7 Things to Get Right in Your First Vegetable Garden

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Nobody can tell you everything you need to know about having a garden, because we’re all still learning. Trust me- people who’ve been gardening for longer than I’ve been alive are still finding better ways of doing things. They’re still running into new problems and still using good old-fashioned trial and error to solve them.

The thing is, what works for you is going to vary based on your unique challenges and circumstances. We’ve all got different climates, different growing spaces, different dirt.

There are, however, a few basics you need to square away when planning your first garden, all of which apply across the board. Once you’ve got those covered, you can skip some common newbie setbacks and give yourself a solid foundation to grow from.   

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1. Know Your Frost Dates and Hardiness Zone

Before you start planning what to grow and when to plant it, you need to know your average frost dates and what USDA hardiness zone you live in. Both are important for planning your garden.

Frost Dates (Your Growing Season)

Your “official” growing season is the number of days between your average last spring frost and average first fall frost. There are plenty of online calculators you can use to find these dates by entering your zip code, such as this one.

You’ll need to know your frost dates to figure out the timeframe for when you can plant what- late enough to avoid spring frosts, early enough your plants have time to produce a harvest.

Seed packets and nursery seedling tags will usually list the number of days required for a plant to reach maturity (if not, Google is there for you).

If you’re starting seeds indoors, the seed packets will also tell you when to sow them based on your last frost date and the number of weeks needed for seedlings to reach transplanting size. Sow too late, and you might not be able to plant them out in time. Too early, and you’ll have seedlings rapidly outgrowing their containers while you wait for the weather to cooperate. Been there, done that!

Be aware your average frost dates are just that: averages. Frosts can easily happen later or earlier, especially if you’re in a microclimate- i.e., somewhere the geography affects the weather. A low valley might see different temperatures than the side of a hill, even in the same neighborhood. At our higher elevation, it’s common for us to see sporadic frost a week or more past the “last frost date” for our area. Always check on your extended forecast before planting!

You may find you need to tweak your planting times after the first go-round. It takes some experimenting to get it perfect, but knowing those average frost dates is the place to start. For more guidance, I’ve always found the spring planting dates listed in the Farmer’s Almanac each year to be solid advice.  

Can you grow stuff outside your “growing season”?

The time between average frost dates is essentially just a guideline for timing your warm-season plantings, or crops that are killed by frost. You’re definitely not restricted to only growing things in that window.

Cold-hardy crops like onions, leafy greens, and brassicas (cabbage family) can deal with frost. Many can even handle sub-freezing temperatures with a little protection. Some cold-tolerant crops are actually better planted out a few weeks before that last frost so they can mature before the summer heat (or, you may want to plant them in late summer for a fall or winter harvest).

Your Hardiness Zone

The USDA hardiness zone map divides regions in the US and Canada into 13 zones based on their average lowest temperature during winter (with zone 1 being the coldest and zone 13 being the warmest).

The zones are typically used as a guideline to pick varieties of perennials, berries, and fruit trees that are best adapted for your climate. Some types of strawberries, for example, can handle extremely cold winters but don’t like lots of heat. Other varieties are more suitable for warmer regions.

Even if you’re not planning to grow any perennials just yet, you’ll also find your hardiness zone referenced in other resources, such as garden planners, planting charts, and calendars, so it’s helpful to know it up front. You can find your zone by entering your zip code here.

2. Pick Your Garden Spot Wisely

You don’t want to put a ton of effort into a new veggie garden plot only to discover some deal-breaker issues with the location later on. Here are a couple things you need to check on first.

Check Your Sun Coverage

With a few exceptions, most veggie plants and fruiting perennials (fruit trees, berries) need full sun to grow, bloom, and stay healthy. Full sun means 6 to 8 plus hours per day of direct sunshine, not filtered through trees. Any less than that, and they’ll grow poorly and won’t produce much.

If you’re going with a more permanent setup like large raised beds or in-ground beds, it’s vital to make sure your chosen area gets enough sun before you start prepping it. Aside from cutting down trees or relocating your house, there isn’t much you can do to fix too much shade.

