How To Plant And Grow Vegetables The Right Way

Whether it is your first or twentieth time planting a vegetable garden, following a few key steps will guide the process and bring your vision to life.

In other words, here’s how to plant and grow vegetables the right way, starting with deciding what to grow!

And if it is your first time, trust me, vegetable gardens are definitely worth it.

1 – Choose A Spot With Ideal Conditions (Or Make One)

All plants have similar basic needs, whether you’re planting in containers, raised beds, or straight into the ground. So, finding a spot offering your chosen plants the best soil, good access to water, and plenty of sunlight is essential.

Let’s start with the soil and water.

Soil And Water

You’ll want to plant in the best quality soil you can. 

If you are purchasing soil, a mix that includes compost is a good option. You can buy soil in bags or have it trucked in, a minimum amount being one cubic yard (0.76 cubic meters).

If you are planting in an existing garden, you will want to dig into it and observe what you are working with.

The best soil has some moisture and is relatively easy to dig through. This allows plants to spread their roots and take up all the water and nutrients they need. 

If your soil is like this, great! 

Otherwise, you may want to start by adding some compost (a much better choice than fertilizer), observing it through the season, and making further amendments in the autumn.

Access to water is also essential. 

While the rain will water your garden sometimes, you should plan where you will get water from when it is dry.

Sunlight

Lastly, you’ll want to make sure your garden is in a spot where it gets plenty of sunlight throughout the day.

Your vegetable garden needs 6 hours of sunlight at a minimum, but more is better. However, exceptions always exist, so check your chosen plants’ sunlight needs and adjust as necessary.

2 – Create A Garden Map

Planting is always an exciting time! 

It can be hard not to be swept away by your burgeoning garden dreams.

You know that advice to not go grocery shopping when you’re hungry? There is a similar effect among gardeners at plant nurseries.

So, before purchasing your seeds and seedlings, I suggest doing one more planning exercise.

I’ll share my process, but do what works for you! 

Also, I spread the planning out over the winter months, so don’t feel as though you have to do it all at once. Plus, you’ll need those months to take care of a few essential winter gardening jobs as well, anyway, so spreading the planning out allows you time to take care of those important tasks.

And have some fun when you do go get your plants and seeds!

But create a garden map first.

Start with measuring your growing area.

I draw my beds out and sketch where I want to plant various things. Part of this is so I have a well-considered idea of what I need to buy and can avoid over-buying or making extra trips.

It’s even more helpful that through this process I usually realize I need to move something around for one reason or another.

I can tell you from experience it is much better to erase something on a drawing than to be halfway through planting and have to move it!

The things I keep in mind while developing a planting plan are:

• Spacing
• Height
• Roots
• Access
• Succession planting
• What not to plant together

By the time I finish this sketch, which I call my garden map, I know where I’m going to plant everything and what I need to buy at the garden center. 

I also use the map as a working document for reference throughout the growing season.

Let’s start with spacing, height, and roots.

Spacing

It can be hard to envision how much space plants need as they grow and mature. 

Planting your plants too close together forces them to compete for the same resources, meaning none will thrive.

Doing this can even invite disease because there isn’t good air circulation. 

However, planting your plants too far apart wastes valuable growing space.

Height

Plants grow wider, and they grow taller, too. Some plants can even grow very tall and obstruct the light neighboring plants need. 

As a result, it’s best to put tall plants at the back of your garden bed or off to one side.
Roots
You’ll also need to consider your plants’ roots.

For instance, are they shallow roots like peas and lettuces? Or deeper and larger, like carrots or beets? Do they need even more room, such as potatoes? 

Whatever you are growing, it is essential to accommodate for below-ground spacing needs. 

Some people prefer to alternate shallow and deep-rooted plants.

Additionally, install structural supports while planting if you know your plant will need them as it grows.

This avoids later injuring root systems after they’ve grown throughout your soil.

