How to Start a Garden: Easy Vegetables and Your First Steps

Choose a level spot with 6 hours or more of full sun that a hose can reach, and start small: University of Maryland Extension's beginner pages give 25 to 50 or 50 to 75 square feet. Have the soil tested, dig in compost, then sow crops Maryland calls easy, such as bush beans, lettuce and Swiss chard.

That is the whole plan in one paragraph. The rest of this page takes each step in turn: where the garden goes, what kind of bed to build, which crops the extension services call easy, how your frost dates set the calendar, the soil test, and the few tools you need. Every figure names the university that gives it, and where two sources disagree, both appear. When you are ready to plant, find your dates on our frost dates by ZIP code page and open the guide for each crop.

For a first set of hand tools, see the best gardening gifts: its pick for a new gardener is a three-piece set of scoop, cultivator and transplanter.

How to start a garden: the first five decisions

A first garden comes down to five choices, made in this order. Get the first two right and the rest are easy to change next year.

1. Where it goes. Sun, water and level ground decide more than anything else you do. Maryland Extension makes choosing the site step 2 of its six, right after the plan.
2. What kind of bed. In the ground, a raised bed, or containers on a deck. Each has a cost and a payoff, compared below.
3. How big. Smaller than you think. Maryland's planning page, revised in March 2026, calls 25 to 50 square feet a good starter size; its how-to page, revised in April 2020, says 50 to 75. Both pages say to begin small and grow from there. For scale, one 4 by 8 foot bed is 32 square feet (our arithmetic).
4. What to grow. A handful of crops you like to eat, chosen from the ones the sources call easy. Maryland and Illinois both put taste first.
5. When to plant. By your frost dates and soil temperature, not by the calendar or your USDA zone.

Then comes the groundwork: a soil test, compost, and a short list of hand tools. Maryland adds a reminder worth keeping from day one: a vegetable garden needs at least a little attention every day, for planting on time, staking, weeding, checking for problems and picking.

What you'll need for a first garden

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• 

  Corona ComfortGEL Trowel

  Trowel: digs planting holes for transplants.

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• 

  Radius Garden Beet Hoe

  Illinois's starter list: a hoe chops soil and pulls soil over seed.

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  Chapin 47998 2 Gallon Tru-Stream Watering Can

  Watering can or hose: a can for watering in seed and transplants.

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  Gilmour Flat Soaker Hose

  A hose, soaker hose or drip line once the garden grows; Maryland points to soaker hoses and drip irrigation to cut water use.

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Where should you put a garden? Sun, water and access

Put the garden in the sunniest level spot you have, close to a hose. Maryland Extension asks for level ground with 6 or more hours of full sun daily, ideally more, and nothing tall blocking the light on the south side. Illinois Extension says most fruiting vegetables want at least 6 to 8 hours, while leafy crops such as lettuce and spinach get by on less. In our reading, that means a spot with only part-day sun can still grow salad greens, even where tomatoes would struggle.

• Water within reach. Maryland calls easy access to water essential and suggests a site an outdoor spigot can reach with a hose. Illinois says the same: keep the water source close.
• Away from trees and shrubs. They can block light and limit airflow (Maryland), and their roots compete with your vegetables for water and nutrients (Illinois).
• Ground that drains. After a rain, water should soak in rather than sit on the surface for hours, Maryland says. A soggy low spot is a poor first site.
• Room to work. Plan paths so you can reach every part of the garden with a hose, a garden cart and your tools (Maryland).
• Animals. Know which ones live nearby. Where deer are common, Maryland says to build the fence before the first crops go in.

Within the garden, put tall crops such as staked tomatoes and trellised cucumbers along the north and west edges, where they cannot shade the short ones (Maryland). Illinois says the old rule that beds should run north to south matters little, as long as the southern plants do not shade the northern ones. If you hope to grow in early spring and fall, keep beds off the north side of buildings and trees: Illinois notes that a bed there can get plenty of summer sun and still sit in shade in the cooler seasons.

In the ground, raised beds or containers?

All three work. Maryland Extension's planning page names containers, raised beds and flat ground-level beds as the basic types and asks you to pick the one that suits your setting and needs. The trade-offs, as the sources state them:

Maryland describes a typical raised bed as 2 to 4 feet across and 2 to 12 inches high, as long as you like, with roots growing on down into the soil below. A raised bed set on pavement has no soil below it, so Maryland sets a minimum depth there: 12 to 24 inches for squash, tomatoes and peppers, and 8 inches for leafy greens, cucumbers and beans. Our guide to building a raised garden bed covers lumber, sizes and how to fill one.

For an in-ground bed on lawn, Maryland offers two routes: turn the sod under or lift it off, or smother the grass with cardboard or newspaper topped with 2 to 4 inches of compost. The flow below sorts the choice for a first season.

What are the easiest vegetables to grow?

