Essential Tips for Creating a Vegetable Garden for Beginners

Starting a fruit or veggie garden can seem overwhelming, especially when you don't know what you don't know. It can be even more challenging if you have limited room to plant your first vegetable garden. 

As a member of several gardening groups, when a beginner asks where to start, I first think of 'soil'. Caring for your soil is essential. This is my number one piece of advice when planning a vegetable garden, but if you live in an area where the soil is really bad or you don't have soil at all, it can seem impossible. In this case, you may feel like you're starting off working to create a garden behind the eight-ball.

But fear not; where there is a will, there are ways to start a vegetable garden.

I, for one, wasn't allowed to have veggie gardens when I was renting for 15 years. Then, when I finally bought my own home, there was only shale, no soil. Nothing grows in my yard. 

However, I found a way: aquaponics. When you find you don't have a way to build a garden to grow your own veggies, turning to aquaponics is a great option. If you're asking, "What is aquaponics?" or already know that it is not for you, please keep reading. Trust me, these 15 points are relevant to all types of gardening in some way. I hope they help you learn how to start your first vegetable garden.

There is always an investment when you start ~ so plan it out, recycle and reduce your costs.

Vegetable gardening is rewarding and helps you save money, but it is more than that. Homegrown food tastes different from store-bought food; it looks different, smells different and, importantly, you know that you haven't put anything on your food.

15 Things I Wish I'd Known Before Starting a Vegetable Garden

Here are my top 15 tips to get you started in the right way and hopefully not make the silly mistakes many of us make. Take these tips as a guide on how to start a new garden bed and grow vegetables.

1. Choose the right location to start a new vegetable garden.

In permaculture, it is suggested when you move somewhere new, you sit back and watch the land for the first 12 months.

• How does the light move across your space?

• Are there big storms? Or is it more minimal rainfall?

• Do you get strong winds?

• Is there a tap nearby so I can water the garden?

• Do I need a fence up to keep wildlife away?

If choosing an aquaponics setup, then you need electricity, too.

These are critical elements to consider. You should also consider what the temperatures are like where you live. How hot/ cold does it get? This will impact what you can grow.

Some plants need warmer climates, and some need cool. If you try planting out of season, the plants won't grow well.

Plants need 6 hours of full sunlight daily (though in hot areas, we use shade cloth for protection). For watering, we can use drip irrigation, hand watering or sprinklers on timers.

Think before you start.

2. Choose the type of vegetables appropriate to start growing in your area.

Every country, every state and even every suburb will grow food differently. The climates are different and vary. This is natural, and why it is important to see what others are growing in your area, not in other countries or states.

For instance, where I live now in a sub-tropical area, it is perfect over spring/ summer to grow turmeric; however, when I lived in a different state, it was too cold to grow.

The US has a map with growing zones to help you determine what to grow when in your area. Another option is the "Gardenate" website or app. With Gardenate, you pop in your details, and it helps you to identify what will grow in your area and when you plant.

Before you buy any plant, research it. How big will it get? What time of year do I plant it? What does it need (stakes, mesh, lots of room?)

Any seeds or seedling packets will tell you how long it takes until the plant reaches maturity. Look at your seasons and ensure you have enough time for them to grow.

3. Have your veggie garden easy to access and close.

If you have to hike up the backyard to the garden bed, are you going to do it? If it is close to the back door, where you can look out the window and easily see it ~ you have a great reminder to care for it.

Out of sight, out of mind is a great excuse.

Plant your backyard veggie garden near the kid's play area; they play whilst you garden. You can easily watch them and even get them involved.

4. Most plants are annuals, but you need to know the difference when building your new garden.

Most plants are 'annual' plants or 'seasonal' like basil, meaning they grow for one season and go to seed and die.

Perennials are plants like rosemary and lavender that grow year-round for many years.

Knowing the difference means you can work out where you want to put what type of plant!

5. Choose easy-to-grow vegetables

When you are starting out, choose plants that are easy to grow and, ideally, ones that grow quickly in your climate/ season. When you have to 'wait', it can cause anxiety, whereas if you are growing something like lettuce that you can harvest a little each day, you see the rewards quickly.

What you grow will depend on the season; if you are using containers, garden beds or aquaponics ~ everything is possible when you research it.

6. Pick veggies you like to eat to make it more enjoyable to grow a vegetable garden.

This sounds like a logical step, but the reality is people get caught up in 'fads' and grow what is trending, even if they don't eat it.

An example here is turmeric. This is something that I have been growing for 10 years in both aquaponics (you need the right design), wicking beds and containers. I use turmeric as an anti-inflammatory in soups, stews, juices, smoothies, and golden milk.

