cm spacing. On seed packets, the spacing guidance is usually conservative but worth following.

Watering: the one-inch rule and when to break it

The standard rule from multiple extension services (Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon) is about one inch of water per week for vegetable gardens, delivered in a way that wets the soil to about 15cm (6 inches) deep. In practice that means watering deeply two or three times a week rather than a light sprinkle every day. Light watering encourages shallow roots that dry out fast. In dry spells, Oregon State Extension suggests going up to 1–2 inches per week. Mulching, straw, bark, or even cardboard topped with compost, dramatically reduces how often you need to water by slowing evaporation. It's probably the single most impactful thing you can do in a dry summer.

Underwatering has a clear signal: the RHS notes that water-stressed vegetables stop growing and start bolting (going to seed prematurely), or simply die. Salad leaves turn bitter, root crops fail to swell, and leafy greens flower when they should be producing leaves. If your plants look stunted or are flowering much earlier than expected, water stress is often the cause. For containers specifically, check moisture daily in hot weather and water until you see it run from the drainage holes.

Basic troubleshooting

• Plant wilting in heat: water deeply in the morning or evening; don't water in full midday sun
• Yellowing leaves: could be overwatering (root rot from poor drainage), underfeeding, or pests — check drainage first
• Leggy seedlings: not enough light; move containers to sunnier spot or thin crowded plants
• Bolting (early flowering in vegetables): usually heat stress or inconsistent watering; shade cloth helps in extreme heat
• Herbs dying indoors: usually root rot from overwatering or insufficient light — UMN Extension notes root rots are the most common indoor herb problem; if growing indoors in winter, grow lights running 14–16 hours a day help (University of Maryland Extension recommendation)
• Nothing germinating: soil too cold, too wet, or seeds sown too deep — most vegetable seeds need soil above 10°C (50°F) and are sown no deeper than twice their own diameter

The single most useful habit you can build is keeping a basic garden notebook, just the date you planted something, where, and what variety. When something works or fails, you'll have something to learn from rather than trying to remember what you did differently last year. Gardening gets noticeably easier after your second or third season in the same spot, once you know your soil, your light, and your local frost dates. Start simple, observe what works, and add complexity as your confidence builds.