Vegetables
Cabbage
Brassica oleracea (Capitata Group)
A cool-season vegetable grown for a compact head of overlapping leaves, with cultivar size and maturity determining how it fits a small garden.
Growing referenceExplore / Vegetable gardens
Vegetable gardens
Grow what you love to eat.
Plan crop spacing, supports and sowing windows around your growing space. Diagnose setbacks before adding more equipment or fertilizer.
Plant-spacing planner →
A useful place to start
Choose the crop, then plan its season.
The plant library explains what each crop needs. These decisions connect that knowledge to space, timing and repeat harvests.
01 / Plan the working space
Lay Out Raised Beds Around Reach, Turning Space, and Everyday Access
Leave room to reach, support and harvest the crop as it grows.
02 / Work with the season
Plan fall vegetables from maturity dates and frost windows
Count maturity and local conditions together instead of relying on the packet alone.
03 / Build a harvest routine
Repeat Kale Harvests: Protect the Growing Center and Check What Comes Back
Explore repeated leaf harvest and proportionate protection for a long-lived crop.
Get to know the plants
Vegetables
Eggplant
Solanum melongena
A branching warm-season fruiting vegetable whose useful crop depends on sustained warmth, suitable cultivar maturity and support for fruit-bearing branches.
Growing reference
Vegetables
Garden pea
Pisum sativum
A cool-season climbing or compact vegetable that includes shelling, snow and snap forms, with vine height determining its support and pod type determining harvest.
Growing reference
Vegetables
Leaf lettuce
Lactuca sativa
A nonheading lettuce type grown for loose rosettes of tender leaves, suited to small beds and containers when cool-season timing and regular harvesting fit the household.
Growing referenceVegetables
Tomato
Solanum lycopersicum
A frost-tender fruiting crop whose mature growth habit determines support, spacing and the rhythm of harvest.
Growing reference
Vegetables
Sweet and bell pepper
Capsicum annuum
Warm-season sweet peppers, including bell types, grown for crisp immature fruit or fully colored ripe peppers.
Growing reference
Vegetables
Cucumber
Cucumis sativus
A frost-tender annual vine grown for young, crisp fruit; cultivar habit and pollination requirements determine the setup.
Growing reference
Vegetables
Potato
Solanum tuberosum
A cool-season tuber crop started from seed potatoes, with separate harvest decisions for tender new potatoes and mature storage tubers.
Growing reference
Vegetables
Garlic
Allium sativum
A bulb crop usually planted as individual cloves in fall, with climate-adapted hardneck or softneck types harvested the following warm season.
Growing reference
Vegetables
Broccoli
Brassica oleracea Italica Group
Heading broccoli grown for tight clusters of unopened flower buds, with crop timing centered on cool conditions during head development.
Growing referenceVegetable gardens: the field guides
Clear explanations. Practical next steps.Vegetable gardens · 6 min read
Cabbage Heads: Decide When to Wait, Harvest, or Act on Splitting
Read cabbage firmness, weather and growing-point condition to decide whether a head needs more time or should be harvested now.
Read the guideVegetable gardens · 6 min read
Eggplant Heat and Support: Keep Fruit Growing Without Breaking Branches
Coordinate planting temperature, support, leaf cover and harvest so warm-weather eggplants can carry a useful crop.
Read the guideVegetable gardens · 6 min read
Choose Pea Supports by Vine Height and How You Will Pick
Compare low supports, mesh panels and two-sided trellises for peas, with room for tendrils, watering and harvest access.
Read the guideVegetable gardens · 6 min read
Harvest Leaf Lettuce for Regrowth, and Know When Bolting Ends the Crop
Choose between outer-leaf picking, whole-plant harvest and a final harvest before heat and bolting reduce leaf quality.
Read the guide
Vegetable gardens · 6 min read
Repeat Kale Harvests: Protect the Growing Center and Check What Comes Back
Build a repeat-harvest routine for kale that balances leaf picking, caterpillar exclusion, watering and seasonal limits.
