How to Plan a Vegetable Garden from Scratch – Step by Step

Step 1: Measure and sketch your space

Before you choose your first seeds, measure the space you have available. Note down the dimensions, the position of trees, fences, buildings and any other permanent features. This is the foundation for everything that follows.

You can do this on graph paper (1 square = 0.5 m is a convenient scale for a typical garden) or use Gardener Planner, where you draw your layout directly on screen – with precise dimensions, the ability to add obstacles and trees, and automatic saving of your planting history.

Step 2: Assess the sunlight

This is one of the most commonly skipped steps, and one of the most important. Vegetables fall into three broad categories:

• Full sun (6+ hours a day) – tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, courgettes, squash, beans, sweetcorn
• Partial shade (3–6 hours) – lettuce, spinach, parsley, dill, radishes
• Shade (under 3 hours) – very few vegetables thrive here; herbs like chives and sorrel manage

Observe the garden throughout the day at different times of the growing season – shade from trees and buildings changes dramatically between spring and late summer. Gardener Planner includes a shade analysis feature that simulates the sun's movement for your location and marks shadow zones on the plan.

Step 3: Decide what you actually want to grow

Make a list of the vegetables you genuinely eat – not the ones you'd like to eat. This sounds obvious, but half of all failed vegetable gardens come down to planting things nobody in the household actually likes.

Then check that list against reality:

• Do you have a sunny enough spot for tomatoes?
• Do you have time for regular courgette harvests (every 2–3 days)?
• Does squash have room to sprawl (1–2 m² per plant)?

Step 4: Plan your beds

The optimal bed width is 120 cm (4 feet) – just enough to reach the centre from both sides without treading on the soil. Length is up to you. Paths between beds should be at least 40–50 cm wide to walk through comfortably with a wheelbarrow.

A few placement rules:

• Tall plants (sweetcorn, bean poles, sunflowers) – place on the north side so they don't shade shorter crops
• Perennial vegetables (asparagus, rhubarb, perennial herbs) – give them their own permanent bed, they'll be there for years
• Crops that need frequent harvesting – as close to the door as possible, so you visit daily without thinking about it

Step 5: Build in crop rotation from day one

Crop rotation means changing what you grow in a given spot each year. It prevents soil depletion and the build-up of pathogens. Plan it now, because it's very hard to retrofit.

The basic rule: don't grow the same plant family in the same place for at least 3–4 years. Solanums (tomato, pepper, potato), cucurbits (cucumber, courgette, squash), brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, radish) – each group should rotate around the garden.

In Gardener Planner, planting history is saved automatically each season. When planning a new year, you can see what grew in each spot in previous years and avoid repeats without keeping notes.

Step 6: Map out the timing

Every vegetable has its own sowing and planting window. General principles:

• Late winter / early spring – start indoors: tomatoes, peppers, celeriac
• Spring – direct sow outdoors: carrots, parsley, beetroot, peas, lettuce
• After last frost – transplant seedlings outdoors, sow cucumbers and courgettes
• Mid-summer – sow autumn crops: spinach, rocket, lettuce, radishes

The Gardener Planner calendar generates these dates automatically based on what you've planned for your beds.

Step 7: Start small and expand

The most common first-season mistake is too large a garden. Maintaining ten beds through an entire summer is a serious time commitment. Start with 3–4 and expand once you've found your rhythm.

A small, well-tended garden beats a large, overgrown, demoralising one every time.