Watch for Changes in the Sun’s Position

Remember that unless you live close to the equator, the position of the sun changes drastically from season to season. We have spots all over the homeplace that get full sun all spring and summer but ZERO through fall and winter. Some areas might get enough sun at planting time, then become too shady later in the summer and early fall. That won’t be good news for crops that take months to reach maturity.

If you’ve recently moved to a new place or you just haven’t paid attention to the sunny/shady spots throughout the year, drawing up a sun map is a foolproof way to make sure you’re covered, whether you’re planting in spring or preparing a new garden in the fall. And there’s an app for that.   

Find Level Ground

The second thing to look at is the incline where you’ll plant. Ground with too much of a slope can lead to washing, which can displace seeds/seedlings and cause poor water retention in places. The best spot for a garden is either flat or mostly flat.

Be mindful that some low-lying flat areas can have drainage issues. If the ground tends to pond and stay soggy for a long time after a rain, the soil isn’t draining well. This could be a problem if you’re planting in the ground instead of raised beds. Ground that stays too wet can cause root rot and disease, so if that’s the only spot you have available, you’ll need a plan to improve the drainage.

Soil drainage problems also have a lot to do with the soil’s composition, which I’ll get to in a second. But first, one more thing about location:   

Give Trees Their Space!

Tree roots spread out a lot further out than you’d think. If you put your garden spot smack in the root zone, they’ll hog nutrients from your plants and cause obvious challenges with working the soil.

Some trees are particularly unfriendly. Allelopathic species produce chemicals in their roots, leaves, and branches that can stunt the growth of other plants. The most widely known example in the Eastern US is the black walnut tree, which is especially toxic to nightshades (potatoes, peppers, tomatoes).

Those lovely black walnut trees are everywhere here in the north Georgia mountains. While the walnuts are edible and medicinal, they are not good neighbors for a vegetable garden. It’s best to keep your garden at least 50 feet away from the “drip line” or canopy of a black walnut tree, even if you’re planting in raised beds. Your plants’ roots will still find their way into the native soil, and you don’t want them to get a case of walnut wilt.

3. Pay Attention to Your Soil

Next to sunlight, your soil is one of the most important things on this list, since a big majority of plant problems are directly caused by soil problems.

You could compare it to building a house. It doesn’t matter how well-crafted the walls and rooms are; if the foundation is weak, it’s not stable. Your soil is the foundation of your garden. So if you’re serious about growing things, you’ll want to put some thought and effort into it.

Your approach to starting out with good soil depends on whether you’re planting in the ground or in raised beds or containers.  

For In-Ground Gardens:

If you’re planting in-ground, you need to understand what issues you’re dealing with from the beginning so you can take steps to correct them. Improving less than great native soil takes time, but there are ways to deal with it in the short term and still have a happy garden.

Examine Your Soil

Chances are, if you’re starting a new garden from scratch in a part of your lawn or yard, you’ll find it’s either too sandy or rock-hard and heavy in clay, depending on where you live. Sandy soils struggle with water and nutrient retention, while clay soils get compacted and drain poorly. Both problems make it hard for your plants to get enough nutrients.

Another signal of soil quality is what’s already growing. If you find weeds like dandelions and plantain- plants that will gladly settle for concrete if soil is not available- your native soil is probably lacking some of the nutrients other plants need to get established.

Improving Soil Conditions

Most soil quality problems like bad drainage, compaction, and low nutrients are caused by a lack of organic matter. Soil that’s low in organic matter will also be lacking in soil life, since beneficial soil critters need that organic matter to thrive. Healthy soil is full of tiny organisms like bacteria, fungi, and earthworms, which give the soil better structure and help make nutrients available to plants.

Put in simple terms, the fix is adding this missing organic matter by amending the garden spot with things like compost, manure, and natural mulches. That is either done by tilling the ground and then tilling in the amendments, or by layering them on top if you’re using a no-till strategy.  

In my opinion, a regenerative low-till or no-till approach is the best way to handle sub-par soil. No-till gardening focuses on building up the soil biome (soil life) to improve the soil’s quality and structure.

