Before starting your vegetable gardening in your backyard, you’ll need to determine the layout of the garden. The layout will determine a lot of things, like the amount of vegetables you’re going to grow, whether you’ll need extra materials or not in case you’re planning to build a raised bed for example and whether you’re planning to expand your crops in the future or not. The factors you’ll need to consider while determining the layout are the following:

Sunlight Exposure

Exposure to sun usually depends on what you’re planning to grow. Since you’re growing vegetables, your plants will need a minimum of at least eight hours a day of sunlight exposure.
You may want to buy a calculator for sunlight to help you with that.

Position of Trees

When you’re starting a vegetable garden you want to keep your plants as far as possible from trees. Root incursions will cause problems for both plants and trees in the future. A minimum of fifteen inch of distance should be fine.

The Effort and Time You’re Willing to Invest

It only makes sense that you discuss with yourself and your family first about amount of effort and time you’re ready to invest in taking care of your plants. If you’re not yet ready for such a commitment you may want to start with something small and expand as you go.

Fencing and Wind Effect

A strong enough wind can damage any crop. Try to make sense of the places where the wind hits stronger in your backyard and back them up with fencing or a wind barrier.

Check the Land Slope

If you’re going to build a garden box or a raised bed, you’ll want to make sure that they are level and not tilting. You can raise the low side by using extra wood or rocks to even both sides.