Leafy greens such as Swiss chard, kale and mustard, plus bush beans, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and summer squash, are the crops University of Maryland Extension names as some of the easiest to manage. Minnesota Extension calls turnips and rutabagas easy to grow and hardy in cold weather. Radishes earn a place for speed: Minnesota says garden radishes are usually ready three to five weeks after planting.

Two habits from the sources help more than any crop choice. First, grow what you like to eat: both Maryland and Illinois put that at the top of their lists, and a row nobody picks is wasted space. Second, leave the hard ones for later. Illinois suggests a first-time gardener skip hard-to-grow vegetables such as cauliflower until a couple of easier crops have worked. For crops that need a long indoor start, such as tomatoes and peppers, Maryland's tip for beginners is to buy healthy transplants, ones whose roots do not circle the bottom of the pot, and to harden them off, getting them used to outdoor sun, temperatures and wind a little at a time, before planting.

When to plant: your frost dates

Plant by your frost dates and the soil temperature, not by the calendar and not by your USDA zone. Illinois Extension puts it simply: planting dates come from the first and last frost dates and from how long each crop takes to mature. Minnesota Extension says soil temperature is the surest sign of when to plant.

A frost date is a median, so treat it as a line to count from, not a planting day. Illinois Extension explains that an average frost-free date comes from decades of weather records, which suggest the odds of a heavy frost or a light freeze on that date are still 50/50; it treats the absolute frost-free date as about two weeks later. That is why each of our outdoor crop guides counts its planting dates in weeks before or after the frost date, and why frost-tender crops wait until the danger has passed.

Illinois sorts vegetables into four groups by how much cold they take:

Minnesota gives soil temperatures for the two big groups: peas, spinach, lettuce and radishes can be sown direct once the soil is 40 to 50 F, and warm-season crops need 50 to 60 F.

Your zone is not a planting date. The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is built on the average coldest winter temperature at a place, and USDA presents it as a general guide for perennial plants. Illinois notes that most of its fruit and vegetable plants are annuals, so zones mostly matter for landscape plants. Use your zone when you choose perennials, such as asparagus, which Maryland names as a perennial vegetable; use your frost dates to time the tomatoes.

To get your own dates, enter your ZIP code on our frost dates page. For a month-by-month calendar, see the planting schedules for zone 6, zone 7 and zone 8, which take their dates from frost records at weather stations in each zone rather than from the zone itself.

Soil, compost and a soil test

Test the soil before you dig it in, and before you set a raised bed on top of it: Maryland's raised-bed page makes a soil sample the first step for any bed placed on existing soil. Maryland Extension says to have a vegetable garden's soil tested for nutrient levels and pH, and for lead, so you know the soil is safe for food crops: its line is under 400 parts per million of lead, and its raised-bed page says not to plant vegetable crops in soil over 400 ppm. A typical background level, Maryland adds, is 10 to 50 ppm. A soil test also shows whether the bed needs lime, nitrogen, phosphorus or potassium before you plant, Minnesota says, and Maryland adds that testing helps reduce overfertilizing.

• Use a lab, not a kit. Maryland says a lab gives fuller, more accurate results than a home test kit. Ask for the basic test, which usually covers pH, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium, and add lead if the lab does not include it.
• How to sample. Take 10 to 12 small slices of soil at random across the bed, 6 to 8 inches deep, mix them in a clean bucket, pick out stones and roots, and send about 1 cup. Do not mail wet soil (Maryland).
• When. Maryland suggests fall, so lime and compost have time to work before spring, and a new test every 3 years for a vegetable garden.
• Reading the report. The lab sends recommendations for fertilizer and pH with the results. If the report is hard to follow, Maryland's Ask Extension service takes questions about it.

Then feed the soil with compost. Maryland's planning page points to compost first for improving soil, and its how-to page asks for at least two inches of compost dug into bare ground, plus a thin layer each time you plant. Maryland describes good vegetable soil as deep, crumbly and well drained. Maryland's how-to page fills a new raised bed on the ground with bought topsoil plus compost. For a bed on pavement, its raised-bed page uses compost and a soilless mix in equal parts, adding topsoil (up to 20 percent by volume) only to beds at least 16 inches deep. The same page puts the ideal pH for most vegetables at 6.2 to 6.8.

For kitchen scraps, see our picks for the best electric composters: the Reencle Prime turns scraps into compost with microbes, while the FoodCycler dryers leave a dried mix to compost or cure before it feeds plants.

Wait for the right moisture before you work the soil. Minnesota's test: squeeze a handful. If it crumbles into small clumps, it is ready; if it holds a ball, or sticks to your shovel, it is too wet to dig. Packing a seedbed too firmly can crust the surface and harm emerging seedlings, Minnesota adds.

What tools do you need to start a garden?

Four hand tools and a way to water. Illinois Extension's starter list keeps to the basics and warns against buying gadgets:

• Spade: digs the bed and turns in compost.
• Rake: breaks up clods and smooths the seedbed.
• Hoe: weeds, chops soil and pulls soil over seed.
• Trowel: digs planting holes for transplants.
• Labels, string and a ruler: lay out straight rows and measure spacing. Illinois suggests labeling each crop with its name and the date you sowed it. Maryland says a tape measure or yardstick helps with spacing too.
• Watering can or hose: a can for watering in seed and transplants; a hose, soaker hose or drip line once the garden grows. Maryland points to soaker hoses and drip irrigation to cut water use.
• A clean bucket: for hauling, and for mixing the soil sample in Maryland's testing step.