While deeply tilling the ground and mixing in organic amendments can help in the short term, too much tilling disrupts our soil organism friends who are needed to make more permanent changes to soil quality. No-till is also a perfect option for anyone who doesn’t have access to a tiller or the physical ability to handle one.  

No-till strategies can take several years to really transform your soil. With the right approach, though, you can still have success with your garden in the meantime. It’s way too broad of a topic to explain in depth here, so hop over to this post to learn more about no-till methods.

Get a Soil Test!

If you’re starting a new garden right in the ground, a quality soil test can give you some answers about your soil situation. You can purchase tests you can do yourself at home or kits you mail back in to a lab. Or, you can get one done through your local cooperative extension. The first two options can be expensive and sometimes gimmicky, so we use our extension office. Here, it only costs $10 per sample to get the basic test.

What can a soil test tell you?

A good basic test will at least have readings for soil pH and important nutrients. Fancy options will also show things such as organic matter content, mineral content, composition, and whether any toxins like heavy metals or herbicides were detected. A basic test is really all you need unless you just want to nerd out.

Soil pH

When you get your soil test results, take note of the pH reading. Most vegetable plants do best in slightly acidic soil (Ph of 6.0 to 6.5), and they’ll have trouble getting nutrients if that number is way out of whack. If your soil is very acidic (low pH), amending with lime or wood ash can raise the pH. If the pH is way too high, you may want to add elemental sulfur to lower it.

You don’t need to obsess over pH, since most plants are capable of adjusting to different conditions. If it isn’t crazy far off from the ideal range, good compost is probably all you need. That being said, if you know your soil’s pH is trending in one direction, avoid adding anything that could push it into a problematic range. For example, don’t fertilize with wood ash (highly alkaline) if it’s already closer to 7.0.

More about soil pH: Gardener’s Guide to Soil pH: Why it Matters and How to Correct pH Problems.

Nutrient Levels

A soil test will also tell you which important nutrients you may need to add through fertilizers or amendments. Plants need three major (macro) nutrients- nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium (note that some tests leave out nitrogen, since it tends to fluctuate a lot in the soil). They also need some important micro-nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, and iron.

Chances are, your soil is already rich in a handful of these things. Knowing what it’s lacking will save you money, since “all-purpose” fertilizers are usually more expensive than targeted ones. If you don’t need it, why pay for it?

When you’re fertilizing blindly, you also run the risk of creating an imbalance. Our soil is naturally high in phosphorous, so adding loads more could cause it to build up too much. In that situation, the excess phosphorous can prevent your plants from absorbing other nutrients like calcium.

A soil test definitely isn’t a requirement for starting a garden, but it’s a neat way to be proactive.

For Raised Beds and Containers:

Raised beds are cool because you have complete control over the soil you’re working with. You don’t have to deal with a lot of the issues the native soil in your yard most likely has. But that comes with a caveat. Buying enough quality soil to fill those raised beds can be pricey, and you don’t want to skimp on quality. Same goes for containers like grow bags, buckets, etc.

Best Practices for Filling Raised Beds

When choosing a growing medium, stay away from bagged potting soils and bagged “raised bed” mixes at all costs. This is one of the most-committed beginner mistakes. People assume the costly name-brand bagged mixes will be higher quality, and later end up wondering why their plants are yellow and stunted.

Fact is, even the premium (expensive) options tend to be loaded with fillers like fresh wood chips from God knows where. And that will cause some serious nitrogen deficiency in plants. As somebody who’s made this mistake, I urge you go the DIY route and make your own soil blend.

While you’ll find popular recipes out there that include special things like vermiculite and worm castings (nothing wrong with that), you can keep it simple and stick with a 50/50 blend of compost and topsoil.

Unless you’re only planning a small container garden or single raised bed for now, it’s a lot more cost-effective to get the ingredients delivered in bulk. Check with your local landscaping companies to see what’s available. Compost and topsoil from such places are probably going to be better quality than the bagged stuff from big-box stores, too. Still, when placing bulk orders, do your research and ask questions to be sure you’re getting a good product.   

