How to start a vegetable garden from scratch

Pick the sunniest spot you have

Most vegetables want at least six hours of direct summer sun; fruiting crops like tomatoes, peppers and squash want eight or more. Leafy greens and many herbs tolerate four to six and even appreciate afternoon shade in hot regions.

Watch the site across a day before you commit. Note where buildings and trees throw shade in the afternoon, when the sun is strongest, and avoid low spots where cold air and water pool.

Choose a bed style

In-ground rows are cheapest and fine if your soil drains and is not full of rock or tree roots. Raised beds warm earlier in spring, drain well, and let you bring in good soil over bad ground, at the cost of building them and filling them.

Whatever the style, keep beds no wider than about four feet so you can reach the middle from either side without stepping on the soil. Paths need only be wide enough to kneel and carry a basket.

Start smaller than you think

A first garden should be small enough to look after in an hour or two a week. One or two 4×8-foot beds - 32 to 64 square feet - is a good start: enough for a steady supply of salad, beans, a few tomatoes and herbs, and small enough that weeds and watering never get ahead of you.

It is far easier to add a bed next spring than to rescue an overgrown plot in July. The plan below shows how much fits in a single 4×8 bed at square-foot spacing; the square-foot gardening guide explains how the grid works.

Build the soil before you plant

Vegetables are grown in living soil, not just dirt. Spread two to three inches of compost over a new bed and fork or dig it into the top few inches. If you are filling a raised bed, use a blend of compost and a bulk growing mix rather than bagged potting soil alone.

A simple soil test from your county extension office tells you pH and nutrient levels for a few dollars and saves you guessing. Most vegetables are happy between pH 6.0 and 7.0.

Grow what you will eat

For a first year, six to ten crops is plenty. Reliable, high-value choices for most of the country: bush beans, lettuce and other salad greens, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, kale or chard, radishes, and a couple of herbs such as basil and parsley.

Skip crops that need a long season you do not have, a lot of space for a small return (field corn, main-crop potatoes), or constant pest management until you have some experience.

Follow a simple sequence

Use your average last spring frost date as the hinge. Four to six weeks before it, start warm-season transplants indoors and direct sow the toughest cool-season crops (peas, spinach, radish) as soon as the soil can be worked.

Around the last frost date, transplant hardy seedlings and sow more greens. One to two weeks after it, once the soil is warm, plant out tomatoes, peppers and squash and direct sow beans and cucumbers. In late summer, sow a second round of cool crops for fall.

The planting calendar generator turns your frost dates into exact windows for every crop.

Plan for water

Vegetables need roughly an inch of water a week from rain or irrigation - more in hot, windy weather and in raised beds, which drain fast. Put the garden within easy reach of a hose: a bed you have to carry water to gets watered less than it needs.

Water the soil, not the leaves, and water deeply two or three times a week rather than a little every day. A soaker hose or a simple drip line on a timer is the best single upgrade for a busy gardener - see watering a vegetable garden.

The tools you actually need

Very few: a spade or digging fork, a hand trowel, a hose with a gentle watering wand (or a watering can), a hoe or hand weeder, and gloves. A tiller is unnecessary for beds and breaks down soil structure; the no-dig approach builds better soil with less work.

Worth having early: a soil thermometer, so you know when the ground is warm enough for beans and squash, plant labels, and a notebook. Writing down what you planted, when, and how it did is how the second year gets better than the first.

First-year mistakes to avoid

Planting too early. Tomatoes, peppers, squash and beans set out into cold soil sit still or die. Waiting a week or two past the last frost date usually gets you a harvest sooner, not later.

Crowding. Transplants look tiny, but a tomato needs about two feet each way and a zucchini closer to three. Follow the packet or the plant spacing calculator.

Leaving soil bare. Weeds and drought both start on uncovered ground. Mulch around plants once the soil has warmed.

Not picking. Beans, zucchini, cucumbers and herbs slow down or stop producing when mature crops are left on the plant. In peak season, harvest every day or two.

Common questions