How to Start a Garden: The First-Year Plan That Actually Holds
Pick the spot, test the soil, build one small bed, plant five things you will eat. The 4×8 starter that pays back in the first season.
Start small or you will quit. Build one 4×8 raised bed in the sunniest spot in your yard, fill it with a 60/30/10 mix of topsoil/compost/peat or coir, and plant five vegetables you will actually eat. Year two: add a perennial bed. Year three: a second vegetable bed. The biggest single failure mode is starting with too much.
Pick the spot
Vegetables need six hours of direct sun, minimum, and eight is better. Spend a Saturday tracking the sun across your yard. The corner you assume gets all-day sun often loses three hours to a neighbor's tree by 2 p.m. Note the sunny spots; choose one near a water source — if you have to drag a hose 100 feet you will skip waterings.