In the Vegetable Gardening for Beginners Guide, we cover the way to start a kitchen garden from scratch, which vegetables to grow, and when to plant what. This year, we’ve added a “starter” garden plan consisting of easy-to-grow vegetables, companion planting techniques, and a few lovely flowers!
VEGETABLE GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS
Why garden, you ask? How about enjoying the simplest vegetables and fruit you’ve ever eaten? If you’ve never tasted garden-fresh food, you’ll be amazed by the sweet, juicy flavors and vibrant textures. There’s absolutely nothing quite like fresh veggies, especially if you grow them yourself—which you can!
It may seem daunting initially , but gardening may be a very rewarding hobby. On this page, we’ll highlight the fundamentals of vegetable gardening and planning: the way to pick the proper site for your garden, the way to create the right-size garden, and the way to pick which vegetables to grow.
PICK the proper LOCATION
Picking an honest location for your garden is completely key. A subpar location may result in subpar veggies! Here are a couple of tips for selecting an honest site:
- Sunny spot: Most vegetables need 6 to eight hours of direct sunlight per day. There are a couple of veggies (mostly the leafy ones) that will tolerate some shade.
- Drains well and doesn’t stay wet: If you’ve got poorly drained soil where water pools, plant veggies during a raised bed or raised row for improved drainage. Wet soil means wet roots, which may become rotted roots. If you’ve got rocky soil, till and take away the rocks, as they’re going to interfere with root growth and bring weaker plants.
- Stable and not windy: Avoid places that receive strong winds that would overturn your young plants or keep pollinators from doing their job. Nor does one want to plant during a location that receives an excessive amount of pedestrian traffic or floods easily. Plant during a location that might make Goldilocks smile—somewhere that’s “just right.”
- Nutrient-rich soil. Your soil feeds your plants. If you’ve got thin, nutrient-poor soil, you’ll have poor, unhealthy plants. Mix in many organic interests helps your plants grow. See the way to prepare your soil for vegetable plants.
CHOOSING A PLOT SIZE: START SMALL!
Remember: It’s better to be pleased with alittle garden than being frustrated by an enormous one!
One of the foremost common errors that beginners make is planting an excessive amount of too soon—way quite anybody could ever eat or want! Unless you would like to possess zucchinis taking over residence in your attic, plan your garden with care. Start small, and only grow what you recognize you and your family will eat.
Size of Garden
- If planting within the ground, a 10’ x 10’ garden (100 square feet) may be a managable size. Pick 3 to five of your favorite vegetables and buy 3 to five plants of every one.
- If planting during a raised bed, a 4’ x 4’ or 4’ x 8’ may be a good beginner size. See our Raised Garden Bed Guide which covers the advantages of raised beds, the way to build a raised bed, and what sort of soil to fill a raised bed with.
- If you would like to travel bigger, a 12’ x 24’ garden within the ground is perhaps the most important a first-timer should go. for instance , a garden that feeds a family of 4 could include: 3 hills of yellow squash; 1 mound of zucchini; 10 assorted peppers; 6 tomato plants; 12 okra plants; a 12-foot row of bush beans; 2 cucumbers on a cage; 2 eggplant; 6 basil; 1 rosemary, and a couple of low-growing herbs like oregano, thyme, and marjoram.
- Whatever the size of your garden: Every four feet approximately , confirm that you simply have paths that allow you to access your plants to weed and harvest. Just confirm that you simply can reach the middle of the row or bed easily without stepping on the soil.
CHOOSING VEGETABLES
As a beginner, start by choosing easy vegetables that also are productive. We’ve listed ten easy vegetables below. However, it might even be knowing contact your state’s Cooperative extension to seek out out what plants grow best in your area. for instance, if you reside in a neighborhood with extreme weather, vegetables that prefer cooler temps may struggle.
Top 10 Easy Vegetables
(Tip: Click on a veggie’s name to ascertain its detailed Growing Guide.)
Lettuce
Green beans
Radishes
Tomatoes (bush variety or cherry are easiest)
Zucchini
Peppers
Beets
Carrots
Chard, Spinach, or Kale
Peas
Mix in flowers like marigolds—which discourage pests, attracts pollinators, and adds some color!
Five tips for selecting vegetables:
- hoose what you (and your family) wish to eat. If nobody likes brussels sprouts, don’t bother planting them! But if your kids love green beans, put more effort into growing an enormous crop of beans.
