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Planting a Vegetable Garden

Home > Gardener's Guide > Planting a Garden

Planting a vegetable garden is a rewarding and healthy activity that will give your family great tasting food. Before you can plant seeds in your garden you will need to consider several things. Below are some things to consider that will help you get the most out of your garden.

Choosing Your Vegetables
Before doing anything you should decide what type of vegetables to grow. Not only choosing the vegetables but what varieties of those vegetables is important as well. Selecting your vegetables before designing your garden helps to ensure that you will have room in your garden and the best growing environment.
Here are some traits that should be considered when selecting vegetable varieties:
Adaptation – Some varieties only grow well in certain climates. Make sure the variety you choose is appropriate for your geographic location. Some vegetables will bolt if it’s too hot or too cold.
Days to Maturity – This is the number of days it takes a vegetable planted from seed (or transplant) to produce a crop. This can be important for gardeners that live in shorter growing seasons.
Extended harvest season – Choosing between different varieties of a certain vegetable will allow you to harvest continually. Try mixing in an early season, midseason, and a late season variety to your garden.
Pest Resistance – Many vegetables can be resistant to specific diseases and pest. If you have a pest or disease problem in your location be sure to find vegetable varieties that are resistant.
Size – Knowing the size of your vegetables is probably the most important trait to know when planning your garden. For smaller gardens, you can save space by choosing smaller plant varieties that will take up less space. Also useful if you decide to use containers to grow some vegetables.
Storage – Some vegetables can be stored longer than others. Some don’t store well at all and should be eaten immediately. Decide your varieties according to storage capacity is important.
Taste – Vegetables have been breed and grown for every taste bud. Do some research on what people have to say about different varieties.

Finding the Best Spot for Your Garden
Choosing the location of your vegetable garden is a very important step. There are a few important factors when choosing the location. Be sure to be near a water source or reachable by a garden hose. If you plan to bring in some fertilizer and soil by truck make sure it can be reached. Probably the most important factor in determining location is knowing your weather and climate factors. Here are some things to think about:
Location – Make sure you can easily access your garden and can reach all your vegetables. Be sure you can water, weed, feed and harvest without any hazards. Be sure you take advantage of warm or cool spots in your yard that can help extend your harvest.
Size – The average size of a home garden is 600 square feet (30x20 feet). This a good size for a beginner gardener or someone with not much time. Anything bigger than this will demand more time for weeding, watering, and harvesting. It’s always best to start small and expand every year.
Sun and Shade – Gardens do best when they receive full sun. For optimal growth, most vegetable plants (especially tomatoes, peppers and beans) need a minimum of 6 hours of sun. Leafy vegetables such as lettuce and spinach prefer cooler, more shaded locations. Maybe try a few different locations that work better for different vegetables.
Drainage – Your garden soil needs to drain well in order for your vegetable plants to thrive. A properly drained garden will help protect against diseases as well.
Wind – Be sure to protect your garden from high winds. Tall crops such as corn and pole beans can be severely damaged by wind. Try avoiding wind exposed locations.

Map Your Garden
Designing your garden will allow you to maximize space and produce more crops. Be sure to arrange your vegetables so they all have room to grow and your taller vegetables don’t shade your lower lying crops. Be sure to plan for easy access to your plants and walking locations in your garden. Also consider adding some flowers in your garden to attract butterflies and bees to help pollinate your vegetables.
Before sketching out your garden choose from three basic planting arrangements:
Rows – Easy and the most popular method for planting vegetables. Try this for tomatoes, beans, cabbages, corn, potatoes, peppers and summer squash.
Hills – Hills work great for vining crops such as cucumbers, melons and winter squash.
Raised Bed – A raised bed helps battle against bad soil and drainage problems. They work great for vegetables that grow close together such as carrots, lettuce, onions, radish, and turnips. A raised bed can also give you an early start to the season as the soil will warm more quickly and extend your season.

While sketching out your garden it is important to pay attention to the following information:
Seeds/Plants per 100 ft – This will give you a good idea of how may seeds to purchase for your garden size.
Spacing between rows – The ideal distance to leave between rows of different vegetables. Usually a little more than the distance you should leave between plants.
Spacing between plants – The ideal distance to leave between the same vegetables in the same row.
Average Yield per 10 ft. of row – How much you can expect to harvest from each vegetable.

Many vegetable spacing recommendations are just that – recommendations. They are probably suggest from agricultural recommendations for maximum yield per acre. In many home gardens you can plant closer together and still have healthy plants as long as you pay special attention to soil preparation, watering and fertilizing.

Drawing a garden plan does not require any special training or tools. Using a pencil and graph paper can easily work for drawing your garden. After you determine the location and dimension of your garden, simply map out your vegetables within the garden.

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