How to Start a Garden
Start a first herb and vegetable garden in pots, a raised bed, or the ground. Pick a spot with 6 hours of sun, prepare the soil, choose easy plants, and plant, water, and feed them.
You will end up with a small garden of herbs and a few vegetables, growing in pots, a raised bed, or the ground, planted at the right time for your frost dates and watered and fed on a routine you can keep.
A balcony or patio is enough space. Herbs, lettuce, peppers, and compact tomatoes all grow in containers. With a yard, you can build a raised bed or plant in the ground instead.
Three things decide how the plants do, and they are sunlight, soil, and water. Give the garden at least 6 hours of direct sun, use soil that drains, and water when the top inch of soil is dry.
A spot that gets at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day. Containers with drainage holes, or a garden bed (even a small one works). Potting mix for containers, or compost to work into garden soil. Starter plants (transplants) from a local nursery. Water-soluble fertilizer if you grow in containers. Basic tools: a trowel (small shovel), watering can or hose, and optionally a pair of garden gloves.
Choose a spot with enough sunlight
A vegetable and herb garden needs at least 6 hours of direct sunlight per day, the minimum Clemson Extension gives. "Direct" means unfiltered sunlight hitting the plants, not reflected or filtered through a window or tree cover. Before you plant anything, watch your potential garden spot for a full day and note when sunlight hits it and when shadows cover it. South-facing locations get the most sun in the Northern Hemisphere. Give the sunniest spot to tomatoes, peppers, and zucchini, because Clemson says vegetables grown for their fruit must be in full sun. In partial shade, grow plants you pick for their leaves or roots, such as lettuce and spinach, which Clemson says tolerate it. Parsley and mint prefer partial shade. With no direct sun at all, you need a grow light and an indoor setup.
Decide on containers or in-ground planting
If you have a yard with decent soil, you can plant directly in the ground after amending the soil. If you have a balcony, patio, or poor soil, use containers. A raised bed is the middle option. You fill it with your own soil mix, and it holds far more soil than a pot. Build it 3 to 4 feet wide, the width Clemson gives for reaching the center without stepping into the bed. For containers, Clemson's container gardening factsheet puts the minimum depth for most plants at 6 to 8 inches. Go bigger where you have the room, because small pots dry out faster than large ones. Tomatoes need the most room. Clemson's extension service suggests a 14- to 20-inch container for most compact cultivars, and says a 5-gallon bucket with holes drilled in the bottom also works. Check that every container has drainage holes in the bottom. Without them, roots stand in water and rot. Trays underneath catch the runoff and protect your patio.
Good to know: Start with containers even if you have a yard. You can move them to follow the sun, and you learn the basics before you break ground or build a bed. The trade-off is watering, because pots dry out faster than a bed (step 6).
Prepare your soil
For containers, use potting mix. Do not fill containers with soil from your yard, because Clemson says garden soil is usually too heavy for a container. Before you dig a bed in the ground, contact 811, the free national before-you-dig service, a few business days ahead, so the buried utility lines get marked with paint or flags. 811 says every dig needs it, however shallow, because some lines sit only inches below the surface. For an in-ground bed, spread a 2- to 3-inch layer of compost and work it into the existing soil with a shovel or garden fork. To fill a raised bed, mix topsoil and compost, with compost making up 10 to 20% of the volume. Both figures come from Clemson's raised bed factsheet, which warns that too much compost causes problems just as too little does. Compost improves drainage in clay soil and helps sandy soil hold water. Garden centers sell it by the bag, or you can make your own compost. Clemson also advises a soil test, which tells you which nutrients and how much lime the bed needs. Your local extension office can tell you how to get one. Good soil feels crumbly and moist, not sticky or dusty.
Pick easy plants for your first season
For your first garden, pick from herbs, a compact cherry tomato, leaf lettuce, spinach, zucchini, and peppers. The herbs to start with are basil, mint, parsley, and cilantro, which goes to seed quickly once summer heat arrives. Check the plant height on the tomato tag, since not every cherry variety stays small. Clemson calls lettuce one of the easiest cool-season vegetables to grow, and says leaf lettuce can be picked once the plants are 5 to 6 inches tall. It puts the first harvest of summer squash, the group zucchini belongs to, about 55 days after planting. Peppers need full sun. Buy transplants (small starter plants) from a local nursery rather than starting from seed. A transplant skips the indoor seed-starting stage, which Clemson's seed-starting factsheet puts at 3 to 5 weeks for squash, 6 to 8 weeks for tomatoes, and 8 to 10 weeks for peppers. Leave seed-starting for your second season, once you know your growing conditions.
