Last Updated on April 17, 2024

How To Start A Garden From Scratch

Are you considering starting your own garden but don’t know how to start a garden from scratch? Look no further! In this article, we’ll walk you through every step of the process of how to start a garden from scratch, from choosing the perfect location and preparing the soil, to planning your garden layout and caring for your plants. So if you’re ready to get your hands dirty and start growing your own fresh produce let’s get started.

1. How To Start a Garden From Scratch – Choosing The Best Location

The first and most important step in how to start a garden from scratch is choosing the best location and determining if you’re going to use raised beds or a traditional in-ground garden. Here are some tips to think about:

Making Sure You Have Enough Sun Light

When choosing a location for your garden, it’s important to consider the amount of sunlight the area receives. Most vegetables require at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day to grow properly, with fruiting vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers needing the most sun. If you’re planning to grow leafy greens or other shade-tolerant plants, a location with partial shade (4-6 hours of direct sunlight) may be suitable. Keep in mind that the sun’s angle changes throughout the year, so if you’re planning your garden in the fall or winter, know that those areas may receive more sun during the summer months.

How To Choose The Perfect Garden Location

When selecting a location for your garden, you’ll want to consider factors such as proximity to your house (for easy access). It’s a good idea to pick a location near a water source and to have the ability to for a truck to easily back up to allow for deliveries (compost, fencing materials etc). You’ll also want to consider the size and layout of the area, as well as any potential challenges (such as soil quality or slope).

Pros And Cons Of Raised Beds vs In-Ground Gardens:

Both raised beds and in-ground gardens have their own set of benefits and drawbacks.

• Raised beds offer the advantage of being able to be placed on any surface (including concrete or asphalt) and can be easier to maintain, as they allow for better soil drainage and easier access for planting and harvesting. However, they may be more expensive to set up initially and may require more frequent watering.
  
  
• In-ground gardens offer the advantage of being able to tap into the soil beneath them, but they may be more challenging to maintain due to weeds and pests, and they may require more intensive preparation (such as tilling or amending the soil), they can also be susceptible to soil erosion during heavy rains.
  
  
• For more information on building raised beds from scratch see our article and video here. If you are interested in buying raised beds we recommend Garden In Minutes metal raised beds. Get $10 when you use code OBG10.
  
  

2. Choosing The Size When Starting a Garden From Scratch

Choosing the right size garden is sometimes a challenging decision when trying to figure out how to start a garden from scratch. Here are a couple of tips and some guidance in helping you decide how much gardening space to take on.

• When deciding on the size and layout of your garden, it’s important to consider your available space and how much time and effort you’re willing to devote to gardening. If you’re new to gardening, it may be best to start small and gradually expand as you gain experience. A good rule of thumb is to start with a couple of raised beds (common sizes are 4’x8′ and 4’x4′) or containers if you’re short on space.
  
  
• The square foot method can help you assess how many plants you can grow in a selected space – see our planning tool Plan My Garden to estimate how many of each plant you can fit into an estimated given layout. Just draw your layout and you can select the vegetables you want to grow and how much of each, this will give you an estimation of how much you can grow in the given space. You can also check out our completed garden layout ideas from Plan My Garden customers on this page here. Positioning the beds lengthwise from north to south is best – This can help ensure that your plants receive an even amount of sun throughout the day.
  

3. How To Start a Garden From Scratch With The Right Soil

Soil preparation is an essential step in how to start a garden from scratch. The quality of the soil can significantly affect the health and growth of your plants. Poor soil can lead to stunted growth, low yields, and even plant death. When starting a garden from scratch, having bulk compost delivered is a convenient and cost-effective way to get the soil amendments you need for your garden.

• How To Figure Out How Much Soil You Need
  
  • Using our raised bed soil calculator is the best way to determine how much soil you will need for your raised bed garden. If using in ground you can use this calculator just put in one to two inches, for an in ground garden it’s recommended to mix about 1 to 2 inches of the compost into 6 to 8 inches of the existing topsoil – this ensures the existing soil is amended properly.
    
    
• How To Find a Bulk Compost Supplier
  
  • One of the easiest ways to find a bulk compost supplier is to use Google Maps. Simply zoom in on your location and search for “compost.” This will show you any nearby suppliers that offer bulk delivery.
    
    

• Bagged Compost Options
  
  • If you prefer to purchase bagged compost, there are some bulk options available on Amazon. Be sure to check out our calculator page for links to these products.
    
    

Proper soil preparation is crucial for optimal plant growth. By adding compost to your soil, you are providing your plants with essential nutrients and improving the structure of the soil. This helps to promote healthy root development and stronger plants overall. If you continuously add compost to the soil after every ground season there should be no need for soil tests or additional fertilization.

Start Your Garden Organically To Build a Strong Foundation

Organic gardening provides a solid foundation for your plants by delivering organic compost to your soil, ensuring that it has the necessary nutrients from the start.

Unlike conventional gardening, which relies on the application of fertilizers, organic gardening focuses on building soil quality over time, making it a more sustainable approach in the long run.

Additionally, healthy plants grown in a strong soil environment are better equipped to defend themselves against pests. Pests can be seen as messengers in the garden, indicating plant stress.

This ties into the “plant stress hypothesis,” which suggests that healthier plants are less susceptible to pest and disease. Building soil quality from the start is crucial for a thriving organic garden.

