How to Start a Vegetable Garden This Year
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If you’ve been dreaming of growing fresh veggies right in your backyard but you’re stuck wondering how to start a vegetable garden, now’s the perfect time to get to work! Gardens are the gift that keeps on giving—providing you with delicious, fresh vegetables whenever you’re craving them. (Not to mention all the bragging rights you’ll have when you invite friends over for a home-cooked meal.) But starting your vegetable garden begins with a solid plan of action and the right preparation. We’ve done the research and separated fact from fiction to bring you a starter guide with all the best vegetable garden ideas. This way, it’ll be easy as can be to get growing.
We mapped out the steps to prep your garden (from choosing the location, to preparing the soil, to planting your seeds), as well as a guide on how to choose the best vegetable garden layout for your space and a list of the easiest vegetables to grow for beginners. The great news is that a little effort in the springtime will enable you to enjoy your very own freshly grown veggies for months to come. Even better? You don’t have to be an expert gardener to pull off the perfect vegetable garden! Everything you need to know is right here! Before you get growing, stock up on all the equipment you need from our list of best garden tools, and consult our guide for beginner green thumbs.
How do I start a vegetable garden?
1. Decide Your Garden Goals
You can grow a backyard vegetable garden in a few simple steps, or create a vegetable container garden on a sunny balcony or patio. To plant a vegetable garden, start by choosing a small plot of land in your yard (say, 10 x 10 feet) that gets plenty of sun. Decide whether you want to turn it into a raised vegetable garden, which is a large above-ground planter, or plant your veggies directly into the ground.
The amount of sun your garden gets is also an important factor. Vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumbers require at least six hours of direct sunlight per day. Leafy greens such as lettuce and spinach, on the other hand, only need about four hours of direct sunlight a day. You’ll also want to ensure your garden is near a water source and is a few feet from trees and shrubs that could compete for water and nutrients in the ground.
2. Consider Germinating
Pre-sprouting, or germinating, your vegetable seeds isn’t entirely necessary, but it does help your plants grow faster and fuller than just planting the seeds straight into your garden soil. You can easily germinate your seeds in an empty plastic egg container or seed trays. Simply fill each slot with soil, poke a hole in the center with a pencil or fingertip, and add a few seeds into each cell. Water them each with a few droplets of room temperature water, and close the container. Leave it in a warm windowsill, creating a greenhouse effect. After a few days, once they start to sprout, you can transfer them to your garden soil.
3. Determine If You Should Add Compost
The best soil for vegetable gardens has an even texture. Too much silt, sand, or clay can affect the soil’s ability to drain and therefore impact the health of your crop. If the texture doesn’t feel balanced when you touch it, mix in compost, which is the best mulch for vegetable gardens. We like Garden Magic’s odor-free variation, but you could also consider buying compost from a local nursery or composting company.
4. If Not, Add Mulch
Choosing another natural mulch will help add nutrients to your soil as the organic material breaks down. We like this mulch made of cedar chips.
5. Fertilize the Soil
The best fertilizers for vegetable gardens have packaging with a 3-4-4 number, which refers to the ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus to potassium in the fertilizer. This combination of nutrients is ideal for vegetable gardens. The Espoma Organic Garden-Tone 3-4-4 Organic Fertilizer is a great choice as it’s pet-safe and environmentally friendly. Just make sure to repeat the fertilizing process every spring.
6. Plant Your Seeds
You can begin to plant your seeds as soon as you’re finished fertilizing your garden. Start small with your first crop—two or three different veggies is a good starter number, but you can go up to five if you have enough space and time to tend. How far you space your vegetable plants depends on what, exactly, you’re planting. We like this helpful guide for getting it just right. To mark what you planted where, try these fun garden signs!
What is the best month to start a vegetable garden?
The best time of the year to start a vegetable garden is from March through May, so you can enjoy fresh vegetables from your garden well into the fall. But if you get a late start, don’t worry! Certain vegetables (we’re looking at you, tomatoes and zucchini) thrive in the summer and fall and will still give you a taste of the good stuff later in the growing season.
What is the easiest vegetable to grow for beginners?
Usually, the easiest vegetables to grow are:
- Lettuce
- Radishes
- Green beans
- Tomatoes
- Zucchini
- Peas
- Carrots
- Spinach
- Beets
- Cucumbers
You can purchase seeds individually, of course, but we like this variety pack of 43 assorted seeds for vegetables and herbs from Black Duck. It’s more economical, and you can try out a bunch of different veggie varieties.
Starting with our beginner veggie list alone, you can grow fresh vegetables almost every season of the year (other than winter, of course), since some of these vegetables like cooler temperatures while others prefer warmer weather. Plant beets, peas, carrots, lettuce, radishes, and spinach in the spring. Cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, and green beans all thrive at specific times during the summer and fall.
How do I plan a vegetable garden layout?
It’s easier than you might imagine to choose a vegetable garden layout. If your garden is small, try an intensive cropping method. You can fit more vegetables into the space because you plant them close together, in a wide row. Larger gardens benefit from row cropping, where vegetables are planted in lines with aisles in between that you can walk along. With intensive cropping you have to weed by hand; row cropping allows you to use larger garden tools since you have more space to work the soil. If you’re looking for more inspiration, check out our tips here!
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