Lifestyle & HomeBeginnerPreview
Vegetable Gardening
A hands-on, evidence-based introduction to growing vegetables, from building living soil and a raised bed through seed-starting, companion planting, drip irrigation, succession sowing, crop rotation, and chemical-free pest control. Every lesson uses real spacings, temperatures, and quantities you can apply to your own garden this season.
New and aspiring gardeners who want to grow vegetables productively at home and understand the why behind every spacing, watering, and planting decision.
Course content
Workbook & downloads
Put the course into practice — a printable workbook plus editable templates you can fill in and reuse.
Preview the workbook
This workbook turns the course into a season's worth of garden tasks. Each section pairs with a course module and gives you site audits, soil tests, planting plans, watering math, and pest scouting routines to run in your own garden. Work through it with a tape measure, a soil probe, and a notebook in hand, and keep the templates open so your beds start from real numbers, dates, and spacings instead of guesses.
Soil, Beds, and Site
Audit your site, test and amend your soil, and plan a raised bed you can build and fill in one weekend.
Worksheet: Sun and Site Audit
Pick your prospective bed location and observe it across one clear day. Check it every hour and mark sun or shade, then total the direct-sun hours and decide which crop group it suits. Use the sun-and-site template to log the hourly readings.
- Location / area name
- Total direct-sun hours (measured)
- Sun category (full / partial / shade)
- Drainage test: inches drained per hour
- Distance to nearest water source (ft)
- Crop group this site suits (fruiting / leafy / root)
Exercise: Run a Jar Test and pH Test
Fill a clear quart jar one-third with soil, add water and a teaspoon of dish soap, shake hard, and let it settle 24 hours. Measure the sand, silt, and clay layers and estimate your texture. Separately, test pH with a probe or a mail-in extension kit.
- What are your rough sand/silt/clay percentages, and how close is it to a 40/40/20 loam?
- What pH did you measure, and is it inside the 6.0 to 7.0 vegetable range?
- Based on the result, do you need lime to raise pH, sulfur to lower it, or just compost?
Worksheet: Raised Bed Build Plan
Plan your bed before buying materials. Fill in the dimensions, calculate the fill volume, and list the soil-mix components by ratio. Use the bed-fill-volume template to confirm how many cubic yards of mix to order.
- Bed length x width (ft)
- Bed depth (in)
- Frame material and expected lifespan
- Calculated fill volume (cubic feet)
- Topsoil / compost / aeration ratio (e.g. 50/30/20)
- Cubic yards of mix to order
Checklist: Bed-Ready Checklist
- Site has 6+ hours of measured sun for fruiting crops (or matched to a lower-light crop)
- Drainage test drained at least 1 inch per hour, or a raised bed is planned
- Soil pH measured and amendment (lime/sulfur/compost) decided
- Frame built from untreated cedar/fir, corners squared and fastened
- Cardboard or hardware cloth laid in the bottom before filling
- Bed filled, watered, settled, and topped up before planting
Seeds and Transplants
Decide your sowing method per crop, start sturdy seedlings, and harden them off without losing any.
Worksheet: Direct-Sow vs Transplant Decision Sheet
List every crop you plan to grow and decide its method from its family and days-to-maturity. Then count backward from your frost dates to set the sowing or transplanting date. Use the seed-starting-schedule template to generate the calendar.
- Crop
- Method (direct-sow / transplant)
- Days to maturity (from packet)
- Weeks before last frost to start indoors
- Last frost date (your zone)
- Target sow or transplant date
Exercise: Start One Tray of Seedlings
Sow one tray of a transplant crop (tomato, pepper, or brassica) in sterile mix, on a heat mat at 70 to 80 F, then move to lights 1 to 2 inches above the seedlings for 14 to 16 hours a day the moment they sprout. Track germination and growth for two weeks.
- How many days to germination, and was your soil temperature in the 70 to 80 F range?
- Are your seedlings short and stocky or leggy and pale, and what does that tell you about your light?
- When did the first true leaves appear, and did you begin half-strength feeding then?
Checklist: Hardening-Off Checklist
- Day 1-2: seedlings outside 1 to 2 hours in shade, sheltered from wind
- Daily increase of 1 to 2 hours and a little more direct sun
- Watering reduced slightly to toughen the seedlings
- No hardening-off started when frost or storms are forecast
- By day 7+, seedlings spending a full day and night outdoors
- Transplanted on a cool/overcast evening and watered in immediately
Layout, Companions, and Watering
Lay out the bed at proper spacing with good companions, then install and tune a watering system.
Worksheet: Bed Layout and Spacing Map
Sketch your bed as a grid and assign crops to squares using square-foot densities. Place tall and trellised crops on the north side. Use the bed-layout template to record plants-per-square and companion pairings.
