These are the HARDEST Crops to Grow for Gardeners 

The only time I've grown a perfect cauliflower head was by accident. Somehow a seed self-planted in a weird place. The leaves looked so healthy that I let it go...even though I was 100% sure it wouldn't head, and I did NOTHING to help it along. I didn't even water it! Some time later, I walked by and saw the most perfect white head of cauliflower I've ever seen! Amazing.

When I sprout lavender I start them in seed trays and place an ice cube on top of each cell and they always sprout for me it's my easy quick stratification technique. Watermelon takes patience for sure.

"You have to know how to grow lavender in order to grow lavender" Quote of the year

The best way to grow peanuts....have a neighbor that feeds the squirrels and let the squirrels plant the peanuts. I had a peanuts plant grow next to my mailbox last season! I harvested it right before our first frost and it was the perfect specimen! I gave the peanuts to the squirrels to say thank you! 😂

As a second year gardener, I just started my celery today. Pray for me

I’m from California and a cauliflower grew without me planting it! Grew in a compost pile. Still growing not dead so far 🌱

I’m glad you were honest. So many garden channels make it “super easy” to grow anything”...HA!

My rookie mistake: choosing so many of these seeds - I had no idea they were so difficult to grow! Up for the challenge, ok with the outcome whatever = learning. Thanks for the head's up - and wish me luck!

I split my gardening time between GA and AL. I have a hard time beating back the volunteer watermelons from all the spit seeds (sure, insert Southern stereotype joke here). However, after 15 years, I've only managed one sad little head of iceberg lettuce. Some of these are more about your climate zone than skill level. Love the channel!!

Cilantro always a challenge. Even the nobolt wants to bolt.

Haha! What I learned from this video is that all the plants I really want to grow are in the really hard category!😂😂😂

I honestly love this series. It inspires me to grow anything I want even though it might be a bit of a challenge. I can't wait for spring. And also thank you Luke, for helping me and so many other gardeners with your very helpful advice.

*never has grown plants* *wants to plant a herb garden* *gets spearmint, cilantro, and lavender* *watches this video •_•, oh shi-*

I'm 60 y/o, and have been gardening since I was a child, (farm girl). However, I'm always learning so much from Luke!!

I've been gardening only 3 years now, and my first year my watermelons were my best crops! You are absolutely right, you gotta know when to harvest them!

Thank you for such great information. You have inspired me over the past year to start a LARGE raised bed garden and was even able to get my seeds from you!! I have even started my own channel to share my homesteading and gardening in 2020!! Thanks so much for all you teach!

Actually trying Lavender for the first time this year. I've been gardening for about five years now, and it has been a learning experience. Had my first watermelon failure last year, but going to try again. Great series, and I think you're pretty bang on for difficulty level.

Great series, Luke! This is my 4th year of gardening and this year I’ll be trying a few of your advanced options. With your growing guides in my corner, I got this... I think 🤔

Oh no I've just started onion broccoli and celery and now I'm worried hahaha

This is my first year planting in the grow bed. I find that the new seed packages have if the plants are container friendly or frost tolerant, etc and I found that really helpful. Maybe skill level can be added in the future. Thanks for all the great info!

I have heavily clayey soil in eastern WA and Ive grown spearmint and many other mints in the ground outdoors from seed with no issues at all. No mulch, just a thin cover of native soil. They don't spread nearly as fast in soil with so much clay either. I wouldn't put mint in a light loam like a raised bed tho... I also did the same with watermelon. Success on the first try in native soil, I just fertilized them every week with a different mix of organic nutrients and there was alot of manure in the ground already. They had a fence to the north and to the west and plenty of ground cover and grass nearby. I had a TON of wild pollinators already too.

I'm so glad all the things I have trouble with were on your list! Now I know it isn't just me! Thanks :)

Completely accurate - all three levels. Gardening for many years and except for artichoke, which I gave as a perennial here in California, all the levels are perfect. Watermelon a bust every year as too dry, etc. thanks for watching out for everyone, Luke.

Thank you!!! I didn't know some of those would be harder to grow!! 👍👍

Had my first year of gardening, just past. I'm enjoying your videos!