I know that it takes 9 months to grow in subtropical areas, and if done right, you can get a massive harvest of the roots.

A couple of years ago, someone posted a YouTube video of their 'massive crop' of turmeric, and then everyone started growing it.

But they didn't know what to do with it, they didn't eat it.

If you put time and energy into growing something that you won't eat/ don't eat, especially when you are starting, it is easy to lose interest. Furthermore, you are not saving on your food bill.

If, however, you grow the food you love to eat in your veggie garden, you will notice the taste difference. You'll feel a massive sense of achievement, and you will notice the reduction in your food bill. You are another step towards self-sufficiency.

Only grow what you LOVE to eat.

7. Plant enough seedlings or plants but not too many; start small and build up.

Start at the beginning and be reasonable. While your goal might be to be self-sufficient with your vegetable gardening, when you are starting out, going too big too quickly leads you to wasting money. Jumping in too quickly can lead to most things dying and people giving up.

Soil gardening is all about the soil ~ getting it right with nutrients, pH, water and sunlight.

Aquaponics is all about water quality (fertiliser), balance, pH, and sunlight.

Starting small and mastering one plant type gives you the confidence to grow more varieties.

I always suggest that people start with leafy greens that are in season. Do research, not just purchase what is available in stores, as they often stock seedlings out of season.

Once you are confident with your first plant, add another type. Get them growing, then add a few more.

Gardening is a learned skill that you can master. But this takes practice. You will not get everything right on the first go.

A simple way to start is with a herb garden. Aim to grow the herbs that your family use frequently. Don't aim for a year's worth (until you learn how to preserve them), but aim to supplement and then grow more.

Goals are great, but they need to be realistic based on your level of experience rather than other people's experience.

8. Use mulch for weed control in your garden bed.

Mulch can be great as weed control for your vegetable garden. It helps to keep moisture in. Although it won't completely stop the weeds, it will reduce them.

Pro tip: The only 'pet safe' weed control is using your hands and manually pulling weeds out.

You ideally want to avoid chemicals in your garden as they affect the whole ecosystem. Chemicals can kill the microbes in your soil and the pollinators that give life to our food. Do think carefully about what you use in the garden.

9. Grow seasonally and harvest regularly for food security.

A sad thing about supermarkets is that they have made us accustomed to forgetting that our food is generally seasonal. Food is sourced globally, not locally now. The truth is each vegetable has a specific growing season, which means the vegetable you want to grow will need to be planted at a certain time to thrive.

The way to be self-sufficient, to any level in your own garden, no matter the size, is to learn to eat seasonally. This is much better for your body anyway.

Don't we crave soups, stews and casseroles in winter and lighter meals in summer? If you think about it, typically, the ingredients are either winter-grown or spring-grown.

The 'Gardenate' app I mentioned earlier is perfect for identifying what you can grow based on your area at any given time. It also tells you what seeds to start germinating in order to get the most out of your growing period.

Veggies like broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, and spinach are winter crops like parsnip, turnip and swedes.

However, corn, tomatoes, capsicum (peppers) and the squash family are all summer/ spring crops.

There can be food year-round when you learn to grow and eat seasonally.

You can also learn to store food in different ways to keep until later.

For instance, in spring/ summer, I grow heaps of zucchini and corn, as I love to make corn and zucchini fritters for a quick meal with a salad. As they don't grow over winter, I grow them in spring, grate them, and freeze them in batches for my recipe.

This is how we learn to become more self-sufficient and never have to worry about food shortages. But remember to start smaller with vegetables your family will eat a lot as this is a great way to start and continue a healthy garden.

10. For healthier soil, compost fixes everything.

When it comes to your soil gardens, containers and wicking beds, good quality compost is the golden key to fixing most issues. But what do you do if you cannot make your compost?

I was banned from this when I used to rent.

Buying compost is an option; however, I wouldn't recommend using hardware store supplies or even landscaping yards. Truly terrible stuff.

My best tip here is if you cannot make your own compost, use a worm farm (landlords cannot complain about that). Join a local community garden or gardening group and buy homemade compost from another member.

People love helping with other people's gardens. This is the difference between a community and a store.

Compost should be 'living', filled with microbes and worms that break things down. It should contain things like eggshells and banana banana peel; these increase the calcium and potassium within the garden.

If you only have a worm farm, then add eggshells, banana peels and the array of veggie scraps. This adds nutrients to the castings and, in turn, the soil.

If, like me, you have an aquaponics system, you have to remove solid waste (fish poop) from you can add this to your garden. One of the benefits of an aquaponics system is that it is a true source of gold for your garden.

