In this post, I’m going to cover 5 key considerations to help you determine where you should put your new flower or vegetable garden
Location is everything! Taking time to think through and carefully plan the location and layout of your new vegetable garden will give you a more productive garden and save you time and money in the long run.
The very first vegetable garden I ever had was in the worst location. We placed it up against the west side of our house where it was shaded for most of the day and then blasted with sun and heat from the bricks at the end of the day.
You can probably guess that we didn’t harvest much out of that garden!
This doesn’t have to happen to you. You can have a productive, thriving garden with thoughtful planning and these key considerations to placing your garden.
How to Find the Best Location for Your New Vegetable Garden
There are 5 important things to consider as you plan where to put your new vegetable garden.
- Sunlight
- Proximity to Water
- Accessibility
- Soil Quality
- Wind Exposure/Microclimates
My ideal location for a vegetable garden would be a sunny spot on the contours of a gentle southern slope with rich, dark, loamy soil, protection from the wind, near a water source, right off the back door of my house.
But, I live in the real world, not a fantasy world, and I’m guessing you do, too!
The perfect conditions may not be achievable on your property, so you will have to determine the closest to ideal conditions for yourself.
Keep an open mind as you think about where you might place your vegetable garden. You may want to clear some trees or relocate outbuildings.
Also, side yards and front yards can be great spaces for beautiful gardens!
The Best Spot for Sunlight
Full sun (8+ hours of direct sun) is required for most annual and perennial vegetables and flowers.
My number one priority for starting a new garden is to place it in full sun.
Without enough sunlight, plants will struggle and weaken, leaving them open to attack from pests and disease.
They will need more help from you to thrive and produce poorly.
An exception to this might be if you live in a climate that experiences extreme heat. Keep in mind, though, that you can always add shade to a garden (with a shade cloth or similar structure), but you cannot take it away without removing the thing that is causing shade.
Most of the vegetables we associate with a summer garden, like tomatoes, peppers, melons, cucumbers, and squash, thrive with lots of warmth and sunlight.
And if you plan on growing food in the winter, maximum sunlight is necessary for plants when the sun is scarcest.
However, some vegetables can handle lower amounts of sunlight.
Here’s a list of vegetables that will survive with only 5-6 hours of sunlight per day.
- carrots
- beets
- radishes
- kale
- arugula
- parsnip
- parsley
- spinach
- chard
- brussels sprouts
- lettuce
- chives
Where on your property do you get the most sunlight all year round?
Proximity to Water
All plants need water to thrive. Even if you get plenty of rainfall, you’ll still want water nearby for keeping young seedlings hydrated or for supplemental watering.
Hauling water in 90°F weather under the hot sun gets old pretty fast.
Consistent water is an important part of gardening.
Automatic irrigation is an added bonus.
We placed a sprinkler in the middle of our vegetable garden this year and set a timer to water the garden every three days very early in the morning, and I can’t tell you how much more I enjoyed our thriving garden this year!
Accessibility
A thriving garden is one that is visited by a caring, observant gardener as often as possible.
You will want to place your new garden in a spot you can see from inside the house and also easy to access for harvest and maintenance.
Being able to see your garden from indoors will help you keep a close eye on how things are growing and remind you to get out there and stake a fallen plant or harvest those ripe juicy tomatoes.
Harvesting, weeding, watering, planting, and amending will become burdensome if you can’t easily get to your garden.
Large gardens might need access for bigger equipment like mowers.
Take a minute to think about what you might need to bring in and out of your garden.
Where can you place your vegetable garden that will make it easy for you to get to with and without equipment?
Good Soil Quality
Good quality soil that is well-draining is also very important to have a thriving garden.
The best soil for your garden is:
- Not sprayed by herbicides or contaminants (weed-killer can stay in the soil for up to 20 years according to this article)
- Far from neighbors who use herbicides or toxic chemicals which might drift over to your property
- Well-draining
- Rich in organic matter
- Equal parts sand, silt, and clay (or loam)
One way to see if you already have loam soil is to form a ball with the soil in your garden. If it holds its shape, but easily crumbles, you likely have loam.
I know it seems like all the factors I’ve mentioned so far are priorities, but if your property doesn’t have the best soil, you can actually cheat a little bit.
It’s still important to have good soil, however, you can bring in loamy garden soil, whereas sunlight is not something you can bring in if you don’t already have it.
Raised beds are popular for vegetable gardens because they allow you to bring in your ideal soil.
As an added bonus, raised beds have better drainage, warm up more quickly in the spring, and bring the plants closer to you for ease of maintenance and harvest.
If your soil is poor quality, you can add compost or manure to improve it or even grow a cover crop. Create pathways to keep soil from becoming compacted where you wish to garden.
Mounding good soil to raise it without building raised garden beds can be helpful if you are not able to make raised beds.
Wind Exposure and Microclimates
Finally, the last key consideration for placing your garden is where it will get protection from wind.
Good airflow is important to a garden, but nothing dries out plants faster than a strong, persistent wind.
Have you ever been outside on a cold day with a strong wind? It feels much colder than the actual air temperature, doesn’t it?
Wind protection combined with full sun can create a microclimate.
A microclimate is a slightly warmer, protected location on your property.
Microclimates are fantastic sites for a vegetable garden.
Do you have a microclimate in your yard? One clue for you may be the place where snow first melts every spring.
Putting All the Info Together to Find That Perfect Garden Spot
Ok, we’ve gone over all 5 keys to determining the perfect spot for your new vegetable garden.
Now it’s time for you to walk around your yard and find the spot that meets as many of these requirements as you can.
It might be helpful to draw a quick sketch of your property, including any buildings or trees that are immovable.
Then as you survey your site, make note each of the 5 things on your sketch.
- Best sunlight
- Location of water spigots
- View from windows & ability to bring in a wheelbarrow
- Soil quality
- Wind exposure & any microclimates
Use these notes to decide where the best placement for your garden is!
Ready to plan your garden? Here are some other posts I think you’ll want to read next.