If it isn’t practical for you to invest in the proper ingredients to fill raised beds, I strongly suggest you opt for an in-ground garden and work on improving what you’ve got, instead. No matter how crappy your native soil is, I can just about promise it will serve you better than low-quality topsoil or potting soil in a raised bed.

A Note on Persistent Herbicides:

Manure (including compost that contains manure) and straw for mulching can be contaminated with persistent herbicides, which are becoming a real problem for us modern gardeners. These chemicals can make your soil un-plant-able for years, since they take much longer than other herbicides to go away.

If you plan to use compost or manure-based products to amend your garden soil, I suggest you perform a bio-essay test first (unless you’re absolutely sure your amendment came from a safe source). Look here for more info on bio-essay testing and protecting your garden from persistent herbicides. 

4. Know Your Fertilizer Basics

First of all, if anyone tells you fertilizer isn’t necessary when you’re using compost, don’t listen. Compost is gold and works great for improving soil tilth. But it releases nutrients slowly, and it’s usually not enough to sustain your hungry annual plants.

The “compost-only” theory is based on the fact that plants in nature survive off of only the decaying organic matter in the ground. Problem is, most of the annual vegetable plants we grow for food are just not natural. Humans have selectively bred them over time to produce heavy yields and bigger, juicier fruit.

If you ever delve into foraging, you’ll find there are few examples of wild plants that produce loads of large fruit the way our annual vegetables do. Since that requires a lot of energy, it usually isn’t too practical for the plants’ survival. This is why it takes a bit more effort to keep our garden plants healthy, and why the proper use of organic fertilizers will go a long way towards a good harvest.

Reading Fertilizer Labels:

Again, plants need those three main nutrients- nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium- to grow and produce. Except for compost and manure, which vary in nutrient levels, most amendments and fertilizers you purchase will have their NPK somewhere on the packaging. The NPK is the three numbers which represent the ratios of nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P) and potassium (K) available in the product.

If you got a soil test, look for fertilizers higher in the nutrient your soil was reading low in. Otherwise, your best bet is to mostly stick with balanced fertilizers. Balanced fertilizers are those with NPK numbers that are closer together. Ex. 4-6-5, 7-5-6.

In either case, most veggie plants will benefit from a little extra nitrogen, especially in new gardens where the soil hasn’t been worked much (low organic matter always means low nitrogen).

My favorite fertilizer for a nitrogen boost is liquid fish emulsion (5-1-1). Since it’s water-soluble, that nitrogen is immediately available to hungry plants. Blood meal and alfalfa meal are also high in nitrogen, but it’s released more slowly.

Don’t Overdo It

Even some natural fertilizers can do some serious damage when used the wrong way. The worst case scenario that happens with inexperience is “nutrient burn,” or giving plants an unintentional fertilizer overdose.

Most of us have heard that chicken, cow, and other livestock manures make great natural fertilizer. And they do, when properly aged or composted. But when they’re fresh, they’re “hot” or too rich in nitrogen. Use them in the garden this way, and you’ll have mass plant casualties on your hands. Manure should always be composted or aged for at least six months before you apply it as a fertilizer.

“Nutrient burn” can also happen if you use too much of a high-nitrogen natural fertilizer product like blood meal. Even if the nitrogen overload doesn’t damage your plants, they may grow heavy foliage and produce less fruit.

Read this post for more about using organic fertilizers in your garden: Fertilizing Your Garden Organically: The Basics + Some Natural Fertilizer Options.

5. Be Strategic With What You Plant

I see a lot of gardening advice that says you should pick one or two kinds of plants max when you first start. Honestly? You don’t need that kind of negativity in your life. So, plant whatever you want and see how it goes. If you plant a variety of things, you won’t get discouraged because you only planted tomatoes and it turned out to be a bad year for tomatoes. You’ll have other successes to enjoy.

With that in mind, you don’t want to go whole hog and plant 27 different crops before you have an idea of how much effort and attention the garden will require. Some veggies you can just stick in the ground and water during dry spells. Others need to be staked, caged, trellised, and/or pruned for good yields. The time demand always varies based on your conditions and your setup, and starting WAY too big can lead to overwhelm.

