If you’re here, you’ve been thinking of starting a vegetable garden for the first time.
Homeowners like you are drawn to the idea for many reasons: Some want to enjoy tastier, fresher food, while others want to save money at the grocery store with their own homegrown fruits and vegetables. And for some, a vegetable garden presents an opportunity to connect more deeply with nature and beautify their home’s landscape.
Whatever the reason you want to start your vegetable garden, it’s an exciting project. You’re eager to design your layout, choose your plants, tend to your vegetables and fruits, and enjoy your harvest at the end of the successful growing season.
But if you want a truly successful vegetable garden, you can’t simply sprinkle some seeds in the dirt and hope for the best. It’s essential to start with a plan.
We’re here to help you get started.
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Before you begin the hands-on work of building and planting your garden, there’s an important decision you’ll have to make: which type of garden you should choose. You’ll have plenty of options; just some of these include an in-ground garden, container garden or vertical garden. And that’s only the beginning of the list!
One of the best methods we recommend is a raised bed garden. This type of garden has many advantages — especially in New England — such as:
To take the best advantage of all of these benefits that a raised bed vegetable garden has to offer, it’s crucial that you perform the proper planning. This encompasses several components, including:
Like any type of garden, raised beds can’t be located in just any spot in your landscape. You’ll need to carefully assess your yard to find the spot with the growing conditions. Ideally, the beds should receive, at minimum, six to eight hours of direct sunlight every day.
For the size of each individual garden bed, you should aim for a width of three to four feet, so you can comfortably reach the center from each side. You also want to be mindful of the distance between each bed, to prevent overcrowding. This can be especially important for low-to-the-ground vegetables that grow on vines, such as cucumbers and squash.
To build the beds, some homeowners choose to buy pre-made raised garden beds; however, one major downfall of this option is that it limits your ability to customize them to your individual gardening space. When you build your beds from scratch, you’ll have plenty of choices for materials, including:
Regardless of the type of materials you choose for your raised garden beds, you should ensure they’re rot-resistant and can withstand constant exposure to varying temperatures and weather elements.
Before you put your raised beds in place, it’s essential to prepare the ground where you’re installing them. You’ll need to clear the area of any weed, debris and grass.
If the ground needs leveling to provide a stable foundation for the beds, you’ll want to tackle that task here. This phase also is an ideal opportunity to install a weed barrier underneath the bed, such as landscape fabric or cardboard.
The bottom of the bed should also include a drainage layer, which can be constructed with materials such as gravel, crushed stones, mesh and sand.
To fill the beds, you’ll want to look for a high-quality potting mix or garden soil formulated specifically for garden beds — in other words, don’t grab the first soil you see on the shelf. Avoid using regular gardening soil, as it can be compacted and prone to drainage issues.
Adding compost to the bed provides a vital source of nutrients that can help your vegetables grow healthier and stronger. Or you can even try compost tea, made by steeping compost in water. It’s powerful stuff — in fact, many gardeners call it “liquid gold.” You should aim for 30 percent of the soil’s total volume to be composed of compost.
By now, you’re almost at that point where you can officially start your vegetables off in their new home. Before you do that, however, you should mark your intended planting layout. You can use stakes or strings to easily visualize the layout, and ensure that the vegetables are evenly spaced once they’re planted.
Sketching the plan in advance or using a raised bed garden planner is always a great idea to keep the project managed and on track, especially if more than one person will be building and working in the garden.
Depending on what vegetables you want to grow, you’ll take different approaches to how you put your plants in place. Certain vegetables, like carrots and lettuce, can be sown directly into the soil. Others that take a longer time to grow from germination, such as tomatoes and peppers, benefit from being started indoors and transplanted to the garden bed later.
It’s essential to understand your growing zone before you start. This also can be called your hardiness zone.
In a climate like the one we have in Massachusetts, the temperature can vary widely from month to month, or even week to week. If you plant your fragile seedlings too early, you risk killing them entirely. If you plant too late, they may not have a chance to bloom before the weather changes to cooler fall temperatures.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Massachusetts falls under the hardiness zones of 5a, 6a, 6b, 7a and 7b.
Bonus tip: You may want to try specific planting strategies to maximize your garden’s crop. With companion planting, you’ll grow specific plants together, such as beans with squash, that are mutually beneficial in attracting pollinators and deterring pests.
And to make the most of your space, you also can try succession planting, through which you’ll plant vegetables with different maturity timelines. This allows you to harvest fast-growing plants like lettuce and spinach more quickly, followed by vegetables like tomatoes that mature more slowly.
