Time to start thinking about planting a garden! Yay! Spring is just around the corner.

I’ve been gardening for the past 30 years or so. Nothing big. It’s always been fun to work in the soil, plant things, and watch them grow. Getting a few tasty veggies for the kitchen is a nice benefit, too. Fresh carrots, peas, greens. Yum. Even kneeling down and picking weeds I’ve found almost meditative. Over the past three decades, I’ve gathered some simple tips and tricks that have helped my vegetable patches thrive. I thought it would be nice to share what I’ve learned in case other beginners want to experience the joy and reward of nurturing their own little garden.

This year, I finally convinced my neighbor to give veggie gardening a try. She was hesitant at first, not knowing where to start. But I assured her that starting small, choosing the right location, and picking easy plants makes vegetable gardening very do-able even for novices. In this article, I’ll take you through the steps I shared with my neighbor as a beginning gardener to start a successful vegetable garden that provided her family with nutritious, delicious homegrown food all summer long.

Table of Contents

• Garden Ideas on a Budget
• Growing Vegetables in Containers
• How to Lay Out a Garden for Beginners
• Can You Mix Garden Soil with Topsoil?
• Best Fertilizer for Vegetable Gardens
• How to Make Compost
• How Often to Water a Vegetable Garden
• Raised Garden Beds
• Easiest Veggies to Grow for Beginners
• Harvesting and Cooking Your Garden Veggies
• Garden Decor Ideas

Garden Ideas on a Budget

The first thing I think about each spring is how much money I want to invest in this garden this year. Gardening can become quite expensive between materials for building raised beds, purchasing soil, seeds, tools — the list goes on. I have a modest budget, so have some garden ideas on the cheaper end.

Here are a few of the things I do to save money on my vegetable garden:

• Start small — I made my initial garden bed just 2×8 feet. This allowed me to limit the amount of materials I needed to purchase while still allowing ample room for a few types of vegetables. Then each year I’d add one more bed.
• Use repurposed wood or containers — Instead of investing in expensive raised garden beds, I repurposed some lumber from a building salvage store. For a couple containers next to the back stairs I used a couple large plastic totes I had into planting boxes. I drilled drainage holes in the bottom and filled them with potting mix and garden soil.
• Make my own compost — Purchasing soil and fertilizers at the garden center can really add up. I started a simple compost pile using food scraps and yard waste to make rich “black gold” to amend my soil for free. Adding leaves in the fall and grass clippings all summer made for a slow-rotting compost pile. Usually in the spring I scrape back to top material and dig out the good compost at the bottom, and throw the newer stuff back on the pile to keep decomposing.
• Direct sow seeds — While buying starter plants at the garden center seems easy, seeds offer more bang for your buck. I learned how to start some veggies like peas, radishes, and beans directly by seed. If you have a short growing season then buying a few plants, like tomatoes, is helpful to get a jump on the growing season. But, otherwise, starting everything from seed is advisable to save money.

Growing Vegetables in Containers

If you don’t have a piece of ground to do your gardening then starting off in containers is a great way to learn about growing veggies. Whether you have a small porch, deck, or balcony — or even just a large, sunny window — you can usually fit a couple large containers to put soil in and plant things.

For most of my life I never had very big yards on the houses I’ve lived in to do my gardening, so I knew at least some of my gardening would need to happen in containers on my small deck. Here are some things I discovered about growing vegetables in pots:

• Select dwarf or bush varieties — Look for vegetables labeled with key words like “bush,” “dwarf,” “patio,” or “compact” when choosing varieties to grow in containers. These were bred specifically for confined spaces. For me I’ve loved bush varieties of cucumbers. They have very very short vines, and spill out of a pot a little bit, but don’t go far. Fresh cucumbers are fabulous!
• Pay attention to sun exposure — Place vegetable containers in an area that receives at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day. Less than this can result in poor growth. Full sun all day usually isn’t a problem, as long as the soil stays well watered. But still watch your plants carefully for signs of sun scalding.
• Use quality potting mix — Don’t skimp on using just any old soil in containers. Potting mixes are lighter and better draining than garden soil from your yard, which vegetable roots need in a pot. Even bagged “topsoil” tends to be too heavy and dense for pots on its own. If you do want to mix in some regular garden soil try not to make it more than, say, 20% of the pot’s volume.
• Fertilize regularly — The limited soil volume in containers means nutrients get used up quickly. I fed my potted veggies organic fertilizer every couple of weeks. Fish emulsion is a good choice! You really don’t need much, but the plants need it on a regular basis.

How to Lay Out a Garden for Beginners

Figuring out the layout for a garden can feel confusing when you’ve never done it before. Here are some tips that worked for me:

• Make a map — Draw out your space to scale on graph paper, indicating sun patterns, water sources, and existing structures. Knowing where water spigots are and how far you’ll have to carry water (or be able to string a hose) will save you a backache down the road. This helps immensely in planning!
• Opt for wide rows — Instead of organized rows, I grouped my vegetables in wide rows according to height. This saved space and prevented tall veggies from shading smaller ones. The standard bed width for many market veggie farmers is 30”, so I’ve always aimed for that. 30” isn’t too wide or narrow, and is actually optimized for many commercial market gardening tools.
• Include walking paths — It’s important to leave walking room between your rows and beds so you can access the plants for care and harvesting. At a minimum, leave 16-18 inches between beds. My standard width between beds is the distance from my toe to my knee, more or less. This way I can kneel down perpendicular to a bed and face it, avoiding twisting my back to get at the weeds.
• Label carefully — Use plant markers or popsicle sticks to label each section clearly to prevent confusing what was planted where later on. I used a permanent marker to write on recycled plastic spoons. Then once you get to learn what various veggies look like as seedlings you’ll be able to start weeding and not pull out your planted vegetable seeds.

There are a number of garden design tools out there you might find helpful. The Old Farmers’ Almanac in the US and GrowVeg in the UK have free trials where you can play around with designing a garden space. Even if you have a very small space to work with it’s fun to imagine what a larger space can look like, years down the road for you.

Can You Mix Garden Soil with Topsoil?

When filling my raised beds and containers, I learned an important lesson about garden soil versus topsoil. While they seem similar, there are some subtle differences.

Here’s the key difference:

• Garden soil — A blend of topsoil, compost, and soil amendments like peat moss or coconut coir specifically formulated for growing plants. The mix is loose, nutrient-rich, and fast draining. It’s the original topsoil plus additions made over the years. Although some garden center do sell “garden soil” with all these things already in it, ready for you to pour into your new garden space. Being able to buy “garden soil” will vary widely by location.
• Topsoil — The uppermost layer of native soil, containing some organic matter along with clay, silt, and sand. Topsoil alone can be too dense for most vegetables, but not by too much. But straight topsoil shouldn’t be used in containers as it’s more likely to get over watered and compacted.

Which one you use ultimately depends on your target needs. Containers would generally do better with garden soil + potting mix, and raised garden beds would generally do better with topsoil, as they can drain through a wide area underneath them. Just make sure not to buy any of these soils with added fertilizer. It’s best to do your own fertilizing with something that suits the plants you like to grow.

Best Fertilizer for Vegetable Gardens

Providing vegetables with the right amount of nutrients ensures healthy, productive plants. But walking down the fertilizer aisle at the garden center can be confusing! Here are my tips for choosing the best fertilizer for veggies:

• Get a soil test — This tells you precisely what nutrients your soil lacks so you can target adding only what’s needed without guesswork. Contact your local county extension office to submit a sample.
• Make compost tea — Compost tea is a gentle, organic way to fertilize plants while building soil health. I like to use worm castings steeped in water!
• Use an organic vegetable fertilizer — Look for a fertilizer labeled specifically for edibles that releases nutrients slowly over the entire growing season. I had great results with an organic granular fertilizer worked into the top few inches of soil before planting.
• Top dress mid-season — In addition to fertilizing at planting time, “top dressing” with compost or well-aged manure midway through the season gives vegetable plants a nourishing boost right when they need it most during fruiting.