Plant at the right time and depth
Check your local last frost date. Warm-season plants (tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and basil) are injured or killed by freezing temperatures, so do not plant them outside until the last frost has passed. Lettuce and spinach are cool-season crops and go out earlier, as FAQ 3 below explains. Your local garden center or extension office can tell you the average last frost date for your area. Plant transplants at the same depth they were growing in their nursery pot. Tomatoes are the exception. Bury tomato stems deeper than they were in the pot because they grow roots from buried stems and become sturdier. For seeds, follow the packet instructions for depth. Water immediately after planting to settle the soil around the roots.
Water consistently but do not overwater
Too much water is as much of a risk as too little, because soggy soil starves roots of air. In a bed, water deeply and less often rather than giving a light sprinkle every day. Clemson's summer squash factsheet says to moisten the soil to a depth of 6 inches, because light watering encourages shallow roots. Water when the top inch of soil feels dry. Stick your finger into the soil. If it is moist below the surface, wait. If it is dry, water thoroughly, until water runs out of a pot's drainage holes or a bed is moist 6 inches down. Water in the morning, so the leaves dry before nightfall, which Clemson says reduces the chance of disease. Containers dry out faster than in-ground beds. Clemson says to check them at least once a day, and twice on hot, dry, or windy days. An in-ground bed holds water longer, so let the finger test decide when it needs water.
Maintain with basic care throughout the season
Check on plants every day or two. Look for yellowing leaves (often overwatering or nutrient deficiency), wilting (underwatering or heat stress), or visible pests (aphids, caterpillars, slugs). Remove weeds while they are small, as they compete with your plants for water and nutrients. Feed container plants once the potting mix runs out of nutrients. Clemson says a mix with fertilizer added feeds the plants for 8 to 10 weeks. After that, add a water-soluble fertilizer at the rate on the label every 2 to 3 weeks, and never more than that rate, because a pot has little soil to buffer the roots from fertilizer burn. Potted tomatoes are fed more often, as our tomato guide explains. In an in-ground bed, follow your soil test. Clemson's fertilizer factsheet says nitrogen is the only nutrient most home-grown vegetables need after planting, applied 3 to 4 weeks after planting and placed 4 to 6 inches away from the plants so it does not burn the roots. Harvest regularly. Clemson says to pick summer squash daily or every other day in good growing conditions, because large fruit left on the plant holds back new fruit, and to harvest herbs regularly to keep the growth vigorous.
Keep the first season small. Three to five plants are enough to show you which ones suit your spot, which pests turn up, and how often your setup needs water. Add more next year. For tomatoes, Clemson's tomato factsheet puts the first harvest at 52 to 90 days depending on the variety, so check the days to harvest on the tag before you buy. Our guide on how to grow tomatoes covers staking, pruning, and feeding them. If a plant starts to fail, FAQ 4 below lists the four causes to check first.
Questions we get asked about this
Answers from experience, not a textbook.
Herbs, especially basil and mint. Clemson's herb factsheet calls mints easy, vigorous growers that become invasive if they are not confined, so always plant mint in a container. Plant basil after the last frost and harvest the leaves frequently, which keeps it from flowering and losing flavor. For a vegetable, start with a compact cherry tomato. Check the mature height on the tag so the plant fits your pot, and keep its soil evenly moist.
One 5-gallon bucket with drainage holes holds one compact tomato plant. A window box holds a few herbs. A 4-by-4-foot raised bed holds several kinds of vegetables at once. A south-facing windowsill works for a few herbs, but the glass cuts the light, so expect slower growth than outdoors.
Plant warm-season crops (tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and basil) after your last frost date. Plant cool-season crops like lettuce, spinach, and peas earlier, while the weather is still cool. Clemson notes that lettuce withstands light frosts and that cool-season crops grow poorly in summer heat. For a fall garden, plant cool-season crops again in late summer. Take the days to harvest printed on the seed packet or plant tag and count back from your average first fall frost date, so the crop matures before the hard freezes. Your local cooperative extension office has the frost dates for your area.
Check four causes first. They are overwatering (soil is constantly soggy, leaves turn yellow, roots rot), not enough sunlight (plants stretch and grow tall and thin toward any available light), poor drainage (water pools around roots), and planting too early (frost kills warm-season plants). If the soil is wet, stop watering and let it dry out. If the plants are leggy, move them to a sunnier spot. If there is no drainage, add holes or move to a proper container.
Garden Starter
How to Grow Tomatoes
How to Start a Garden
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