Easy to grow garden plants for beginners

This section features our full range of easy to grow plants, perfect for beginner gardeners. Herbs are easy to grow, even in the smallest spaces such as a window box or container on the balcony. Most herbs thrive in full sun in a gritty, well drained compost – chives, fennel, mint, parsley, thyme and basil are all good choices or, for something different, our curry plants are very popular. If you have the space, apple trees are perhaps surprisingly easy to grow and can be highly productive – our guide on how to plant a tree may help. There is nothing like eating fresh fruit straight from the tree in autumn; far better than anything available from the supermarket shelves. Different varieties produce their fruit at different times of the year and late ripening varieties store well to provide stock over the winter. There is lots of choice for easy to grow flowering plants including agapanthus, aster, coneflower, lupines, fuchsia, lavender and hellebore. Ferns are magnificent foliage plants and easy to grow with many varieties suitable for growing in the garden or indoors. These highly versatile, ancient and mysterious plants require very little care and attention and are untroubled by pests and diseases. They have marvellously intricate foliage with architectural pinnate leaf forms which look particularly beautiful as they erupt from new fronds.