For more on this topic see this awesome article and podcast from Away To Garden featuring my Favorite Organic Grower Elliot Coleman – what garden ‘pests’ are trying to tell us, from eliot coleman’s ‘the new organic grower’

4. How to Start a Garden From Scratch – Planning the Layout and Planting Schedule

Now that you have an idea of the location and size.

Next, you want to develop a plant layout. This should outline how many of each plant will be planted and their position in the garden.

Then, a schedule for when each plant should be planted (either started indoors and transplanted out or directly sown).

First, Choose What to Grow in Your Garden

It’s important to only plant what you actually enjoy eating. Don’t waste your time and resources on something you won’t eat.

Choose only a handful of vegetables. The more complex your garden becomes, the harder it will be to manage.

Consider starting some seedlings indoors to get the hang of starting seeds, direct sowing some seeds, and buying some plants from a nursery to ensure success.

Second, Develop a Planting Schedule

To determine the best time to start planting, you’ll need to know your last expected frost date in the spring. This is the date when you are least expected to receive a spring frost, this is an average date based on historical data.

Plan My Garden can help you find your last expected frost date. Simply enter your zip code and our tool will provide you with the last expected frost date for your location.

Work toward having your garden schedule in place about 10 – 12 weeks before your last expected frost date for each plant you want to grow. Why that early? Because some vegetables such as Onions can be started 10 weeks before your last expected frost date.

Different crops should be planted at different times based on their cold tolerance.

Third, Create Your Layout and Plant Placement

The square-foot gardening method can be a helpful tool for planning your garden layout.

This method involves dividing your growing space into square feet and planning your plant placement for each plant according to each plant’s square foot placement guidelines. When planning your layout you’ll want to make sure taller plants don’t shade out shorter plants. Try to position larger plants in the north and west, while short plants in the south and west. Trellises should go on the north side of the garden or far west.

For a helpful chart and more information on square-foot gardening, check out our square foot gardening chart to see see how many of each vegetable you can grow per square foot.

Getting Expert Help – Using Our Custom Garden Planning Tool

Our custom garden planning tool Plan My Garden can help you with all the scheduling and plant placement in minutes:

• Our easy-to-use platform allows you to enter your zip code, draw your garden layout, and select the plants you want to grow.
  
• From there, we provide you with a custom growing schedule for your location, grow guides, a getting started guide, and your updated garden layout with optimal plant placement and spacing.
  
• We send you PDF printable plans to your email.
  
• Make the process of starting a garden from scratch easy and stress-free with Plan My Garden get started now here.
  

The above layout was created by PlanMyGarden for one of our customers Christine in Ohio. What do the different colors mean? Our tool provides a recommended plant placement based on the size and layout of your garden, as well as a custom planting schedule and grow guides specific to your location.

In Christine’s garden, you can see how we placed the tomatoes on the west side to avoid shading out other crops. The larger zucchini and cantaloupe are on the east and south, these larger plants will grow toward the south with the pull of the sun and have room to spread out at 4 sq feet. Cucumbers in the north can be trellised without shading other crops. By using PlanMyGarden, you can maximize the efficiency of your garden using the square foot method.

5. Planting, Plant Care & Harvesting

Transplanting Seedlings

When transplanting seedlings or young plants, it’s important to harden them off first. This involves gradually exposing the plants to outdoor conditions over a period of a couple of weeks. Start by bringing the plants outside for a few hours a day. Then, gradually increase the time they spend outside each day. Avoid direct sunlight for the first few days. Check out my video and article here on how to transplant seedlings to the garden.

Watering Your Garden

Water your plants in the morning, so they have a chance to dry off before evening. If the leaves stay wet overnight, it can increase the risk of disease. As a general rule of thumb – aim to give your plants the equivalent of about 1 inch of water per week. Double that amount during the hottest parts of summer. Containers will dry out faster than in-ground gardens, so they may need to be watered more frequently.

Using Mulch in the Garden

Mulching is an often overlooked step that is critical.

Mulch helps to:

• retain moisture in the soil
• suppress weeds
• regulate soil temperature
• breaks down and adds organic matter into the soil.

You can use grass clippings, dead leaves, straw or wood chips as mulch.

Garden Fencing

If you live in an area with rabbits, deer, or other animals they may be tempted to nibble on your plants. It may be a good idea to invest in a small fence to protect your garden.

Harvesting

Harvest your plants as soon as they are ready and harvest regularly. As a general rule of thumb, don’t let plants get overripe on the vine, such as cucumber. Overripe plants can cause slow production.

My Key Tip on How To Start a Garden From Scratch

I hope you learned some key tips on how to start a garden from scratch. There are a lot of things to think about. Selecting the right location, planting, and caring for your vegetables. My biggest piece of advice is to be patient gardening takes time to master.

Start small at first, this will ensure success. You will get more skillful with time. Treat each growing season as an opportunity. To learn. To experiment. And each year you’ll be able to take on more with ease.

“Gardening is learning, learning, learning. That’s the fun of them. You’re always learning.”

— Helen Mirren, British Actress

Need help planning your square-foot garden? No problem – we’re here to help.

Ready to plan your square-foot garden in minutes? With our easy-to-use tool, you can enter your zip code, draw your layout, and choose the plants you want to grow. We’ll send you a custom visual schedule, getting started guide, and plant layout specifically tailored to your square foot garden. Plus, you’ll receive a growing guide for each vegetable to help you get the most out of your garden. Don’t wait – get your custom square-foot garden plan today and start growing!

See How Plan My Garden Can Help You Plan Your Garden from Scratch Easily

How To Start a Garden From Scratch FAQ