Access

It will become harder to move through your garden as your plants grow. You’ll need to plan for this so you don’t potentially harm them or compact the soil they use, which reduces oxygen and water access.

You must decide if your kind of access will involve paths, stepping stones, or simply leaving a bit of space.

What you choose will depend on the shape and size of your garden bed. 

For example, maybe you can reach everywhere you need from the bed’s edge.

A good rule of thumb is if the bed extends beyond 2 feet from one edge to the other and you don’t have access on the other side (such as a wall blocking you), you’ll want to plan to have some space for you to get into your garden.

For example, I have several 4-foot by 4-foot raised beds, but I can access them from any direction, so this follows the 2-foot rule.

As an example, maybe you have a long garden planted in rows. Following this rule, you should strategically place pathways approximately every 4 feet. 

Pathways don’t have to be complicated, either. I mulch mine with wood chips. You get the picture.

In short, make sure to know where you will fit in your garden as it grows.

Succession Planting

Another way to plan to use space in your garden is to use the same space to grow different plants one after another. 

This technique is called succession planting.

Let’s say you plant some leaf lettuce in a certain area. It becomes ready to eat in 3 weeks to a month. 

You can “cut and come again,” which is when you cut the edible leaves off and wait for them to regrow, or you could decide to harvest the plant and plant something else there for the season.

Another great reason to incorporate succession plantings into your plan is that some crops really don’t thrive in heat. 

Many greens fall into this category, so gardeners may plan to have them at the beginning and end of the growing season and use the space for a heat-loving plant in between.

What Not To Plant Together

Some plants support each other’s growth. Others don’t. 

In other words, some plants hamper each other’s growth because they compete for the same resources or have the same vulnerabilities.

Companion planting is the system of understanding what plants offer each other support. 

Though it has not been scientifically proven, it does make sense, for example, that plants that have the same susceptibilities to pests or disease would become more vulnerable when planted together in a clump instead of interspersed with variety. 

Gardeners all come to have their preferences over time. Experiment and see what works for you.

Additionally, some plants are allelopathic. This means they release compounds that inhibit other plants’ growth.

Sunflowers and fennel are the two I commonly have in my vegetable garden. 

I just keep them about a foot away from other plants to manage.

Now, let’s talk about the third step for how to plant and grow vegetables: deciding what to grow.

3 – Decide What To Grow

Deciding what vegetables to plant and grow in your vegetable garden (whether simple or ambitious) is an important step.

This step should be particularly fun! Let yourself dream a little bit here. 

Think of it as if you could grow anything, you would grow _______________. 

For example, maybe you had the most amazing cocktail tomatoes last year, and you’d like to try growing some. Maybe this is the year you grow a whole bunch of cucumbers and finally recreate the pickles that you love from your great aunt. 

But maybe it’s not as simple as that. Maybe you’re not sure where to start.

This is where some healthy research comes in. 

Visit a plant nursery and look at what’s available. Look up some seed companies in your area. Get a catalog or two (to me, these are the best resources).

Include what you like to eat, but explore a bit, too. 

For example, grow a tri-color blend instead of regular carrots.

Taking all this time up front has another benefit, too. Vegetable gardening has its challenges no matter what you choose. Still, you can make those challenges easier by building the kind of garden and growing the kinds of vegetables that excite you.

In other words, create the kind of vegetable garden you’ll enjoy.

Once you figure this out, you can work on giving your vegetables the ideal conditions they need to grow.

4 – Incorporate Flowers

Unfortunately, many people (possibly including you) don’t consider incorporating flowers in their vegetable gardens. 

But you really should!

Not only are flowers beautiful, but they also attract beneficial insects. Many of these are pollinators (necessary for plant reproduction), while others are predatory insects that help keep pests in check. 

Some flowers act as deterrents to pest insects as well.

I like to plant flowers as borders or intersperse them throughout the rows of my vegetables. 

I particularly enjoy calendula, zinnia, marigolds, nasturtiums, borage and cornflowers.

