Home + Garden Garden Miniature Vegetables to Try in Your Garden Supersize melons and beefsteak tomatoes may win blue ribbons at the fair, but our top veggie prize goes to these adorable, snackable, easy-to-grow minis. By Teresa Woodard Teresa Woodard Teresa Woodard is contributing garden editor at Midwest Living where she covers everything from houseplants and bonsai to daffodils and peonies. A lifelong Ohioan (except for her college days studying journalism at Indiana University), she gardens on two acres outside Columbus. She also teaches youth about growing food at an urban community garden and is working on a book project about American garden design. She loves hiking with her German short-haired pointer and traveling to favorite garden destinations. Midwest Living's Editorial Guidelines Updated on February 21, 2021 Lean on me The veggies are small-but not the plants! Plan to reinforce pepper plants with stakes and support trailing cherry tomato and cucamelon vines with cages, stakes or trellises. Itty bitty These cuties are about half the size of the cherry or grape tomatoes at the store-pop them by the handful like blueberries! Mini vegetables. At The Chef's Garden in Huron, Ohio, Farmer Lee Jones watches culinary trends for his restaurant clients. They love petite vegetables, and Lee thinks you will, too: "If we want to eat healthy, the trick is to make it fun, and mini vegetables are both fun and flavorful." Here are four to try in your garden this summer. Left-right: cherry tomatoes, cucamelons, ground cherries. Cherry tomatoes Miniature tomatoes are easy to grow and produce a bounty for snacks, salads and roasting. For the tiniest fruits, search for currant varieties, such as All-America Selections winner 'Candyland Red'. For a slightly larger 1-inch fruit, consider 'Patio Choice Yellow', purple-black 'Midnight Snack' or 'Sungold', an exceptional orange variety that scored well in a recent tomato grower survey. Cucamelons These Wonka-worthy veggies are the darlings of farmers markets and Instagram posts. Also known as Mexican sour gherkins, mouse melons or sanditas ("little watermelons" in Spanish), cucamelons taste like cucumber with a touch of lemon. They're best harvested at 1 inch (grape-size). Enjoy them raw, pickled or floating in a cocktail. Ground Cherries These marble-size golden gems taste like cherry tomatoes infused with pineapple and mango juice. Similar to tomatillos, the fruits are wrapped in papery husks and fall from the plants as they ripen, hence the name ground cherry. Unwrap them to eat in salads, jams, pies, cobblers, sauces or even dried in a dehydrator like raisins. Mini peppers Like their full-size cousins, mini peppers thrive in Midwest heat, and the plants are well-suited for containers. You can sometimes find plants at nurseries, but if growing from seed, try 'Baby Belle' or 'Sweetie Pie', a 2017 All-America Selections winner. Green feeding Give your plants a boost you can feel good about. Miracle-Gro Performance Organics This line from a trusted brand promises results that meet (or may even beat) the familiar original blue powder. Find it at retailers nationwide. Garden Maker Naturals This Kansas-based line of targeted organic fertilizers includes mixes just for tomatoes or herbs. Avid gardeners can even order custom blends to suit their soil. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit