For eight years, starting in the late 1970s, I worked aboard research ships and tugboats, first as an able-bodied seaman and then as a merchant marine officer.

Because we'd be at sea for 2 to 4 weeks, the galley crew was keenly aware that food was an important part of shipboard life. Sunday was prime rib day, Wednesday was steak day, and once a month (if we were working in the tropics) the cooks served a roast pig on the upper deck, complete with the apple in its mouth. (I can't remember what they filled the eye holes with.) Each dinner was paired with a salad.

Notice I didn’t say "green" salad, because at the end of a 4-week trip the lettuce looked anemically white. Yet, the stewards managed to keep lettuce from going bad by packing each head in a brown paper bag before storing them in the walk-in coolers.

Perhaps that explains why, when I switched my focus from the sea to the land, I placed lettuce at the top of my To Grow list -- even though I'd never grown it, or anything else. By late summer, the plants had bolted to 3-foot towers and when I finally got around to picking some greens they were so bitter we couldn't eat them.

What am I getting at?

If you’ve never grown anything in your life, don't let that stop you. All you need is an honest desire. If you don’t have space for a garden, don’t let that stop you, either. Many vegetables, herbs and flowers do well in containers. Start with food that you and your family like to eat. Make a list of five items. Some easy-to-grow vegetables include: Carrots, peas, lettuce, kale, potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, mustard greens, beets and radishes.

As to easy flowers, try pansies, calendula, nasturtiums, sweet peas, windowbox geraniums and poppies. And herbs? You will have success with chives, mint, parsley, oregano, sage, dill and garlic.

If these lists seem stilted away from watermelons, that's because I live in Alaska. So, yes, I am more apt to list varieties that thrive in cool climates. If you are from South Africa or South Carolina, you can certainly add to the list. The most important thing is to grow more of what you eat. There are so, so many benefits to raising and eating your own tomatoes; your own fresh cut flowers.

In closing, on board a ship, it is considered bad luck to whistle in the pilot house, hang your coffee cups in the wrong direction, or mention pigs, cows and other farm animals. In that case, maybe I’ll try raising chickens next! Stay tuned!

Helpful Tips and Links:
1) For a more complete list of easy to grow veggies, herbs and flowers, click here.
2) Learn how to start your own seedlings.
3) Excellent books: Anything by Eliot Coleman, and Rodale's Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening.
4) Read the current issue of my UpBeet Gardener newsletter, with subscribers in over 70 countries.