It’s no mistake all of these flowers happen to be edible. 

Feel free to experiment and plant what you like.  

5 – Create And Follow A Seeding Schedule

You need two pieces of information to know how to time your plantings properly:

1. One is how many days it takes each kind of plant you are growing to mature and be ready for harvest. This information is on all seed packets and in seed catalogs.
2. The other is what plant hardiness zone you live in. This helps you determine average temperature ranges and how long your growing season is. Plus, you can compare this against your plants to see if they can tolerate those temperatures.

You’ll also be able to decide if you want to sow seeds directly in your garden, start them earlier somewhere inside, or buy seedlings at your local plant nursery. 

I usually do a combination.

My seeding schedule starts indoors in February with some of the slowest-growing plants (celery!), but I start most seeds inside in late March or April. I do use some growing lights.

If you are just getting into growing your own vegetables, you may want to buy seedlings from your garden center instead. 

It is less complicated and less equipment, but this depends entirely on your gardening goals.

6 – Gather Supplies

Once you’ve identified what vegetables you want to plant and grow and when you need to plant it, I suggest deciding what supplies you need.

Here’s a list of some you may find helpful to begin:

• Seeds
• Seedlings
• Trowel
• Shovel
• Pruners
• Gardening fork
• Hose
• Watering can
• Gloves
• Rake
• Trellis or stakes (if growing vining plants)

There are a lot of other handy gardening tools, but this is a basic list of what you need to do most things in the vegetable garden.

You are almost ready to get planting!

7 – Plant 

Do a thorough weeding of your garden before you start putting anything into the soil.

Before weeding, I take any seedlings I have and set them in a tray of water. An inch or two is fine. This allows them to take up lots of water before they go into the ground.

If possible, choose a moderate day to plant your garden. 

After planting, I put the garden map into my garden notebook with the date I planted so I can refer to it if I need to.    

Let’s start with seeds.

Seeds

I tend to plant seeds first because they aren’t as visible as seedlings once planted. 

I start at one side of a bed and work my way across, planting in rows.

To plant a row of seeds, read the seed package and follow the planting instructions. 

I like to use some sort of marker at the beginning and end of each row, so I know where I started and ended planting.

Then, I like to make a small trough with a trowel to the depth the seed requires and then drop the seeds in according to the spacing indicated on the package. I cover the seed back up with soil and gently pat it down.

Seedlings

You must harden off all seedlings before transplanting (planting out). 

In this process, you’re slowly exposing plants grown inside to the outside elements. You do this in increasing increments.

For example, maybe some indirect sun with a breeze for a couple of hours the first day, a little bit longer before you bring them in the following day, etc.

Over the span of approximately two weeks, your plants should be ready to plant out. 

Plants purchased at garden centers have typically been through this process.

Also, keep in mind that the planting should be on a moderate day from above.

Transplanting seedlings is somewhat stressful for the plants. Moderate temperatures, winds, etc., help mitigate transplant shock.

For seedlings, I dig holes large enough to accommodate each plant. 

If the soil seems dry, I add water to each hole before placing the seedlings in it. 

Once the seedlings are upright, I backfill the soil into the hole and pat it down.

Watering

I water a particular bed well after working my way across it entirely.

Ensure the spray of water over your seeds is light enough to not move them from where you placed them. 

When I water seedlings, I water under their leaves and with pressure that avoids splashing the soil back up onto them.

8 – Maintain

Maintenance in your vegetable garden is straightforward and consists primarily of weeding and watering.

Check On Your Garden

Once I have planted, I like to visit each bed every day. 

I remove any weeds that have sprouted. 

I check on my seedlings. Many do not love being transplanted and may take a day or two to recover.

Water

If it hasn’t rained at this early stage, I will water every day or two. 

Seeds need consistent moisture to germinate, so don’t let where you have sown dry out completely.

To assess water needs in the soil, simply dig in a bit and look. You want moisture to be consistent. If it is dry, water.