Awesome video and yes totally agree with several of them... watching this helped me realize I didn’t fail alone...

I’ve enjoyed ya videos for a while now. I also enjoy your good and positive vibes. Keep up the good work. Much love from north Texas!

I LOVE onion in everything so even though I know nothing about gardening, I MUST learn that.😁

Great series! Thanks for all the advice

I love your sense of humor and the knowledge you share thank you ❤️🌱🍅

Loved the series! I am 5 year in ground gardener but have been growing things since I was a teenager. I'd love to figure out watermelon as my boys could live off it alone! Glad you confirmed it is difficult!!

Thank you so much for this video. I consider myself an intermediate beginner. Many half-hearted failed attempts, and then finally after taking a break, success last year with Ruth Stout gardening and plants from the garden store. This year we will see how things go from seed. Since I'm a beginner, this video helped give me realistic expectations for some of the things I've chosen. I knew cauliflower was hard, I didn't realize it was THAT hard. And with my celery, I would actually be very happy with a bush, we love the leaves. So much great advice here. Thank-you. And btw, when you start talking, it just makes me smile, your enthusiasm is infectious.

I'm somewhat new at gardening. I planted a few plants on the side of my garage (tomatoes, cucumber, eggplants, and bell peppers all of them were from plants that I bought from the stores) plus as a child, my sisters brother and I would help our parents in the garden mostly pulling weeds and watering the plants but this year I'm growing in my new raised beds seeds most of which came from Migardeners. Thank you I feel a little overwhelmed. I think the biggest problem I'm having the fear of failing. Not knowing when to start what seeds at what time. I thought about starting indoors but I don't have space or the lighting setup to start indoors this year. I'm hoping to be better prepared next year. So everything is going outside this year which is what my dad did successfully every year in Rockford Ill. So I consider myself more of an intermediate that going all the way. Wish of luck.

Concise and to the point, plant what your zone allows for the best harvest, which will feed your tummy and ego💚

The Spearmint part was interesting, I bought starts so it has only been a plague to me. Good lord how these plants propagate.

yes you are right ,thank you!

I will be trying some of these in my year 2 garden HOWEVER I was and now even further aware that they will be a learning process this year around.

I grew watermelon on my first try last summer. I chop it up to beginners luck. I moved it from the ground in my backyard because it wasn’t growing to a container in the front yard. I got one watermelon while in the container. I than moved it out of the container into the ground and got two more watermelons.

You are awesome narrator. I get inspired every time I watch your videos. You cover all sides of growing. Really appreciate your approach to gardening. Thank u

Spearmint is a great plant to share. All mints are crazy giving. That's Georgia.

wow this really made me feel better, almost everything i have trouble with is in this video

Great video, Luke, helps to understand where each type of plant and variety falls in skill level. Working our way up to advanced but might be structural limitations like space, sun and length of growing season.

This is about my 5th or 6th year now. Always a challenge but always something to learn and good to know.

You have saved me soooooo much time! Thank you!

I had the smallest mint plant I'm talking like a twig and it's literally a bush now. It's HUGE. And we've tried to contain it too we didn't let it go wild. Luke isn't kidding when mint will take over.

Great video series Luke!

Watermelon plants are incredibly easy to grow here in North Carolina, and I have learned when you grow them on black weed barrier, they stay pest free. The barrier gets too hot for cucumber beetles to come around, and the melons love the heat. However, they are awful to harvest. I always lose track of them and they usually wind up overripe. I think in two years I’ve only properly harvested a melon once. They’re a challenge, indeed.

Wonderful series, Luke.

Am sooo excited got some of my MIGardener seeds today!!! Can’t wait to get started with them!!

Thank you so much for the series! Very informative. Maybe you can touch upon cold hardy vegetables for your next series. I’m in MN and finding what I can grow can be daunting.

i loved this series . gonna try a few of the advanced seeds this year

Seems location is what determines the difficulty for some plants. Course my only successful plants were tomatoes, basil (rip), Swiss chards and a radish and I live in southern Texas.