Pick the Right Plant Varieties

Different vegetable plant varieties are often adapted to specific climates. If you have hot summers, some kinds of tomato plants may stress out and drop their flowers- and future fruit. Other kinds are more heat tolerant and will produce lots of tomatoes in spite of hot afternoons.

When shopping for seeds or plant starts (seedlings), do a little research on the variety before you buy to make sure it’ll enjoy your climate. This will give you a serious leg up on a productive garden.

Tip: Don’t go and buy vegetable starts from big box home improvement stores. They are insanely over-priced. Check with local nurseries for better deals. Local feed-and-seed/farm supply businesses usually sell nice, reasonably-priced vegetable starts in the spring, as well. 

6. Have a Watering Plan

Make sure you have a plan for how you’ll give your plants water before you have them in the ground. Doing so can save you some frustration.

You may think a watering can or garden hose will get the job done, and it might if you’re running a small operation. But your vegetable plants need deep, even watering, and doing that manually can get REAL time-consuming if you have more than a couple of beds.

If you’re planning a bigger garden and/or you want to save time, setting up some soaker hoses or looking into drip irrigation is worthwhile. It’s not terribly difficult or expensive, and you can find plenty of beginner friendly YouTube tutorials. Soaker hoses and drip irrigation also cut down on water waste.

How Much Water Does Your Garden Need?

This depends on the weather. You won’t need to water as much, if you’re getting regular rain. If it’s dry and especially if it’s hot, you’ll need to water more.

While you can buy rain gauges and moisture meters to try and get it down to a science, the simplest strategy is to just water when the ground is thirsty (personally, I’ve found moisture meters to be highly unreliable). If the soil is dry a couple inches down, it’s time to water.

A good, thorough soaking once or twice per week is better than shallow watering every day. Deep watering encourages deep root growth. New transplants need extra watering- once a day or every other day during dry weather until they’re established and growing.  

Inconsistent soil moisture can cause flower drop, low production, blossom end rot, and poor-quality fruit. Mulching around your plants can help the soil retain moisture and will drastically reduce the amount you need to water.

What Time of Day Should You Water?

While it’s largely a myth that watering in the hot sun can “burn” plants, it does limit the amount of water the ground can absorb. If possible, water during the early morning or evening, avoiding the hottest part of the day.

If you water in the evening, you’ll want to avoid unnecessary wetting of plant foliage. Without the sun to dry them out, plants will stay soggy all night, which can increase the chances of fungal disease. Try to water the ground below the leaves without wetting them too much.

7. Use Mulch!

I already threw this out there in the watering part, but it’s a major one. I’ll confess, when I first started gardening, I was convinced mulch didn’t serve much purpose aside from looking nice. As someone who’s more concerned with functionality than something looking pretty, I didn’t fool with it.

…and then, I got to thinking about how fast my soil dried out after watering during the hottest part of summer, plus how fast the weeds came up, and I wondered why it took me two years to put this together…MULCH.

Mulching around your plants helps the soil stay moist longer, prevents the spread of disease from splashing water, and reduces the weeds you have to pull. It also acts as a slow-release fertilizer for your soil if you use something organic and biodegradable.

Avoid mulches with plastic, rubber, or dye in them. Bagged mulch from home improvement stores usually contains “pretty” synthetic dyes you don’t want leaching into your garden.

Good mulch options are straw, grass clippings, pine needles, fall leaves (whole or shredded both work), and wood chips.   

Bonus: Start a Garden Journal

Since every garden is different, much of what you’re going to learn about making yours successful will come from experience. You’ll find yourself doing lots of trial and error, and keeping good records is one of the best ways to remember what worked and avoid repeating any mistakes. It’s easy to forget the small but important details in the middle of a busy season. I have a guide here about how to make the most of your garden journal.

Hopefully, this list will help you avoid some frustration and get right into the good stuff- like experimenting with different veggie varieties to find your favorites, perfecting your garden layout, and enjoying the results of all your work.