No matter where you live, there are a few essential components in making a productive and pleasurable garden at home. These essentials are a confluence of what the plants need, what you want, and the limitations of your location and lifestyle. Understanding these basic gardening guidelines will help you get your own garden ready for spring.

Give Your Plants What They Need

As far as the plants are concerned, vegetable gardens have a few basic requirements:

1. They need to be situated in a spot that gets at least 6 hours of sunlight each day.

2. They need fertile soil that’s rich in compost and drains easily.

3. They need a water source for irrigation during dry spells.

4. They need air flow to prevent diseases.

We live in the woods on the western foothills of the Green Mountains in Vermont. At our slightly higher elevation, we are in Zone 4—a cooler climate with a shorter than average growing season. Our yard offers a small clearing, but our greatest challenge is southern sun exposure. Before I sited my garden, I watched the light move across our yard for a few days, taking notes on what time the sun first hit each spot of the yard in the morning, and what time the first evening shadow crept in before dusk. I discovered that the sunniest spot in our yard received sun from roughly 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. That would be the spot for our vegetable garden.

Soil quality is vital to the health of your plants, but rarely does one live on perfect soil. Amendments are often needed to create the ideal blend of nutrients, pH, and soil texture. We live on top of pure sand and our chosen garden plot happens to sit right on top of our replacement leach field. So we only had one option (luckily it was the easiest one): build raised beds and purchase a raised bed soil mix from our local compost facility. Guaranteed good soil from the get-go!

When it comes to watering your garden, you have three choices: hose, sprinkler, or drip. Drip irrigation has benefits of being hands-off and delivering the water directly to the plant’s roots. However, it can be expensive and labor-intensive to install, and difficult to repair in the event of a failure mid-season. Sprinklers can be manual or set on a timer, but in general, watering the tops of your plants is not advisable. Plants drink from the soil, not their leaves. Personally, I prefer watering by hand with a hose. It takes me at least an hour each morning, but I enjoy the one-on-one time with my plants. As I water the roots of each plant to their specific liking, I can also inspect for bugs, pick out the weeds, and check for fruits.

Grow What You Like to Eat

After my first year with a large vegetable garden I learned one very important lesson: only grow what you like to eat.

In my first garden, I grew endive because I didn’t know what it was and it looked pretty. Yuck, too bitter. A waste of space. In my first garden, I planted way too many cucumbers which forced me to make 30 jars of pickles. Gross, I hate pickles! (Still sitting in my pantry 3 years later). A waste of time. In my first garden, I let a dozen Mother Mary’s Melons rot on their vine because I didn’t know what to do with them. A waste of money.

Now, I only plant what I and my family like to eat (and what I know how to cook!). For my perfect summer salad I grow butter lettuce, arugula, spinach, mustard greens, radish, carrots, cucumber, chives, and mint. For my favorite chunky ratatouille recipe that I freeze for the winter I grow tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, onions, garlic, and zucchini. For oven roasted meals in the autumn I grow butternut squash, beets, parsnips, potatoes, and brussel sprouts. For spice, I grow: nasturtium, basil, parsley, fennel, cilantro, oregano, thyme, and dill.

Before picking out your seeds or starts, think about which produce items you’d normally buy from the store. Some easy beginner veggies include: cherry tomatoes, beans, carrots, and lettuce.

Do What Your Life Allows

Even if you do everything right at the beginning, a neglected garden is a dead garden. Every successful garden needs tending, whether it’s on your balcony or in your backyard. How much time and energy you have to care for your garden should be central in determining its size and design.

Like many novice gardeners, I started small with just a few containers on an urban patio in Seattle. At that time, it was just a weekend hobby and I was delighted to snack on a few cherry tomatoes straight off the vine when I got home from work. Things have changed. Now I expect my vegetable garden to produce the majority of my family’s food for the whole year. Which only works because my new lifestyle in Vermont allows for full-time gardening from May through October.

In gardening, as in life, I offer a simple suggestion: do only what you can, so you can do it well, and feel good.