This Ain't Your Grandma's Vegetable Garden

When you picture a vegetable garden, do you see a muddy plot in the ground with one type of plant growing in perfectly straight rows? That type of garden had its place and helped lots of people feed their families.

But you're probably not here to replace all your store-bought produce with homegrown. You're not here for the back-breaking labor of tilling and digging.

No, you're here to grow a little bit of your own food, some leaves and roots that are way fresher and nutrient-dense than what you find at the store. You're here for the mental and physical benefits of spending time in the garden. You're here to create a little green oasis in your backyard.

You're here for a modern vegetable garden. This type of garden keeps what worked in the old days and improves upon what didn't. It uses structures like raised beds and trellises so that we can make efficient use of our space and—most importantly—our time (because we're all so busy these days!). It's set up in a way that all but guarantees your success.

If that sounds like your kind of vegetable garden, then here are my tips to create a space that's productive, that's attractive, and that requires very little maintenance.

Install Raised Garden Beds

I'm starting here because this is really the number one key to starting a successful garden. You might be questioning whether raised beds are necessary, but I've experienced firsthand the difference they make when you're growing annual fruits and vegetables. My first garden was in the ground, and it never grew much, even when my children weren't running over it. Not to mention it was so unsightly I was embarrassed for people to see it.

My second garden was a slight improvement. I used raised beds, but they were only 6 inches tall. They were great for growing herbs and leafy greens, but my larger plants still struggled.

Now, I recommend raised beds that are at least 12" tall if you want to grow plants like kale, peppers, and tomatoes. These deeper raised beds will provide good drainage, give roots plenty of space to stretch down, and make planting and tending much more convenient for you.

I know that installing raised beds is an added step—not to mention an added expense—when you're starting out, but I guarantee you it will maximize your production and make gardening much more enjoyable for you. And that's what we're here for, remember?

Keep Sunlight in Mind When Choosing the Best Spot for Your Garden

There's one thing that hasn't changed from the good ol' days, and that's the importance of sun. The ideal location for your new vegetable garden will get 6 or more direct sunlight hours per day, all year round. Try to position your garden to be on the south side of tall structures like homes and fences so that your garden won't spend long parts of the day in shade, especially during the winter months.

(Don't worry—you can still have a garden if your yard or patio receives less than 6 hours of sun. You'll just need to stick to growing herbs and leafy greens, which can be grown in shade more successfully than roots and fruiting plants.)

You'll also want to keep in mind access to a water source when you're choosing the best location. You'll need to be able to get water to your garden every single day after you've sown seeds or planted seedlings, so you don't want to be yanking a long hose all the way across your yard, if you can prevent it.

I encourage you to put your garden close to your house, somewhere you can see it from a back window or near a side door. If you follow my tips to set up your garden, then you won't need to worry about keeping your garden out of sight. It will be beautiful year round, something you want to show off and visit every day. Let's put our gardens front and center, where they belong!

Fill Your Beds with Great Soil

Back in the day, gardeners spent years trying to amend their soil in the ground. Raised beds give us the chance to grow our vegetables in the best possible soil right from the beginning.

Most of the plants you'll be growing in your vegetable garden are annuals with tender roots, and these plants thrive in a well-draining sandy loam soil. It's tempting to fill your beds with soil from your yard, but this soil might be too clay-heavy, and it's most likely been sprayed with pesticides and herbicides that you don't want to bring into your garden.

So start fresh with nutrient-rich soil from a local nursery or soil yard. I know it's an investment, but it'll give you many happy returns over the years. And when you fill your garden with the best from the very beginning, you don't have to turn to MiracleGro and other synthetic fertilizers to feed your plants when they're struggling in poor soil.

Great soil will be dark in color, easy to dig into, and filled with nutrients. Most importantly, it'll make gardening easier, not harder. Use this soil calculator to figure out how much soil you'll need to fill your raised beds.

Clear & Level the Area Under Your Garden Beds

My husband and I put down some cardboard and then plopped our first raised beds right on top of the grass. We didn't bother to clear or level the space, and that turned out to be a big mistake. Our lawn had looked level to us, but there were actually a ton of changes in elevation that lead to big gaps around the bottom of the raised bed. When we filled the beds with soil, the dirt came pouring out. My poor husband ended up placing bricks under parts of the garden to level it out.

Save yourself some frustration later. Clear any vegetation in the area where you plan to install your vegetable garden and then make sure the space is leveled. Use sand, soil, or gravel to bring up lower areas.

Add a Simple Drip Irrigation System on a Timer

Connecting a timer and drip hose to your spigot is an easy and inexpensive way to mimic a professionally installed irrigation system. You'll be able to automate the watering of your garden so that you won't have to worry about getting up at dawn to give your plants a drink.

