BROWSE HOW TOs

How to Select Plants for a Vegetable Garden

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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Grow a garden full of delicious vegetables for your family. You can choose from a variety of root and leaf vegetables. Whether you have a small garden or a large plot, you will enjoy the taste of fresh vegetables all season long. Follow these steps to select plants for a vegetable garden.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Step1

Research the plants you want in your garden. You need to know the basics about each plan. Find out which plants need sun and which plants need shade. Some plants can tolerate both.

Step2

Determine the growth cycle of the plants. You don't want to plant something in August that takes months to grow or it will be the end of the growing season before you plants mature.

Step3

Know which plants can tolerate frost and which ones can't. Then plant the ones that can tolerate a bit of frost early in the season so that they are ready first.

Step4

Check with your local nursery for growing tips or your local paper for planting guides. Learn proper gardening techniques like how far apart to plant your vegetables, how to plant seeds and how to set up rows of plants.

Step5

Learn about pesticide and which insects can harm your plants. Select plants that are hardy and easiest to grow if you are new to gardening. Plants that are easy to grow include root vegetables like carrots and radishes.

Step6

Create a plan for your garden. Decide when you will plant and where. Understand your soil and know the set up of your yard. You need to know if it gets a lot of shade or sun. Make sure you have a water source close by. Set up a trellis or stakes for plants that will grow tall. Give large plants plenty of growing room.

Step7

Choose vegetables that suit your climate and your yard. You want to plant vegetables that need shade in an area away from constant sunlight.

Step8

Understand the maturity of the plants and how large they will grow. You can have late crops and early crops. Decide if you want to start from scratch with seeds like carrots and radishes or if you want to buy full grown plants like tomatoes.