Starting a vegetable garden: your first 10 m² bed
Two beds and eight easy crops to harvest from May to October without losing your way. With the plan, the dates and the real budget.
Start with 10 m², no more. That makes two beds of 1.20 m by 4.20 m, with a path between them. You grow eight easy crops there, from March lettuce to October courgette. Count about €80 for seeds, plants and compost. Add €85 for tools if you start from nothing.
Why 10 m² and no more
At the start, the risk is not running short of space. People rather take too much for the time they have. Barbara Murphy, a horticulturist with the University of Maine extension service, advises beginners to limit themselves to 10 feet by 10 feet. That makes 9.3 m².
10 m² is enough to harvest. On his no-dig trial beds, the English market gardener Charles Dowding harvested more than 2 kg per m² on average in 2020. That is the result of an experienced gardener. For a first year, keep the order of magnitude. A few dozen kilos are within reach.
Where to put it
The sun decides almost everything. Brussels Environment (Bruxelles Environnement) advises the sunniest spot possible, facing south or south-west. Fruiting vegetables like tomato and courgette want at least six hours of direct sun a day, according to the Virginia Tech extension service. Eight to ten hours is better. Leaf vegetables and roots tolerate a little shade.
So put the tomatoes and the courgette on the sunniest side. The salads and the chard go on the side that takes some shade. To measure the sun in each corner of the garden, read Where to put your vegetable garden. If your bed starts on a lawn, Turning a lawn into a vegetable garden gives the no-dig methods.
The plan: two beds of 1.20 m by 4.20 m
The width of 1.20 m is that of Charles Dowding's beds. You work it from the path, without stepping on the soil. Each bed is a little over 5 m². The spacings come from the sheets of the RHS, the British horticultural society.
Bed A, the hungry ones, sunny side.
| Crop | Length used | Plants | Spacing |
|---|---|---|---|
| First early potatoes | 1.75 m | 12 plants, in 2 rows | 30 cm between plants, 60 cm between rows |
| Courgette | 0.85 m | 1 plant | About 1 m² per plant |
| Tomatoes | 1.60 m | 6 plants, in 2 rows | 50 cm between plants |
Bed B, the leaves and the strawberries.
| Crop | Length used | Plants | Spacing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strawberry plants | 1.20 m | 6 plants, in 2 rows | 40 cm between plants, 75 cm between rows |
| Lettuces and radishes | 1 m | 12 lettuces, and a line of radishes between two rows | Lettuces at 30 cm, rows at 30 cm; radishes at 2.5 to 5 cm |
| Chard | 1 m | 6 plants, in 2 rows | 30 cm between plants, 45 cm between rows |
| Dwarf beans | 1 m | About 24 plants, in blocks | 15 cm between plants |
A single courgette may seem little. It takes a square metre on its own. Picked often, it produces for a long time. For a family, How many m² to feed a family does the calculation vegetable by vegetable.
Next year, swap the two beds. Brussels Environment advises not putting the same crop several times in a row in the same place. It wears out the soil and keeps diseases going.
Preparing the soil
Remove the weeds, loosen with a digging fork and rake fine. Brussels Environment works the soil to about fifteen centimetres before sowing salads. Then feed the soil. The RHS gives 5 to 10 kg of well-rotted compost per m², so half a bucket to a bucket. With Charles Dowding's 2.5 cm layer, you need about 250 litres on the surface for your 10 m². Feeding the vegetable garden soil gives the detail, with the soil test to do first.
The calendar, from March to October
Vegiwise catalogue dates for Belgium and northern France.
- March: plant the potatoes as soon as the soil reaches 8 °C. The catalogue opens on 1 March, the detail is in Planting your potatoes. Sow the first radishes and the chard. Plant the lettuces, from March to the end of April. Sow tomatoes in the warm, on a windowsill or under a lamp, from 7 March to 1 April.
- Mid-March to end of April: plant the strawberries.
- From mid-April to mid-July: sow the dwarf beans when the soil has warmed and frost is no longer to be feared (RHS).
- Mid-May: plant the courgette and put out the tomatoes. The exact date depends on the nights where you live (see The Ice Saints).
- All season: resow a short line of lettuces every fortnight, to spread the harvest (RHS).