Mulch

You may also want to mulch around plants. 

I often do, quite soon after planting. This prevents any soil-borne diseases from splashing up and maintains moisture as well. 

I typically gather up grass clippings from my lawn and place a layer around the base of my plants, though at least an inch away from the stem. I then water over top of the mulch.

Weed

For weeding, I keep on top of it, removing them early and often. This makes the work easy and uncomplicated.

To effectively weed, knowing what you are dealing with is good. 

Thistles and quack grass are two examples that I have struggled with before.

Thistles have a tap root, which is one long root that grows deeply. If you don’t get it all, the plant will likely regrow from where it snapped in the ground. 

Quack grass is rhizomatic; if a piece is left in the soil, it will quickly take hold. 

Both plants also propagate by seed, but you do not want to let them remain in your garden until that point of their life cycle.

Note: do not put invasive weeds in your home compost (such as after removing them). 

The temperatures do not get hot enough to destroy reproductive parts. You will only propagate and reintroduce them to your soil. 

Municipal composts reach much higher temperatures, so this may be an option for getting rid of invasive plants. Check with your municipality about laws and protocols.

Check For Pests And Diseases

Another routine job in your vegetable garden is checking for the presence of pests or diseases. 

Each issue will present itself differently, but the sooner you can identify and treat anything attacking your plants, the easier it will be to manage. 

Always remove dead, diseased, or damaged parts of plants as soon as you notice them and put them in the garbage.

9 – Harvest

Some of your vegetables will be ready to eat as early as 3-4 weeks after you’ve planted your garden. 

Radishes and all sorts of greens (leaf lettuce, arugula, and baby spinach) are the first plants ready at my house.

As soon as I see my radishes’ shoulders, I pull them up (and put the tops in my compost). 

As for the greens, I start snipping the outside leaves (oldest) for my salads.

And it begins!

For the next several months (and well into the winter, should you choose to preserve), you will enjoy the fresh vegetables you have grown!

Contributed guidance: Kathy Goddard

Test Your Soil

A professional soil test is the only way to know exactly what kind of soil you have and what nutrients it contains. The test results will tell you whether or not you need to amend your soil with organic matter or nutrients (fertilizer) and how much you may need to add. University extension offices, government agencies, or private labs offer them, depending on your location. 

You can also use a store-bought test kit to determine your soil’s pH and basic nutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). These tests aren’t as accurate as the ones from the aforementioned groups, but they can give you a place to start.

Additionally, you can also start your vegetable garden without a soil test and see how things grow. Make note of successes and failures to plan for the following year if you decide to go that route, and have the mindset that you could very well be facing a lot of the latter.

Last, you can literally get a feel for your soil to tell how much clay or sand is in it.

Take a bit of wet soil and rub it between your thumb and fingers. Does it feel slippery (clay soil) or gritty (sandy soil)? If it feels somewhere in between, then your soil has a good balance of clay and sand. 

Depending on the findings from your soil testing, you may need to amend your soil to improve conditions for vegetables. Be aware that loosening up heavy clay soil with amendments can take several years. You might be better off creating rows of mounded, well-draining soil to plant your vegetables on top of your garden bed. Another option would be building raised beds that you can fill with soil more suited to growing vegetables.

You can also choose crops that can grow in the conditions you’ve got. If your soil has lots of clay but isn’t too dense, vegetables with shallow root systems would be good options, such as lettuces, kale, swiss chard, beans, squash, or a shorter variety of carrots. 

Make Sure The Soil Is Well-Draining

Vegetables like well-draining soil. Soil that stays too wet for too long will rot root vegetables and kill the roots of others.  

Avoid spots in your garden that sit wet long after a heavy rain. Also, avoid spots where heavy machinery or foot traffic has packed the soil down.

If all the sunny spots in your garden have poor drainage, you may need to opt for mounded rows or raised beds to give your vegetables good drainage.