Very very helpful series!!!

These three episodes were incredibly helpful, Luke; thank you so much. P.S. Love the artwork on the wall.

This video was fascinating to me. I think I'm a intermediate gardener (or advanced beginner) and I was struck by the mention of cold stratification for lavender. I have a row of (still somewhat small) lavender plants behind my mailbox that are the result of a series of fumbling early gardening efforts. I grew the plant from seed with no difficulty, it got huge and after cutting it back I attempted my first propagation from cuttings. I had not intended to propagate the plant when pruning it, I was just cutting it back for space, but all but one of the (randomly sized) cuttings rooted in solo cups, hence my growing lavender hedge. I did not stratify those seeds, and I definitely followed the instructions on the seed packet. I had no difficulty with germination. However, since then I have failed in every single attempt to germinate seeds of other plant that requires cold stratification. I have tried a multitude of ribes (currants, gooseberries, etc.), haskaps/honeyberries, parsley, hardy orange (poncirus trifoliata) ,and more. All have failed. I've tried in different ways: with some period in the freezer before the fridge, in soil blocks instead of paper towels, for varying periods of time, and I have never gotten a sprout. I guess I'll consider myself "leveled up" when I can nail cold stratification. Looking back it's amazing I had any success with an "advanced" level plant as a noob. Beginners luck, I suppose.

Great tips, gardening for a long time now, this year I am using your seeds as well for the first time. We are doubling/tripling the garden this season here in Ontario Canada. Looking forward to growth in many ways Luv from Ashes xo ☕🌱

I have 1 year of gardening under my belt, plus helping my mom as a kid. I grew 2 ice box watermelons from starts last year. I'm so proud of myself after watching this! My patience paid off. They were tiny but delicious! I watched this as a what not try to grow yet. So excited for my second year of gardening!

Thanks Luke! Grew peanuts successfully last year in eastern WA. They weren't very prolific because our season was too short but they produced nontheless. Gonna try my hand at cauliflower this year.

Really good synopsis of difficulty. I have and a garden of my own since 1982 and still learn. I can say the difficult ones really are and I always wonder how a farmer can make a living what with weather and temperature fluctuations, and that before global warming was even considered. Thanks for your extremely informative videos on so many issues facing us home and small holding gardeners!!

I feel lucky, I tried to start my spearmint in my aerogargen and have a great plant now. Who knew it's an advanced seed!

This series is awesome! Tfs

Stevia is another toughie, at least it is for me. Any tips on that one? Great video btw. Thanks!

Thank you so much for this video. I truly did not have a clue about lavender and stratification. I just bought a bunch of lavender seeds from you to plant around my driveway and I would have been so bummed when they didn't germinate. I just watched your lavender stratification video. So helpful. I agree with cauliflower. I did get some nice but small heads of cauliflower last fall. I have learned that cauliflower is a total waste of time in the spring in my area. They get purple blotches from the sun and are devoured by insects. Now I only plant in the late fall and then I cover them with plastic into the winter. They seem to love that and they remain white and I have no pest problems. They are also heavy feeders. I need to do a better job of feeding them this fall.

Great series!

Interesting video. I tried celery last year, and I totally agree with your observations. Not an easy vegetable to grow.

Great video and thank you for sharing🤗🤗

There are definitely some strong regional differences here. In Phoenix, artichoke, lavender, and melon are easy.

Thank you for sharing this information!

I'm from the Salad Bowl of California, the Salinas Valley. Celery, iceberg, cauliflower, broccoli, artichokes all grow there. 75° average. Lots of fog every day, so not the sunniest place. I'm now in the Sunniest city in the U.S. I'm going to try all of these and hope for the best.

My very first year of gardening, in the dry desert of Las Vegas, I grew so much watermelon we couldn’t eat it fast enough! We had the personal size mini watermelons and I was so proud of myself! It was sweet and juicy and wonderful! That was about 6 years ago. I have never been able to grow watermelon successfully again! 😂😂😂 it was a nice confidence boost though!