The 3 big things you should be looking at in fertilizer is N (nitrogen), P (phosporus), and K (potassium). So when you see a container of fertilizer say 10-10-10 it means those three nutrients are in equal quantities. Generally leaf growth likes more nitrogen, and flower growth like more potassium.

Discussing fertilizer needs of different veggies is a whole separate topic in itself. We’ll get into that more later.

How to Make Compost

Adding nutrient-rich homemade compost to my vegetable garden beds has made a huge difference in the health and productivity of my plants. Compost adds both organic soil structure and slow release nutrients. Here’s the simple procedure I follow to produce quality compost at home:

• Choosing a compost bin: Any container that allows air flow while keeping pests out will work. I used an old trash can drilled with ventilation holes for awhile. I now have a larger, plastic one that can come apart like a clamshell. Super handy. Commercial compost tumblers make turning easier, but they’re definitely pricier.
• Selecting a location: Choose a level, well-draining spot partially shaded from intense sun. Situate your bin close to where you’ll use the finished compost. Too close to the house and you may smell the rotting plant material on hot days. Too far away from the house and you’ll likely avoid using it.
• Building the layers: Fill your bin in this order, repeating the layers:
  1. Coarse material like twigs or straw
  2. Nitrogen-rich “greens” — vegetable scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds
  3. Carbon-rich “browns” — dried leaves, shredded paper, cardboard
  4. A shovel full of finished compost or soil provides beneficial organisms
• Turning the compost: Turning or mixing the contents once each week allows needed air flow and speeds the breakdown process. In about 2-3 months, your compilation of waste should transform into dark, crumbly, sweet-smelling garden gold!

If you’re not able to turn the compost every week that’s perfectly fine. It just means it’ll take longer to get your final product. Personally, I only turn my compost pile once per year. It happens in the spring when I’d like to get the good compost at the bottom of the pile before I add more material on top during the coming summer and fall. So if you want to throw in your kitchen waste, plus some leaves and grass clippings, and just leave it work on its own you’ll be fine.

How Often to Water a Vegetable Garden

Figuring out how often and how much to water vegetables seemed confusing as a new gardener. While there are many methods, here are some basic guidelines I follow:

• Check soil moisture daily by sticking your finger in the ground. If dry past 1 inch deep, it’s time to water.
• Early morning is best time to water, allowing plants to uptake what they need before the sun gets hot.
• Water deeply and less frequently, moistening the entire root zone each time. Light, frequent sprinkles train roots to stay near the surface.
• An inch per week is a good general rule. Measure rainfall + irrigation with a rain gauge to track this. More may be needed in extreme heat.
• Mulch beds to significantly reduce water needs! A 3 inch layer of bark chips, grass clippings or straw keeps soil cooler and moisture levels more constant.
• Container plants need more frequent watering than in-ground beds, sometimes daily in heat waves. Pay close attention to your potted plants!

Raised Garden Beds

After experiencing how much easier and productive growing in raised beds was compared to vegetable rows at ground level, I quickly became a fan and expanded my garden to include two elevated beds. They weren’t large — maybe 2×4 feet each. But it was a good start to experiment with raised beds.

Some raised garden bed kits are quite pricey. But you can rig up a basic bed with salvaged construction lumber and deck hardware.

There are lots of benefits to raised garden beds:

• Better drainage

  Elevating the growing area in contained boxes prevents water logging and allows the vegetable roots to receive needed oxygen even in heavier soils.

• Warmer soil = earlier crops

  Darker raised bed materials like wood capture heat from the spring sun, allowing soil to warm faster for planting cold sensitive veggies sooner.

• Accessibility

  Beds raised to waist or hip level make tending and harvesting vegetables much easier on the back compared to stooping at ground level all the time.