Drip irrigation also serves two major benefits besides being way more convenient for you. One, it's the most water-efficient way to water your garden, and two, it helps you prevent fungal disease. That's because it delivers water to the soil, right where the roots can take it up, instead of to the leaves of the plants. (We want to avoid wet leaves as much as possible, especially at nighttime.)

Follow these steps to set up a simple irrigation system for your raised beds.

Use Pathways & Borders to Separate Your Garden from Your Yard

Your vegetable garden will be the most productive and the most attractive if you tend (and harvest) from it frequently. That means it needs to be easy to get to. You shouldn't have to walk down a long, muddy pathway or step over a bunch of weeds to get to your edible oasis. Pathways ensure you can easily reach and move around your garden space, and then borders keep the space nice and tidy, separate from your yard.

You'll need at least 12 inches to step comfortably up to a bed, and then as much as 3 feet between your beds if you plan to bring a wheelbarrow into the garden space. You can use something like mulch in your pathways, but I prefer to use gravel because it looks great, it never has to be replaced, and it dries quickly. (That last bit is especially important to preserve wood raised beds.)

The pathways and the raised beds go a long way in preventing grass and weeds from growing into the garden, but it's also a good idea to separate your garden from your yard with some type of border to keep unwanted vegetation out. I like to use metal edging around the entire garden space, but you can also use bricks, stones, rubber, or plastic edging.

Grow Vertically with Trellises

I consider trellises an essential structure in the garden, especially if you're short on room. Trellises can double, even triple, your total available growing space because you can train your plants to grow up instead of sprawling out.

Trellises also keep your plants healthier by holding them off the soil and increasing access to sunlight and airflow.

Lastly, trellises encourage your vining plants to be as productive as possible by giving them the support they need to keep growing.

Figure Out Your Growing Seasons

It's a good idea to know your gardening zone, but I recommend you become a bit better acquainted with the climate in your particular area. Look up the average high and low temperatures in your town for every month. Use your temps to assign each month to one of the four following growing seasons:

• Cold season - average high temp is around freezing (32°F) or below; always a chance of frost and/or snow
• Cool season - average high ranges from 35°F to 64°F; still a chance of frost and/or snow
• Warm season - average high is between 65°F and 84°F; no longer a threat of frost or snow
• Hot season - high temps are above 85°F

You likely will only experience two or three of the seasons. The only season you can't really garden in is the cold season, unless you plan to use cold frames or greenhouses. There are actually a ton of plants that don't mind frost and love to grow in the cool season, so don't make the mistake of thinking you have to close down your garden when there's frost on the way.

Once you know your growing seasons for the year, all you have to do is grow plants that like the particular season you're in.

Interplant Herbs, Flowers, & Veggies in the Same Bed

Grow a wide variety of plants in each of your raised beds, instead of just planting two or three different things, to maximize productivity and keep your garden healthy. What I like to do is start by alternating a perennial herb and a flowering plant around the entire edge of the raised bed. You can harvest from these herbs weekly, and they also help you control pests. The flowers, of course, will look beautiful, but they also attract beneficial insects to your space.

Then, you'll want to fill in your space with small, medium, and large plants. The goal is to have enough plants to cover your soil entirely about 6 to 8 weeks after planting your garden. Don't leave a bunch of exposed soil because that soil will invite weeds, dry out quickly, and lose all its nutrients.

If you're a beginner gardener, I recommend focusing on herbs, leafy greens, and root crops, which are all a bit easier to grow. Once you've got some experience under you garden tool belt, you can add in the fruiting plants, which are much needier. Even then, you'll still want to have lots of herbs and leafy greens in your space so that you have something to harvest while you're waiting on your tomatoes and cucumbers to produce.

Learn more about creating a planting plan for your garden that will help you take advantage of every square inch of growing space.

Find a Local Gardening Expert to Follow

Your grandma and your grandma's grandma might have grown up learning how to garden. But that's not the case for most of us in the 21st century. Starting a vegetable garden today means being inundated with gardening advice on the internet, most of it conflicting.

Rather than spending years trying to get it right on your own, I recommend finding someone in your area who can share their knowledge and experience with you. Trust me, gardening is so much more fun when you're not growing alone!

Try to find someone who's gardening as close to you as possible. There's a ton of great gardening content out there, but there's really no substitute for someone who knows what grows best in your exact climate. Search for a Gardenary-trained coach in your area. Reach out to them and see if they offer ongoing coaching for your first year in the garden. At the very least, follow them on social media so you can see what they're planting and when. That'll give you a great picture of the growing opportunities in your area.

Enjoy Your Modern, Low-Maintenance Vegetable Garden

If you follow these tips, then you'll have a garden that's as beautiful as it is productive. Instead of tilling and weeding and watering, you'll spend most of your time pruning and harvesting delicious things to eat. Now that's my kind of garden!