There are a few key tasks you should perform throughout the growing season to keep your garden at its healthiest and looking its best.
Most obvious is the need for a consistent watering schedule. An inch of water per week is ideal (though you can adjust this amount as needed to account for any rainfall you might have). Deep watering encourages strong root growth.
While fighting off invasive plants can seem like a never ending battle for home gardeners, effective weed control is a must. Weeds compete with your plants for water and nutrients; if they grow large enough to crowd out your vegetables, they may even challenge them for sunlight, too. To manage weeds, you can apply a layer of organic materials like straw or wood chips to suppress their growth and retain moisture.
Taking the proper approach to weeds not only keeps your vegetables healthy, but can reduce the amount of time you need to spend on fighting them in the first place. Periodically throughout the season, you also can supplement your garden beds with additional nutrients by organic fertilizers and compost, according to the needs of your specific vegetables.
With a little planning and consistent effort, your raised bed vegetable garden can become a regular source of fresh, delicious food — as well as a source of immense enjoyment.
Unfortunately, even the best of efforts does not guarantee that you’ll be reveling in a bumper crop by the time fall arrives — or even a crop at all.
Mother Nature, as we all know, can be unpredictable. No matter your best efforts, she may not reward you with the harvest you’ve dreamed of all season long.
Unfortunately, this fact can be compounded by errors made by first-time gardeners, made due to lack of experience. These can include issues such as selecting a location for your garden with too-little direct sunlight, not fertilizing and watering properly, choosing the wrong plants for your growing zone, planting too early or too late, and more.
Despite these potential challenges, you may still want to DIY your vegetable garden from scratch, as many homeowners do. However, if you want to maximize your investment in the project — both in time and money — you should consider working with an experienced garden professional to build, install and maintain your vegetable garden.
Here are just some of the reasons why.
Big box stores like Home Depot or Lowe’s offering a ready-to-plant selection of seedlings are often a first stop for first-time vegetable gardeners. They may already be customers of these stores, and have experience shopping in their garden center come spring.
However, just because stores like these are familiar home shopping destinations, it doesn’t mean they’re your best option for plants for your new vegetable garden. This is for a few reasons.
First, the seedlings available at mass market stores may not be in optimal health. Seeds may be planted in poor-quality soil from the start; once they start growing, they’re more likely to be treated with chemicals and non-organic fertilizers. And that is exactly the opposite of why you started gardening in the first place!
In addition, if you need any advice — such as which plants are best suited for your growing zone or what watering schedule you should follow — you’re less likely to find such expertise at a big box store, where staff may be assigned to work in the nursery center despite not having specific gardening knowledge.
Finally, if you buy your plants from a home improvement store, you’ll have a limited selection of plants that you can grow. Large stores carry the plants that are most profitable, which curtails the variety they offer. When you start with these plants, you’ll miss out on one of the most fun parts of beginning a garden: the chance to experiment with what you grow.
Why limit yourself to a simple beefsteak tomato when there are so many other options — like the Abe Lincoln original, bread and salt, Cherokee purple, Ozark pink, and prairie fire tomatoes, as just a sampling — that you can grow?
However, when you work with a company experienced in growing and maintaining vegetable gardens, you’ll be able to avoid the pitfalls above. These companies have existing relationships with high-quality growers and nurseries, which means they’ll be able to source the best, healthiest plants available for you.
Some of these growers may even sell only to fellow professionals, rather than individual homeowners, so you’ll otherwise be unable to access them on your own.
You’ve designed your garden’s layout, built your raised beds, tested your soil’s health and prepped it, and planted your seedlings in place.
Now what?
At this phase, the work has really only just begun: It’s now time to maintain your garden.
A flourishing garden requires consistent maintenance, and it’s a task you can’t skip out on. Otherwise, you may quickly find your plants wilted or choked by weeds — and once you return to the garden, you may find your seedlings beyond saving.
In addition, the level of care you give your plants once they’re in the ground can impact your eventual harvest. Bare minimum maintenance may keep your plants alive, but what you really want is for them to thrive. Tending to your garden properly can be the difference between a few skinny cucumbers and a full crop ready for salads, pickling and sharing with family and friends.
By partnering with a professional to design and build your vegetable garden, you’ll have access to valuable knowledge and expertise to not only begin your project, but the crucial education to keep it blooming throughout the season, which can be honed only through years of gardening experience. These companies can help you get started on your garden maintenance plan, and in some cases, may offer services to tend to your garden throughout the season.
Download the ebook, The Backyard Bounty: The Beginner's Guide to Growing Fresh Food, Saving Money and Enjoying Nature.
Complete the form to receive your free copy.