11. You should keep a journal, it'll help you learn. 

Garden journals are amazing. At the most basic level, they help you to know what you are growing (it can be easy to forget what you planted where). The more detail you add, however, the more the story will tell you.

For example, add details about;

• When it rained, the temperatures, how often you needed to water, storms.

• What worked and what didn't work.

• The amount of sun and the differences between summer and winter.

• What pests are around this year, and what do you do? They may not be back for 2 years, and if you have forgotten what you tried, you have a head start if you write it down.

Think of yourself as an explorer in your garden. Observe and watch everything, how things interact. Add photos, good, bad and ugly ~ this is for you, and it will help you.

I know people who are now self-sufficient. With their journals, they now write down how many seeds were planted, how many seedlings germinated, how many survived the transplant and how many grew to provide food. They determine how much food they get per plant and then calculate the food bill savings each week and year.

That is inspiring. It took these gardeners a long time to get there, but without their records, they would be wasting more time.

12. It's better to water deeply with good drainage than more frequently.

Our veggies are made up of 90% water. They need it, but too much watering can leach nutrients out of the soil and down the drain.

Leaching nutrients means your food will have less flavour, and more importantly, it won't be able to grow well. It may get stunted, not flower ~ all nutrients are critical for our plants. Don't let them be wasted.

Wasting water and nutrients.

A good, slow soaker hose closer to the roots is preferable to drenching water daily. This is one reason wicking beds and containers are excellent: the water doesn't leave the reservoir. There is no leaching unless there is too much rain.

This is very much like aquaponics. The water within the aquaponics system is constantly recycled, which means constant water and nutrients for the plants. It is only during massive storms that you lose water. If you live in an area of high storms, though, you can have a cover to remove these issues.

Water is critical, and you need to water wisely!

13. Wicking beds and container gardens are often easier ways to start.

Wicking beds and containers are much easier to grow in. There is just less ongoing work.

Wicking beds have a reservoir of water, which reduces the amount of water you need to use. No digging, bending and all that hard work and less weeding.

There are limitations, though, especially with space. Also, you need to ensure that you are adding fertilisers (natural ones) at particular times. Once the nutrients are spent, they are gone.

However, this is the same with soil gardens. After each crop, you need to prepare it for the next one.

Fertiliser, mulch, compost, etc ~ it's the same with your container and wicking beds.

Research before you start.

14. Don't be afraid to start from seed after a while.

Some seeds are easier to get started than others. This will depend on the brand of seeds, too. Some seed brands have higher germination rates than others.

I always suggest starting out with seedlings when you are new to gardening. Ensure you are planting what is in season and that it has enough time in season to grow. Sowing seeds such as squashes, pumpkins, zucchini and cucumbers, however, is really easy to start from seed.

When you do master growing a couple, start to stagger the planting of the seeds. This will stagger the growth and give you more food over a longer period. In comparison, when you buy a punnet of 6 seedlings, you need to plant all 6. You'll get a huge harvest all at once and nothing in 2-4 weeks.

By staggering them, you have more food over time.

15. Add vertical gardening and give your plants space to grow.

The final tip is perfect for anyone, no matter if you are short on space, or have heaps of room.

Grow vertically!

This gives your plants more room and helps you grow more food.

This is a wicking tower sitting in the fish tank of my aquaponics system. It is growing my strawberries, 10 plants in a small space, with huge fruiting. In the soil, I couldn't grow strawberries this well.

Vertical growing gives you options!

Want to get your Eyes and Hands on the FREE Online Aquaponics Essentials Course?

This is a great free resource to really understand how aquaponics is a sustainable ecosystem that will grow your organic food is a productive way.

You learn how all the 'parts' make up the 'whole', and helps to give you the foundations of understanding aquaponics.

Sign up HERE

Candy Alexander is a dedicated aquaponics enthusiast with a wealth of formal training in aquaculture. Over the past 15 years, Candy has been deeply immersed in both commercial and backyard aquaponics, honing her skills and expertise in this sustainable farming method.

Candy's passion lies in making aquaponics accessible to everyone. With a mission to simplify aquaponics, she believes that anyone can embark on this sustainable journey.

She encourages those new to aquaponics to "kick the tires" without a significant financial investment. Her guidance focuses on helping people start their aquaponics journey with small-scale systems, ensuring a low barrier to entry for newcomers.

Candy shares practical tips, step-by-step guides, and personal stories to inspire and guide readers on their aquaponics adventure. Whether you're a seasoned farmer or a curious beginner, Candy Alexander is your go-to source for simplifying aquaponics and fostering a sustainable gardening experience.