Boy have I had to re-learn timing after having moved from zone 6a to 8b!😳I feel like I’m starting over lol. Everything grows differently here!🌱It’s cool but time consuming and very humbling. There are new crops I’m trying I’ve never thought about growing before just because I want to see if I can do it here! 😂I’m loving that I can grow more heat loving almost tropical crops here. What an adventure!

Watermelon needs really hot summers to heat up the soil. It also needs a kinda sandy soil to get the tap root to travel down deep. I can't grow watermelon at my place because I have clay soil, but it grows great at my parents house across town with lose soil.

Great video! I'm still struggling to grow onions!! ... ps: artichokes are super easy to grow in Australia!

"You have to know how to grow lavender to grow lavender" :p HA! That laugh made me smile. Great info in this video, thanks!

Here on Vancouver island, I have peanuts growing in the oddest of places in my yard. In fact, they are coming up right now. I didn't plant them--the local squirrels were hiding them. Initially, I didn't really pay much attention until I noticed a peanut shell attached to the base of one plant. Always enjoy your show. Darryl

Wow now I’m proud of growing spearmint from seed in my year 2! (Although I started full tilt - up to 30 raised beds on year 2 to fill!). I probably seeded 50 though, 2 managed to make it and are now flourishing in my mint tub. I thought I sucked, but now smiling :) I’ll never do mint from seed again though 😂

When you said thump test for the watermelon, I literally heard it in my head.

I have a college textbook of vegetable crop production which covers many details and different growing situations, such as field production or smaller home gardens. I also use other gardening books. They are so helpful. I am glad I can read. And I can tell you, mint is like a wave of terror lurking beneath the soil with vey healthy roots that run and mat. I am using a pitch fork right now every day to lift those roots and remove them one foot at a time, to reclaim some of my garden.

I winter sowed lavender and set it out in January! It’s sprouted and growing more each day! Zone 6.

I live in Idaho and have raised a garden for most of my life this year I have ordered or purchased onion seed , water melon , lavender, celery artichoke for my garden to try but after this video maybe I am tryin to many items this year I have about 5 acers to play with and have about 200 line items for my garden with 5 or more types of items with different harvest time for my family as in harvest time I hope that I can make this a great garden like both of my grandparents did when they were alive but our weather and water and tractor work are working against me for the time to get all started and ready then my mother which was going to help just broke her leg love your videos'

I started my spearmint germination with the rockwool medium for our airoponics living wall in our home basement, needed mint for over winter months. It ended up germinating within two weeks. And producing small hair like roots, gave it a seedling nutrient for 3 days then once she had 4 nice little tiny leaves I plunked her into my airoponics living wall. She thrived like super crazy over the winter, had to prune her back several times, including g her root system so she did not get to big for the airoponics pipe. She flowered indoors ,and I just transplanted her to my outside garden pot a couple weeks ago. She did get a bit of frost, but is already showing signs of good recovery. Our tarragon came back, even though it over wintered out in a little plant pot, on our deck, Through -45C winter conditions. In Manitoba Canada we have long harsh cold winters. Nice to see some plants are hearty enough to even survive our winters!

Started gardening in 1975 and while I agree with you except everyone of your hard to grow veggies are hard to grow because of were you live .just about everyone of your hard to grow veggies grow easy and wonderful on the west coast Oregon zone 9. With no problems ..ive grown in Calif Oregon Colorado and now in Kansas .and all those veggies grew without any trouble in Oregon 1 mile off the beach..by far the best growing I ever experienced..

Advanced Gardeners Rise UP AGRU!

I can't agree with everything but a lot of what you said is right on . I live around the Orlando area in Florida.

Been gardening for about 8 years I believe? Each year I definitely get more knowledgeable and experienced - last year was my 1st attempt at growing cauliflower - planted 5 or 6 plants and I actually got 1 to form a decent enough size to eat - the others didn’t do so well. I am going to give it another try again this year - also going to give it a shot at growing seedless watermelon for my 1st time at growing any type of melon - I live in southern New York at almost bordering PA - wish me luck! 😊👍

Thanks Luke, as always very nice video! Especially like your honesty on failures and difficulties 👍🏼 Btw: you and Huw Richards could really be twins 😂

Yikes, trying a couple of these tough ones this year. I've been gardening on my own for about 10 years, but we move often so it really hinders my ability to get to the expert level stuff. This will be my first year using a grow light and starting onions from seed. Fingers crossed! But this year we are in a good growing area. Finally more than 3 months long!

