How To Start a Vegetable Garden For Beginners

If you never grew vegetables before, starting a veggie garden might be a daunting task. But don’t worry: today we’ll look at how to start a vegetable garden for beginners, and by the end you finish reading this, you’ll know what you should grow in your first vegetable garden.

This may seem like an obvious question but to come up with a vegetables growing plan, you must at first think about what you eat.

One of the easiest vegetables to grow is potatoes, but there is no point in having a garden full of spuds when you prefer to get your carbs from bread or rice.

The best way to make a vegetable garden plan would be to monitor your weekly shopping to work out which vegetables you buy regularly.

• how many potatoes do you use?
• do you love tomatoes in your daily salad
• how much salad do you eat?
• do you use onions in every cooked dish (like we do)?

But then again, it’s not just what you buy and eat, you will need to understand how many vegetables will each plant give you?

Make a Vegetable Garden Plants List

To give you an idea of yields and space, one 2kg pack of seed potatoes will give you approximately 300 potatoes and take up about 86 square feet of your garden plot. See more about growing potatoes here.

In 10 square feet you could grow 16 onions, but onion sets come in multiple of 50, so you’ll need over 30 square feet to grow 1 pack. How to grow onions.

If lettuce is to your taste remember they take 2 months to grow, so if you eat 2 lettuces per week, you will need to sow 8 salads every month, preferably 12 to allow for losses, so at any one time you’ll need enough room for 36 lettuce plants. Lettuce growing guide.

We love tomatoes and grow enough to fill a chest freezer to make pasta sauces and soups for the year. If you love tomatoes, they perform much better in a glass greenhouse, producing over 50 fruits per plant, (about half of this amount outside). Grow your own tomatoes.

How To Start a Vegetable Garden For Beginners

Next, take a look at the amount of space that you have to start a vegetable garden and divide it up into the rows of vegetables you are most likely to use. As a rough guide make each row about a foot and a half wide, space each plant by an average of 7 inches, and leave some access paths to get to each row.

Unless you have a lot of land, you are unlikely to be able to grow everything you want, but you will definitely be able to make a dent in your super market bill, and have some tasty home grown vegetables on the table.

Here is a list of some of the easiest crops to start a vegetable garden, as well as some simple steps to get your vegetable garden growing.

Understand Your Local Climate and Seasonality

Determine your planting zone, the best time to plant the different vegetables, and how seasonal changes affect growth.

If you live in an area with a short growing season, you might need to use a greenhouse to start your plants in and extend the growing season with row covers.

Essential Tools Every Beginner Gardener Needs

You could garden without too many tools, but it will be more challenging. Getting the proper tools will make gardening so much easier and enjoyable! Here are just a few must-have tools: a hand trowel, garden fork, gloves, and watering can.

And if you are getting older, you’ll appreciate knee pads or a stool to sit on while you tend the garden.

Here are my favorite lists of tools for gardeners:

• Must Have Garden Tools And Accessories For Small Gardens
• 5 Garden Stools Made For Comfort
• Best Ergonomic Gardening Tools for People with Arthritis

Choose the Right Soil and Fertilizers

Understanding soil types is key to a successful garden. Loamy soil is ideal for most plants because it balances sand, silt, and clay, offering good drainage, moisture retention, and nutrients.

Sandy soil drains quickly and warms up fast, but it struggles to retain water and nutrients. In contrast, clay soil holds nutrients well but drains poorly, often leading to compacted, waterlogged conditions.

Compost is essential for improving soil quality, adding organic matter, and enriching it with nutrients while promoting beneficial microorganisms. Beginners can boost soil health with organic fertilizers like composted manure, blood meal (rich in nitrogen), bone meal (high in phosphorus), or kelp meal (a natural potassium source). These options are easy to use and support sustainable, organic gardening practices.

Decide if You Want to Start Your Garden from Seed or Buy Plants

Many new gardeners start with a few plants already started, and I think that’s an excellent idea for the first year to avoid becoming overwhelmed. But eventually, you’ll probably want to learn to start your plants from seed to save money and grow heirloom vegetables. You save seeds from yourself.

Start by learning through a few seed catalogs: they are a wealth of information too!

How to Manage Common Garden Pests and Diseases

Learn to identify common pests and signs of disease and read up on how to keep your garden pest free. Here are a few of my guides for keeping pests away:

• Garden Pests and Diseases – How to Save Your Vegetables, Herbs, and Flowers
• What Are Harlequin Bugs? And 6 Ways to Control These Pretty Pests
• 11 Devastating Vegetable Garden Pests And How To Control Them

Learn How to Store Your Vegetables Long Term

Harvesting vegetables you grow is one of the most satisfying activities for most gardeners. And if you plant only a few things, you’ll probably use everything immediately. But as you learn more about gardening and try growing new plants, you’ll end up with more than you can use in the growing season.

That’s a great problem to have and one easily fixed. Just learn the proper techniques for storing vegetables for winter, and you’ll keep reaping the benefits of gardening year-round. Check out my quick guides to harvesting and storing your produce.

• How to Store Tomatoes: Expert Tips for Keeping Your Harvest Fresh and Flavorful
• How to Store Potatoes and Keep Them Fresh Long Term
• 3 Easy Ways To Preserve Garden Harvest

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