Read the guideVegetable gardens · 6 min read
Thin Beet Seed Clusters for the Roots You Want to Harvest
Recognize multigerm beet seedlings, choose final spacing by harvest size, and use thinning without disturbing the roots you keep.
Read the guideVegetable gardens · 7 min read
What Size Grow Bag Does a Tomato Really Need?
Choose a tomato grow bag by mature plant size, watering access, support and the space you can actually manage—not one universal gallon rule.
Read the guide
Vegetable gardens · 6 min read
Pepper Plants Have Flowers but No Peppers: What to Check First
Separate weather-related blossom drop from watering stress, excess nitrogen and normal pepper development before changing your care.
Read the guide
Vegetable gardens · 6 min read
Plan Lettuce Successions Without Harvesting Everything at Once
Build a small lettuce schedule around meal size, harvest stage and local cool-weather windows, with clear points to stop or restart sowing.
Read the guide
Vegetable gardens · 6 min read
Trellised Cucumbers: Choose the Right Vine and Pollination Plan
Plan a cucumber trellis that fits the cultivar, preserves pollinator access and makes watering and harvesting manageable.
Read the guideVegetable gardens · 6 min read
Bush or Pole Beans? Choose for Your Space and Harvest Routine
Compare bush and climbing snap beans by support, picking access, crop timing and the meals you want to grow.
Read the guideVegetable gardens · 6 min read
Catch the Spring Pea Window Without Sowing into Mud
Plan peas around workable soil, cool growing weather, cultivar maturity and the crop that will follow them.
Read the guideVegetable gardens · 6 min read
Carrots That Actually Emerge: A Seedbed and Thinning Plan
Solve the two vulnerable stages of growing carrots: maintaining a shallow moist seedbed and giving young roots space without disturbing them.
Read the guideVegetable gardens · 6 min read
Radishes Make Leaves but No Good Roots: A Practical Diagnosis
Check radish type, crowding, light, temperature and harvest timing before adding fertilizer or waiting indefinitely.
Read the guideVegetable gardens · 6 min read
Potatoes in containers: space, planting and a realistic harvest
Plan a manageable potato container, protect developing tubers and choose between tender new potatoes and a mature harvest.
Read the guideVegetable gardens · 6 min read
Garlic planting and curing: from individual cloves to sound stored bulbs
Choose adapted garlic, plant cloves with room to develop, read harvest signs and cure bulbs with airflow rather than a fixed countdown.
Read the guide
Vegetable gardens · 6 min read
Onion sets, seeds or transplants: choose the right start for your garden
Compare onion starting methods after matching day length, harvest goal and local planting season.
Read the guide
Vegetable gardens · 6 min read
Broccoli heading or bolting? Read the buds before changing care
Distinguish a normal broccoli head, a premature button and opening flowers, then make a timely harvest or replanting decision.
Read the guide
Vegetable gardens · 6 min read
Squash flowers and pollination: male blooms, female blooms and failed fruit
Identify squash flowers, decide whether hand pollination is useful and separate poor pollination from other fruit problems.
Read the guideVegetable gardens · 6 min read
Choose pumpkins by space and use: pie, carving, miniature or giant
Match pumpkin purpose, mature vine habit and harvest season before committing a small garden to a large crop.
Read the guide
Vegetable gardens · 6 min read
Spinach, chard or New Zealand spinach: choose greens for the season
Separate three different leafy crops, compare heat response and growth habit, and plan a useful sequence of harvests.
Read the guideVegetable gardens · 6 min read
Sweet potatoes: plant slips, reserve vine space and plan the cure
Understand sweet potato planting material, warm-season timing, spreading vines and realistic home curing conditions.
Read the guideThe next useful connection.
A successful setup brings the plant, growing conditions and equipment together. These related topics help you work through the next decision.