How to start a vegetable garden

Pick the right plants

Deciding what to grow — and when to plant it — starts with determining your hardiness zone. The U.S. Agriculture Department maintains a map that breaks the nation into growing zones based on temperatures and average first and last frost dates. Knowing your zone can keep you from planting too early, a common mistake that often results in plants getting zapped by a late frost. Even veteran gardeners should take a second look at the map: For the first time since 2012, the USDA made updates for this growing season that moved about half the country into a new zone.

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Other than simply paying attention to the forecast, Awot-Traut says there are some basic ways to know when it’s warm enough to plant. “If you’re sitting on the ground in your garden and you’re cold, it’s too cold for plants,” she says. “Or, you can stick your finger in the soil about an inch deep. If you can comfortably leave it there for a minute, it’s warm enough to plant.”

Seed packets are often printed with detailed information about when to plant, and whether seeds should be sown directly in the garden or started inside. “For a first-time gardener, I’d say if a seed packet says to start indoors, put it back,” Awot-Traut says. “It’s a couple of steps up because you need seed-starting equipment, and among beginners I see a lot of failures, so I don’t recommend it.”

Having a successful first season can be a big confidence-builder, so experts suggest sticking with easy-to-grow varieties at first. “I recommend summer squash or zucchini, bush beans, cucumbers, lettuce and cherry tomatoes,” Awot-Traut says. “It is really hard to fail with a cherry tomato.”

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Some plants are a bit more finicky, Kemper says. Broccoli and onions, for example, aren’t plants he suggests to newbies. On the other hand, “hot peppers are great starter plants,” he says. “They can take a hurricane or a locust swarm and still come out on top.”

And whether it’s your first or 50th growing season, Kemper says, everyone should be growing garlic. “I don’t think there’s anything easier,” he says. “You pull off a clove, stick it in the ground in the fall, mulch it, and wait for the next summer’s harvest. You don’t have to do anything else: Just set it and forget it.”

A vegetable garden also doesn’t have to be limited to, well, vegetables. Adding some flowers and herbs can attract beneficial bugs and deter pests. “You can plant something like marigolds, which are great for attracting pollinators,” Awot-Traut says. “They also help to keep some of the bugs away without worrying about spraying.”

The most important piece of advice when it comes to choosing plants is simple, she says: “Don’t plant anything you don’t want. Radishes are easy to grow, but if you don’t like radishes, don’t plant them!”

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