Thankfully, there’s an easy way to test the drainage of your soil. 

First, dig a hole about 12 inches (30 centimeters) deep and wide. Fill it with water, cover it, and leave it overnight. 

The next day, if there’s still water in the hole, you know you have poor-draining soil, and you can skip the next steps of the soil test!

If all the water has drained away, fill the hole again and track how long it takes to drain away. It might take just a few minutes or several hours.

Start by checking it after about 10 minutes. How long it takes will depend on what sort of soil you have:  

• If the hole drains within a few minutes to an hour after filling it, your soil drains too well. It’s probably very sandy (or rocky) soil and not ideal for vegetables.
• If it takes between about 30 minutes to 3 hours for the hole to drain, the soil has good drainage for most vegetables.
• If the hole drains in more than 3 hours, your soil is considered poor-draining and probably won’t be good for growing vegetables.

As mentioned before, mounded rows or raised beds can help with this.

Choose A Site Protected From Wind

Plants dry out faster in windy conditions, just like our skin. Also, wind can damage stalks on taller vegetables or vining varieties grown on supports.

Choose A Site You Can Easily Water

It may seem obvious but is often forgotten: choose a site you can easily water, whether that’s with a hand-held hose, drip irrigation, or soaker hose. 

Unfortunately, more than one gardener has lost more than one vegetable crop from being too tired to haul a hose too far or because the hose wasn’t long enough.

Choose What To Plant In

The second step you need to take to start your vegetable garden is deciding whether to plant your vegetables directly into your garden soil or raised garden beds.

Benefits and drawbacks exist for both. 

Benefits And Drawbacks Of Raised Garden Beds

Planting directly into the garden soil (level ground) is generally the preferred choice if you have good quality soil with good drainage. 

If you have poor-quality soil or poor drainage or have mobility issues that make gardening at ground level difficult, then raised beds are an excellent gardening problem-solver.

The term “raised beds” refers to either open-sided mounds of soil (for single plants or in longer planting rows) on top of the garden soil or raised soil on top of the garden soil contained within sides made with wood or cinder blocks.

The benefits of raised garden beds include:

• You can control soil quality to overcome poor garden soil conditions (drainage, soil quality)
• You can build them to a height easier/more comfortable to access than in-ground beds
• The soil warms up faster in spring

The drawbacks of raised garden beds include:

• May need to be rebuilt every few years as the mounds of soil settle or to replace materials used to build the sides
• They dry out faster than level garden beds and may need to be watered more frequently

Choose The Right Size Garden

It’s always best to start with a garden bed that is the size you can manage if you’re new to vegetable gardening. Go with one that’s 8×10 feet (2.4×3 meters) for garden soil. Go with one that’s 4×8 feet (1.2×2.4 meters) for a raised garden bed.

The key to planning the size of the beds is to think about how far you can reach. This is essential to consider for weeding around your plants and harvesting. 

A good rule to follow is about 2 feet (0.6 meters) in from the bed’s edge. 

So, if your garden bed is 8×10 feet (2.4×3 meters), you’ll need to put a path lengthwise down the middle so you can reach everything in the center. 

Alternatively, leave enough space to comfortably walk between all the planted rows once the plants have filled in.

Get Information About Your Hardiness Zone And Growing Season

This information is imperative to learn. You’ll need to know the following:

• Your hardiness zone
• Climate information
• Your spring/fall frost dates (also known as last and first frost dates)
• Whether or not you’re in a microclimate and what it is

Knowing this information allows you to choose vegetables that will be ready for harvest before the first hard frost kills them off. 

To determine this, look for “days to maturity” on plant labels and seed packets.

Choose Seeds Or Starter Plants

You can start your vegetable garden from seeds planted directly in the ground (direct seeded), or you can start seeds indoors to grow young plants to transplant into the garden when conditions are right. You can also buy young starter plants to transplant into your garden.

Seeds

When direct seeding vegetables, follow the instructions on the seed packet. 