- Be realistic about what percentage of vegetables your family will eat. take care to not overplant, as you’ll only stretch yourself thin by trying to require care of plenty of plants! (Of course, you’ll always give excess veggies away to friends, family, or the local charity .)
- Consider the supply of veggies at your grocery. Maybe you would like to grow tomatillos, rather than cabbage or carrots, which are readily available. Also, certain veggies are thus far superior when homegrown, it’s almost a shame to not consider them (we’re thinking of common lettuce and tomatoes). Also, homegrown herbs are far less costly than grocery herbs.
- Be prepared to require care of your plants throughout the season. happening a summer vacation? Remember that tomatoes and zucchinis are growing strongest within the middle of summer. If you’re gone a part of the summer, you would like someone to seem after the crops or they’re going to suffer. Or, you’ll just grow cool-season crops like lettuce, kale, peas, and root veggies during the cooler months lately spring and early fall.
- Use high-quality seeds. Seed packets are less costly than individual plants, but if seeds don’t germinate, your money—and time—are wasted. a couple of extra cents spent in spring for that year’s seeds can pay off in higher yields at harvesttime.
WHERE AND WHEN TO PLANT
If you’re simply growing two or three tomato plants, this process is straightforward. But if you propose to grow a full garden, you would like to consider:
- Where will each plant go?
- When will each vegetable got to be planted?
Here are a couple of guidelines for arranging your vegetables:
- Not all vegetables are planted at an equivalent time. “Cool-season” vegetables like lettuce and brocoil and peas grow in cooler weather of early spring (and fall). “Warm-season” like tomatoes and peppers and cucumbers aren’t planted until the soil warms up in late spring and summer.
- Plant tall veggies (such as pole beans on a trellis or sweet corn) on the side of the garden in order that they don’t shade shorter plants. If you are doing get shade during a a part of your garden, save that area for little , cool-season veggies. If shade is unavoidable in parts of your garden, save those areas for cool-season vegetables which appreciate shade because the weather heats up.
- Most veggies are annuals (planted each year). If you’re planning on growing “perennial” crops like asparagus, rhubarb, and a few herbs, provide permanent locations or beds.
- Consider that some crops mature quickly and have a really short harvest period (radishes, bush beans). Other plants, like tomatoes, take longer to supply , but also produce for extended . These “days to maturity” are typically listed on the seed packet.
- Stagger plantings. You don’t want to plant all of your lettuce seeds at an equivalent time, or all that lettuce will got to be harvested at round the same time! Stagger plantings by a couple of weeks to stay ‘em coming!
When to Plant What
Every region features a different planting time based mainly on their weather, and each vegetable has its temperature preferences, too. See the Almanac’s Best Planting Dates—a gardening calendar customized to your local frost dates. Just enter your postcode (or zip code in Canada)!
For specific planting information, see our individual Grow Guides for over 100 popular vegetables, herbs, and fruit. for every crop, we offer specific information about the way to plant, grow, and harvest, including watering and fertilizing and pest control!
A STARTER BEGINNER GARDEN PLAN
To help out beginners, we thought that it’s going to be useful to ascertain a garden design. Here is an example of a starter family garden using mainly of the common easy-to-grow vegetables listed above. It also features companion planting (the practice of placing plants that thrive together next to every other).
You’ll see that we’ve given the garden decent-sized paths and mixed during a few herbs and flowers, too. Frankly, if we had grown this garden in our very first year, we might be thrilled! In planning the garden this manner , we’ve made it such a lot easier for you to succeed with it.
Click here to ascertain the complete plant list, number of plants, spacing, and spacing in rows.
GARDEN PLANNING TOOL
The Old Farmer’s Almanac offers a superb online garden planning tool that makes your garden planning fun and straightforward. With this tool, draw your garden plan on the pc and drop by your preferred vegetables, and it automatically calculates the right spacing for every sort of crop! In this manner, you don’t waste seed or crowd your plants. The Garden Planner automatically pulls within the frost dates for your specific location, identifies easy vegetables, and even identifies companion plants. Then you’ll print out your plan and therefore the tool reminds you of your seeding and harvesting dates for each vegetable!
Plus, you’ll see many free garden plans for inspiration! Over time, you’ll see that this tool also provides “crop rotation” in order that if you propose a second season, you’ll properly reposition your plants to avoid pests and disease.
Any questions or advice about starting your garden? inspect a number of the comments below. Many of your questions may are answered already by our Almanac community otherwise you are welcome to feature your own comment. Happy gardening!