Add stakes or a trellis when the tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers need them: Maryland suggests supporting all three to save space.

Watering, weeding and the first season

Water deeply at the base of the plants as needed, and keep new seed moist. Maryland's rule is frequent, shallow watering for newly planted seed, then deeper, less frequent watering once plants are growing, in the morning when you can. Minnesota's radish and turnip pages set the target at one inch a week, from rain and the hose combined; each crop guide gives its own figure.

• Weeds: start as soon as they appear. Maryland lists mulch, a hoe and hand-pulling.
• Problems: look over the plants often. Maryland says to accept some plant damage, such as holes in leaves and leaf spots, while you learn to head off the serious problems.
• Succession: when a quick spring crop such as lettuce or radishes is done, a summer crop can take its place, Maryland says, with a little compost between plantings.
• A notebook: Illinois and Maryland both suggest keeping notes on what you planted and when, which pests appeared and how the weather went.

Expect a mix of results. Maryland's planning page says plant growth varies with the site, the season and the care, that even experienced gardeners lose a crop some years, and that every crop has a harvest period rather than producing forever.

Guides for every crop

Once you have picked your crops, each outdoor crop guide below gives planting dates counted from frost, depth and spacing, and what to watch for, with its own sources. The family guides cover what related crops share, such as rotation and pests, and the skills guides each take on one job.

Sources we used

We read and saved every page below in October 2026, before writing. Where Maryland's two beginner pages disagree on garden size, both figures are shown above.

• "University of Maryland Extension: How to Start a Vegetable Garden"
• "University of Maryland Extension: Planning a Vegetable Garden"
• "University of Maryland Extension: Growing Vegetables in Raised Beds"
• "University of Maryland Extension: Soil Testing and Soil Testing Labs"
• "University of Minnesota Extension: Planting the vegetable garden"
• "University of Minnesota Extension: Growing radishes"
• "University of Minnesota Extension: Growing turnips and rutabagas"
• "Illinois Extension: Get Started"
• "Illinois Extension: Make a Plan"
• "Illinois Extension: Get Your Tools"
• "Illinois Extension: When to Plant"
• "Illinois Extension: Spring FAQs: Is it time to plant yet?"
• "USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map: How to Use the Maps"

Related guides

• Raised garden bed building guide
• Lettuce growing guide
• Bean growing guide
• Sweet corn growing guide
• Tomato growing guide
• Companion planting chart
• How long do seeds last?
• Low light houseplants guide
• Natural weed control guide
• Flowers from seed guide

Frequently asked questions

What are the easiest vegetables to grow?

University of Maryland Extension names leafy greens such as Swiss chard and kale, plus bush beans, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers and summer squash, among the easiest crops to manage. Minnesota calls turnips and rutabagas easy to grow and cold hardy. Illinois suggests leaving hard crops such as cauliflower until a few easy ones have worked.

When should you start a garden?

Start in early spring with cool-season crops such as lettuce, peas, spinach and radishes, which Minnesota Extension sows once the soil reaches 40 to 50 F, and wait until after your last frost for warm-season crops such as tomatoes and peppers. The fall before is a good time for the soil test, Maryland says.

Is it better to start a garden in the ground or in raised beds?

Neither wins everywhere. Raised bed soil warms faster in spring, drains well and stays loose, University of Maryland Extension says, but a raised bed costs more to build and dries out faster. In-ground beds cost little to set up and are flexible, though Maryland notes they may need more weeding.

How much sun does a vegetable garden need?

Six hours or more of full sun daily, and more if you can get it, says University of Maryland Extension. Illinois Extension asks 6 to 8 hours for most fruiting crops such as tomatoes and notes that leafy crops such as lettuce and spinach grow with less, so in our reading a partly shaded spot still suits greens.

How big should a beginner garden be?

Small. University of Maryland Extension's planning page, revised in 2026, suggests 25 to 50 square feet, and its older how-to page suggests 50 to 75. Both say to start small and expand later. Size the garden to the time you have each week for watering, weeding and picking.

Do I need a soil test before starting a garden?

Yes, and that includes a raised bed on existing soil. Maryland Extension says vegetable gardens should be tested for lead wherever they are, and makes a soil sample the first step before a raised bed goes on top of soil. Do not grow vegetables in soil over 400 ppm of lead. Use a lab, not a home kit.

Does my USDA zone tell me when to plant?

No. The USDA zone map rests on the average coldest winter temperature and is meant as a general guide for perennial plants. Vegetable planting dates come from your frost dates and the soil temperature, which Minnesota Extension calls the surest sign of when to plant. Enter your ZIP code on our frost dates page for yours.