The budget
Prices recorded on 6 November 2026, for the bed described above.
| Item | Detail | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Seeds | Reine de Mai de Liège lettuce, Rouge Flamboyant radish, Verte d'Italie courgette, Triomphe de Liège tomato: 4 packets at €3.20 | €12.80 |
| Seeds | La Victoire dwarf mangetout bean | €4.50 |
| Seeds | Chard, shop-bought packet | €2.10 |
| Plants | 6 strawberry plants in 12 cm pots, at €3.99 | €23.94 |
| Compost | 7 bags of 40 litres, at €5.30 in the Idelux recycling parks (recyparcs, Belgium) | €37.10 |
| Subtotal | Without the tools | €80.44 |
| Tools | The six tools at their simplest, in Belgium (see The 6 tools) | €84.89 |
| Total | If you start from nothing | €165.33 |
The potato seed tubers are missing, which reach the shops in spring. Count about a dozen tubers. If you already have compost, take off €37. How much does a 20 m² vegetable garden cost does the full calculation for 20 m², with the value of the harvests.
How long it takes
Nobody has timed a 10 m² bed. We would rather tell you so than invent a figure. Brussels Environment states 30 minutes a week for its town vegetable garden, in containers. What we do know is how often the moves come up.
Harvests are spread out. Cut-and-come-again lettuces give in 4 to 6 weeks, hearted ones in 10 to 14. Dwarf beans produce 8 to 10 weeks after sowing. You harvest first earlies from 12 weeks after planting. Chard gives for several months (RHS). For a vegetable garden designed for 30 minutes a week, read A vegetable garden when you are short of time.
The app starts from your address to set these dates to your garden. It reminds you of the right moment for each crop in your bed. Start here.
FAQ
What area for a first vegetable garden?
About ten square metres. Barbara Murphy, of the University of Maine, advises beginners to limit themselves to 10 feet by 10 feet, or 9.3 m².
When to start?
In February, to prepare the soil and order the seeds. In Belgium, the first sowings outside start in March with radishes and potatoes, according to the Vegiwise catalogue.
Do you have to dig before starting?
Not necessarily. In Charles Dowding's trial, the beds never worked produced at least as much as the bed loosened with a fork. The debate is in To dig or not to dig.
Which vegetables are sure to succeed in the first year?
The eight crops in this plan are a good start. 10 vegetables that succeed from the first year gives the full list, with the move not to miss for each.
Photo: Jason Zeis, Unsplash
Sources
- Barbara Murphy, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, citée par Boston.com, Advice for first-time gardeners: Think small, find the right spot (2 janvier 2020) : se limiter à 10 pieds sur 10
- Virginia Cooperative Extension, Diane Relf, Vegetable Gardening in Containers, 2026 (six heures de soleil direct au minimum pour les légumes-fruits, huit à dix heures mieux)
- Bruxelles Environnement, Mon potager en ville, 30 min par semaine (emplacement au sud ou au sud-ouest, rotation des cultures, 30 minutes par semaine)
- Charles Dowding, Three-strip trial, Homeacres (planches de 1,2 m sur 2 m, plus de 2 kg par m² en moyenne en 2020)
- RHS (Royal Horticultural Society), Potatoes: grow your own (30 cm entre les plants, 60 cm entre les rangs, primeurs dès 12 semaines)
- RHS, Courgettes: grow your own (90 cm entre les pieds, environ 1 m² par plante, récolte à 10 à 12,5 cm)
- RHS, Tomatoes: grow your own (45 à 60 cm entre les pieds)
- RHS, Lettuce: grow your own (30 cm pour les laitues pommées, rangs à 30 cm, semis tous les quinze jours, récolte en 4 à 14 semaines)
- RHS, Radishes: grow your own (rangs à 15 cm, graines à 2,5 à 5 cm, récolte en quatre semaines)
- RHS, Chard: grow your own (30 cm entre les plants, rangs à 45 cm, récolte pendant plusieurs mois)
- RHS, French beans: grow your own (haricots nains à 15 cm, en blocs ou en rangs doubles, récolte en 8 à 10 semaines)
- RHS, Strawberries: grow your own (35 à 40 cm entre les plants, rangs à 75 cm)
- Vegiwise, collection Semences potagères (prix des sachets relevés le 06/11/2026)
- Brico (Belgique), recherches « fraisier » et « graines bette » (prix relevés le 06/11/2026)
- Idelux Environnement, Compost vert, information et tarifs, janvier 2026 (5,30 € TVAC le sac de 40 litres dans les recyparcs)
He gardens in Belgium and tries out in his own vegetable patch what the app recommends. His articles always start from a source you can check and a step you can take this weekend.