- Crop
- Plants per square foot (1 / 4 / 9 / 16)
- Spacing in inches
- Position in bed (north / center / south)
- Companion plant interplanted with it
- Antagonist to keep away from it
Exercise: Plan a Companion Polyculture
Design one bed using at least one research-backed companion combination (Three Sisters, alliums with carrots, or flowers among vegetables) and avoid the known antagonists. List which beneficial insects each flower is meant to attract.
- Which companion combination did you choose, and what specific benefit do you expect from it?
- Which flowering insectary plants did you include to attract hoverflies and parasitic wasps?
- Which antagonist pairings (beans near alliums, fennel near crops) did you deliberately avoid?
Worksheet: Watering System and Weekly Water Math
Plan your drip or soaker setup and calculate how much water your bed needs. Remember the target is about 1 inch per week including rain (roughly 20 gallons per 32 sq ft bed). Record run times and the finger-test result each week so you can tune the timer to the weather.
- Bed area (sq ft)
- Target water per week (gallons, ~0.62 gal per sq ft per inch)
- System type (drip / soaker / hand)
- Emitter spacing (in)
- Timer run time per session (min)
- Finger-test depth before watering (moist/dry at 2 in)
Checklist: Drip-System Setup Checklist
- Backflow preventer installed at the spigot
- Filter and pressure regulator (about 25 psi) fitted before the tubing
- Half-inch poly main line run down the bed with emitters 6 to 12 in apart
- Battery timer set to run in early morning
- Test hole dug to confirm water reaches 6 inches deep
- 2 to 3 inches of mulch laid over the lines, kept back from stems
Succession, Rotation, and Pests
Schedule successions, map a multi-year rotation, and run an organic pest-scouting routine.
Worksheet: Succession Planting Calendar
Plan staggered and replacement sowings so each bed always holds a growing crop. Schedule cut-and-come crops every 2 to 3 weeks, and map what follows each crop as it finishes. Use the succession-and-rotation template to lay out the season.
- Bed / square
- Spring crop and finish date
- Summer replacement crop
- Fall replacement crop
- Re-sow interval for staggered crops (weeks)
- Last safe fall sowing date (from first frost)
Worksheet: Crop Rotation Map
Assign each bed a plant-family group this year, then plan where each group moves next year on a 3-to-4-year cycle. Sequence groups as legumes to leaves to fruits to roots. Use the succession-and-rotation template's rotation sheet to track multiple years.
- Bed number
- Family group this year (nightshade / brassica / cucurbit / legume / allium-root)
- Family group next year
- Feeding role (heavy feeder / nitrogen fixer / light feeder)
- Years since this family was last in this bed
- Resistant varieties used (if any)
Exercise: Run a Weekly Pest Scout
Once a week, inspect leaf undersides and stems across the garden, identify any pests, and apply the gentlest effective control (water jet, hand-pick, row cover, Bt). Keep a running log of what you find and what you did. Do this at dusk for slugs and hornworms.
- Which pests did you find, and on which crops and plant families?
- What barrier or hand method did you use before considering any spray?
- Did you spot beneficial insects (ladybugs, parasitized hornworms, hoverflies) you should protect?
Checklist: Organic Pest-Defense Checklist
- Floating row cover on susceptible crops from planting day (removed for pollination)
- Cutworm collars on new transplants and slug barriers/traps set
- Flowering insectary plants (alyssum, dill, cosmos, marigold) planted throughout
- Weekly dusk scouting and hand-picking of hornworms and slugs done
- Squash-bug and cabbage-worm egg clusters removed from leaf undersides
- Sprays reserved for last, targeted (Bt for caterpillars), applied in the evening
Your Action Plan
- Audit a site for sun (count direct-sun hours) and drainage, and pick the best bed location.
- Run a jar test and a pH test, then amend with compost plus lime or sulfur toward 6.0 to 7.0 pH.
- Build a 4-by-8-foot raised bed, calculate the fill volume, and fill it with a 50/30/20 soil mix.
- List every crop, decide direct-sow versus transplant, and set sowing dates from your frost dates.
- Start one tray of transplants on a heat mat under lights, then harden them off over 7 to 10 days.
- Lay out the bed at square-foot spacings with tall crops on the north side and flowers interplanted.
- Plan one companion polyculture and avoid the known antagonist pairings.
- Install a drip or soaker system, calculate the weekly water need, and mulch 2 to 3 inches deep.
- Build a succession calendar (sow every 2 to 3 weeks; map spring/summer/fall replacements per bed).
- Draw a crop-rotation map by plant family on a 3-to-4-year cycle and start a weekly pest-scouting routine.
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