• Weed prevention

  The distinct soil level separation raised beds create means fewer encroaching grass and weed seeds germinate in your growing mix.

After having raised beds in one form or another for the past couple decades I can’t see going back to rows of vegetable in the soil. Unless, maybe, corn. Sooner or later I’d like to try a larger patch of sweet corn, and that one would probably work better as a row crop. We’ll see.

Easiest Vegetables to Grow for Beginners

When planning what to grow in my first food garden, I asked several more experienced gardener friends for recommendations on the easiest vegetables for beginners. Their consensus aligned with what I researched online, with all recommending starting out with these productive, trouble-free crops:

• Bush beans — These quick growing climbers produced prolifically in my garden with very little fuss. Just be sure to plant more seeds every 2-3 weeks for continuous harvests. Delicious!
• Lettuce — Various lettuces provided bountiful cut-and-come-again harvest for months from just a couple sowings. Just be diligent about keeping them evenly moist.
• Peas — After prepping pole supports, sugar snap peas grew vigorously. I was amazed at how much sweet fresh produce came from just a 15 foot row!
• Radishes — These pungent roots grow reliably fast. Direct sow every week or two for a steady supply with little effort.
• Summer squash — A single zucchini plant yielded more than enough squash for two people once it got going! Next year I’ll definitely grow fewer plants.
• Swiss chard — I enjoyed harvesting colorful tender baby leaves while allowing some plants to mature for collecting larger leaves and stalks. So versatile!

Harvesting and Cooking Your Garden Veggies

As exciting as it was nurturing my garden beds brimming with growing plants all season, the real reward came when I was actually able to walk out my back door, snip or pull fresh vegetables, and enjoy them with my dinner.

Here are some things I learned over the years about harvesting produce from my vegetable patch and making use of this bounty in the kitchen:

• Check seed packets or plant tags to know when veggies are ready for picking. For example, lettuce and greens can be snipped at just a few inches tall for “cut and come again” harvesting.
• Timeliness matters with some crops! Allowing pea pods, summer squash or broccoli heads to over mature on the plant compromises texture and flavor.
• Have fun getting creative cooking with your harvest! Grilled veggies, homemade tomato sauce, kale chips, zucchini bread — look for simple recipes to showcase your homegrown ingredients.
• Don’t let those end-of-season tomatoes and green peppers go to waste! Roasting and freezing produce allows enjoying the flavors all winter.

Garden Decor Ideas

I’m throwing this one here, too, because who doesn’t like some fun garden art? There are so many inspiring ideas on just about every social media platform. So in addition to nurturing my plants, I had a blast decorating my vegetable garden area. Here are some simple ways I made my food garden even more lovely:

• Add flower power — I used marigolds and nasturtiums to border my beds and interspersed other annuals like zinnias, sunflowers and cosmos throughout for bright pops of color. Their beauty attracted pollinators while some also repelled pests!
• Incorporate interesting containers — Whimsical pots overflowing with herbs or trailing vegetables like cucumbers bring personality. I painted and distressed some terra cotta and wooden containers to upgrade their charm.
• Use unexpected usable elements — That old wheelbarrow collecting cobwebs in the garage looks brand new again overflowing with verdant mint or parsley. I used an antique wash basin planted with lettuce and radishes.
• Include relaxing touches — A comfortable chair tucked in a shady corner by the garden encourages stopping to enjoy the outdoor space you’ve created. I incorporated a few metal sculptures and garden signs in fun shapes and colors too.

Final Thoughts

I hope these tips help you feel empowered to grow your own vegetable garden! Gardening does take some effort but also offers immense rewards. The pride I feel gazing over gorgeous beds brimming with diverse plants is second only to biting into a homegrown, still-warm-from-the sun tomato. I’m already looking forward to next year’s garden that will incorporate more permanent elements like berry bushes and asparagus. My advice? Start small by growing what you love to eat. The rest will come naturally!