If you’re on the hunt for vegetable garden ideas, look no further. Sowing vegetable garden ideas is an easy DIY project—whether it’s an herb garden or an edible flower garden—and you don’t have to have a green thumb to be successful.
There are plenty of beginner-friendly projects that make it easy to nurture and harvest your favorite foods, like lettuce, tomatoes, or cucumbers, in a matter of months. Just think, if you plant tomato seeds in May, you could be eating delicious salad by late summer. “There is nothing in the world as fresh, crisp, and tasty as a vegetable plucked and devoured in the same minute,” says Allison Vallin Kostovick, gardener and founder of Finch + Folly Farm in New Gloucester, Maine.
Still, before you start digging up soil and thinking up other backyard updates, consider these quick tips for best results.
Beginner gardening tips
“When starting off, look for bush, baby, or dwarf varieties as these are petite and grow great in beds and containers,” Vallin Kostovick recommends. It’s also good to be mindful of the season and temperature in your area as veggies, like peas and lettuce, adapt to cooler temperatures and are better suited for early spring. If you start planting in early summer, focus on beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers, Vallin Kostovick says.
To keep critters from getting into your crops, plant garlic or onion bulbs around your vegetable bed. “The green stalks emit an odor and a taste that bunnies and squirrels stay away from,” explains David Angelov, CEO and founder of PlantParenthood in Swampscott, Massachusetts.
Now that you know the basics, gather inspiration with these backyard vegetable garden ideas.
Small garden ideas
“For any new gardener, my best advice is to start small no matter what kind of garden you plant,” Vallin Kostovick says. This way, your garden will be more manageable as a first-timer and give you the opportunity to learn as you go. A small space in your backyard—about four-by-four feet or four-by-eight feet—is a perfect location for a raised bed and a great way to start growing all of your favorite veggies. If you’re planning to build your own beds, avoid pressure-treated woods, which are woods that have had water and preservatives forced into the lumber using high-pressure systems. “The chemicals seep into the soil and water that the plants drink,” Angelov warns.
1. A small single-variety garden
A small raised garden bed, about four-by-four feet, is the ideal size for four tomato plants. This should give the plants plenty of room to grow and allows you to add tomato cages to help the plants climb. Caring for a single-variety garden works great for a novice since you don’t have to worry about different sun and watering requirements.
2. Expanded raised-beds garden
When selecting your vegetable garden location, consider the landscape design the project could eventually become. As you get more comfortable with vegetable garden ideas, you can build more beds and expand the garden layout and types of vegetables each bed holds. With this layout, consider companion planting, which is the idea that you grow garden plants next to each other that benefit the other in some way.