Seeds are fussy about soil temperature and how deep you bury them in the soil. It’s important to know this information so your seeds will germinate.

The seed packet will also have information on how many days it will take for the seeds to germinate. 

This will be an average. Sometimes, it may take fewer days, and sometimes, it may take more. 

Once you’ve planted your seeds, check your garden for signs of growth based on that information.

Starter Plants

Starter plants can be ones you’ve grown from seed indoors or ones you purchase at your local garden center.

Planting young starter plants can sometimes be easier and give you a head start on the growing season. Before planting, ensure the soil is warm enough and safely past your region’s last frost date in the spring, especially if you’re buying starter plants. Local garden centers are notorious for tempting gardeners with vegetable transplants when it’s still too early to plant them out, and they may get hit with a late frost.

Prepare For Pests

If only wildlife and damaging insects would stay away from your garden. Unfortunately, when you grow vegetables, they’re sure to show up. This is true whether you just start a vegetable garden or have had one long-term.

Here’s what to do.

Insect Pest Management

Insect pests are a natural fact of life in vegetable gardens. You can do some things to reduce the damage they cause but be prepared to accept a little crop damage and spend time on pest control throughout the season.

You can protect leafy vegetables such as spinach, kale, and lettuce from insects by covering the plants with insect netting. Use hoops or other framework to hold the netting over (not touching) the plants. Make sure the netting comes down to the ground around all sides. Use a long piece of wood to keep the edges on the ground, or bury the edges with a bit of soil. Leave no gaps for insects to sneak in.

To reduce the number of insect pests such as aphids, you can plant flowering plants to attract other insects that eat aphids. For example, grow yarrow (perennial) or sweet alyssum (annual) around the edges of your vegetable garden to attract ladybugs. They love eating aphids!

Wildlife

Plan ahead if you think you’ll get visits from animals like deer or rabbits. They can do serious damage in just one visit!

The best thing to do is install sturdy fencing to protect your crops. Don’t use flimsy netting. Deer and birds can get tangled up in it.

Commercial sprays and other products sold to deter animals don’t work that well on vegetable crops that will continue growing after application, and they need to be reapplied several times throughout the growing season. And sometimes, they simply aren’t effective at deterring wildlife.

Motion-sensor water sprayers can work to scare off deer at the start. But the deer eventually get used to them and go into the garden anyways.

Contributed guidance: Kathy Goddard

How Much Work Is A Vegetable Garden?

Gardening of any kind involves lots of bending, kneeling, and carrying, and some degree of time commitment. 

If you want to do vegetable gardening as a beginner, think about how much time and work you’re ready to put in, particularly in the spring and fall. Consider starting with just a few plants in a small manageable plot, say 4×4 feet (1.21×1.21 meters), and see how it goes.

A Comparison To Ornamental Gardens

Ornamental garden beds take a bit of work throughout the seasons and from year to year once everything’s planted, depending on what you grow. There’s weeding to do, watering, seasonal pruning, dead-heading spent flowers, and keeping an eye out for any pests that need to be dealt with.

Sometimes, in an ornamental garden, a plant outgrows the space it’s in, and you need to dig it up and move it out so it doesn’t crowd out other plants. Other plants may die. Those will also require digging out and possibly even replacing.

Ornamental gardens are always evolving. From season to season, year to year, there’s always something needing your attention. Once things are planted, the work is about annual maintenance tasks.

Vegetable gardening generally requires less maintenance than an ornamental garden over the growing season. 

Most of the work in a vegetable garden comes with the spring planting and fall harvest (which feels to me more like reaping a reward than hard work!) 

Vegetable gardens will also need tending during the growing season, watering and weeding (which you can reduce with good mulching), and possible pest management. 

You’ll need to clean up your garden beds after harvest, pull out spent plants, and spread protective mulch over the bed for winter. 

However, in my opinion, the payback of a harvest makes the work well worth it.