Struggling to find unique and creative ideas for your vegetable garden? Feel like you’ve planted it all? Even if you’re a total beginner to gardening you can plant any of these simple, easy to grow veggies to bring the excitement back to your DIY garden! Raised beds, pots, containers, small or vertical spaces and backyards we have all the best ideas!

I’ve been vegetable gardening for awhile so I’m always on the prowl for new and interesting ideas for my garden. I’ve been successfully experimenting with so many cool new things over the past few years that I want to share them with my fellow vegetable gardening friends!

What’s great about many of these new vegetable garden ideas is that you can turn them into cool gifts for the holidays! If you want to have unique gifts ready for the holidays you need to get these seeds planted ASAP! Let’s get to the list!

|Vegetable Garden Idea: Glass Gem Corn|

I planted the rainbow glass gem corn in my vegetable garden for the first time last year and I think it might be the coolest thing I’ve ever grown! I’ve used them all over the house for fall decorating. If you want to see how I used them check out my detailed article on how to use dried glass gem corn in a stunning table center piece.

Opening each husk was like opening a Christmas present. Each cob is unique and it is truly breathtaking to witness the beauty that mother nature can create. It’s worth noting that there are a myriad of colors and sizes you can choose from for seed. I’ve never seen any of the glass gem corn seeds sold in stores so you may have to order them online. Check out a few other highly rated and gorgeous varieties available:

Strawberry Corn

Rainbow Glass Gem Corn

Saphires and Pearls Glass Gem Corn

Amethyst Dream Purple Glass Gem Corn

|Vegetable Garden Idea: Luffa Sponges|

Did you know that luffa sponges are actually grown inside luffa gourds? Most people think that luffas are some sort of sea sponge but they’re not! You can grow the gourds yourself and dry the gourd/sponges. This is a natural, renewable product to replace store bought manufactured sponges in your kitchen. Luffas are also great skin exfoliators in the shower or bath.

Keep in mind that the luffa gourd vines need a large area to spread. I’d recommend using a fence line for the vines to grow on (in a sunny location). This is the first year I’m growing luffa gourds so I’ll have to update this article later with my experiences!

Who wouldn’t love getting one of these as a holiday gift? Check out this video on how to grow and dry luffa sponges (it’s what first inspired me to try this new vegetable garden idea). I’ve never seen luffa seeds in box stores so you may have to order them online here.

|Vegetable Garden Idea: Bottle Gourds|

On the subject of gourds….I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention bottle gourds. What’s cool about bottle gourds is that you can dry them out and drill a hole in them to turn them into birdhouses! You can also paint, carve or use a woodburning tool kit to make unique birdhouses or decorative gourds. They can also be stained! Can I take a moment to show you some GOURD-GEOUS art? See what I did there…!?!?

Carved Gourd Turned into a Vase

Bohemian Stye Painted Gourd

Smaller Gourds Turned into Ornaments

Stained Birdhouse Gourds

Bottle gourds require some space and can be grown on a trellis, fence line or on the ground if no trellis or fencing is available. I’ve never seen bottle gourd seeds in the big box stores but you can order them online here.

|Vegetable Garden Idea: Giant Sunflowers|

I’ve been grown Grey Stripe Mammoth Giant Sunflowers in my vegetable garden for many years. They are an absolute delight to watch them grow anywhere from 8-12 feet tall and produce nothing short of GIANT flowers. They are super easy for even a beginner to grow as long as you keep them watered and in a sunny location. You can order them online here although I do see them occasionally in the big box stores.

I like to dry the seeds for eating and save the seeds for the next planting year. I also take some of the flower heads and use them in my fall decorating (they sit along side my dried glass gem corn). Check out my article on how to make a table centerpiece using dried sunflower heads. If you’re not the crafty type you can also leave them intact and watch the birds slowly pick away at them.

I wrote a detailed, step by step article with tons of photos on how to dry large sunflowers for all of the aforementioned uses (including how to turn them into a wreath if you’re feeling crafty). Be sure to check that out here before you leave today!

The Grey Stripe Mammoth Giant Sunflowers are really great but keep in mind there is a HUGE variety of tall, large or small sunflowers in a variety of colors. Check out the color and variety of this sunflower seed value multi-pack which I ordered this year (example of sunflowers included in the picture below). If you were to buy all these sunflower seed varieties in individual packs it would be three times the price. If you’re interested in ordering the same value pack you can check it out HERE.

I hope that you are inspired to branch out and plant some new and novel items in your vegetable garden this year! If you like what we do here, consider joining the thousands of email subscribers by leaving us your email address at the bottom of this page! And don’t forget to check out all our gardening posts below!