Hey Luke! I just purchased a bunch of seeds on your website what a great selection you have! I wish you would plug your store more often on your videos 99 cent seeds?! Cmon thats awesome! You take paypal which is great too. Keep up the great work bro you are changing the world.

I bought a lovely chocolate mint plant that was perfect for my garden.. until I saw this and now it's going to be in isolation on the porch. Can't wait for my new seeds order to get here. Hope all is well.

Heh heheh...2nd year gardener and yeah I have broccoli and caulis in the patch. We shall see what happens. Zone 9b so it is just getting cool enough for them to grow and should stay that way until harvest in Feb/March. First time trying so fingers are crossed. If all else fails and they bolt, the bees can enjoy the flowers. Also had great success with iceberg lettuce for trying the first time this year, too. Harvested the first round in Oct. I admit it was still a bit too warm when I planted so used a shade cloth (over a fine net to keep out the evil leaf sucking buggies) for most of their growth time. Second round is in and now it is at a nice low to mid 60s so hoping they will be even better. Whatever happens I will be glad to learn something from it so I can get better at growing veggies. Thanks for this series!

If you go way back its kinda fun to see you grow as a video maker.

I must have accidentally had good timing as I grew iceberg last year and it was beautiful. Tasty. Crisp. I was so surprised. Hope it works out again. I should have taken notes.

I've never had much problem planting..Most of the things I've put in the Michigan soil grew. I have noticed micro climates and amount of water played big parts in gardening. I do think the lack of snow in Michigan for the past 10 years will change the planting abilities for some. I feel it will change the nutrients and water tables of the State. Now I live in Miami.

The mint part crack me up. Sounds like they are more worst than the pampered princess throwing a tantrum. LOLL

Cauliflower is so easy...I grow it all winter. Mine went through 3 snow storm this year and was the best I've had. Cool weather takes care of any bug problems. I grew broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage all winter at 4200ft in California. They all did excellent. Still harvesting in March...planted in August.

I live in southern ohio, 6B and this will be my third year growing. Last year I successfully grew two squash and one pumpkin; along with many other things. The hardest part was telling if they were ripe, but I think I did well we ate them. But this year Im growing watermelon I hope it does well and I can tell if its ripe. I saw your watermelon video last year and I hope Ill be able to tell. My problem with pumpkins and squash was pollination(had to hand pollinate) and timing I planted too late because I just get seeds from my Nepali neighbors. My lavender didn't grow last year because I didn't stratify so thanks for the tip. and im trying your pink plume celery this year so I hope I can grow at least one successfully, that's the goal. Also I did spearmint for the first time last year starting from seed and transplanting to a container and it was seemily very easy I did not know it was hard to grow. Thanks for your series.

A few additional crops I'd like to know more about and would love to see you discuss.........squash/pumpkin, garlic, and berrries. Berries in themselves are probably a video on their own with all the types that can be grown.

I love this video. I’ve watched it many times, and tried to figure out why cauliflower is such a challenge for you. I really think it’s all about climate. I plant cauliflower plants in October-November ( I live in the redwood forest) and essentially set it and forget it. I do apply Sluggo, as slugs love the leaves. Anyways, the comedic factor of this is, I cannot seem to grow radishes, one of the “beginner gardener crops” 😂

So true! I have struggled with growing lavender and celery. I have tried several times with no results. Thanks for the tips about blanching and stratifying. I will check out your other videos. Which lavender do you think is best to make into lemonade or to bake with?

I grew Purple of Sicily Cauliflower last year and will forever be a staple from here on out. Trick was I started them in early January indoors. And then when you start seeing a head bring up your green leaves and loosely tie them together. This keep most pests off as it heads or bulbs up, and also keep the sun scald from messing with you color.