How to Start a Garden From Scratch (Beginner-Friendly Step-by-Step Guide)

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Learn how to start a garden from scratch with this beginner-friendly step-by-step guide to building healthy, thriving garden beds.

Starting a garden from scratch sounds simple enough… until you’re standing there looking at a patch of grass wondering where to even begin.

I’ve been gardening for over 25 years, and in my former home alone, I created multiple new garden beds for everything from flower gardens and cut flowers to vegetables and problem areas in the yard that needed a little disguising. So I’ve started a lot of gardens over the years, and I’ve definitely learned what works and what I’d skip if I had to do it again.

In this post, I’m going to walk you through how to start a garden from scratch by removing grass and building a new bed step by step. It’s not the easiest method, but sometimes it’s the most practical, especially if you’re working with an existing lawn.

And if you’re still deciding what kind of garden you want to grow, whether it’s flowers, vegetables, or herbs, I’ve got beginner guides that will help you figure that out before you start digging.

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A lush garden with vibrant purple flowers, terracotta pots on stakes, and a stone fountain in the center, surrounded by green foliage and blooming pink flowers.

What to Consider Before Starting a Garden From Scratch

Before you start digging up your lawn, take a little time to think through what you actually want from this space. This is where a lot of beginners skip ahead, and it usually leads to frustration later.

Decide What You Want to Grow First

Before anything else, decide what kind of garden you want.

Are you hoping to grow:

Flowers for color and seasonal blooms
Vegetables for fresh food
Herbs for cooking
Or a mix of everything

This matters because what you grow determines everything else, especially how much sunlight your garden will need and how you design the space.

If you’re not quite sure yet, this is where I’d start:

For flowers, read my flower gardening for beginners guide
For growing your own food, check out my vegetable gardening for beginners guide
For something simple and useful, my herb gardening for beginners post is a great place to begin

Once you know what you want to grow, the rest of the decisions get much easier.

A colorful garden border with blooming purple, pink, and red flowers, lush green foliage, and a grassy lawn. Tall trees with autumn leaves stand in the background under a clear blue sky.

A black woven basket filled with ripe red tomatoes sits on a rustic wooden table outdoors. The background features lush green foliage and a wicker chair, reminiscent of an organic gardening setup. Sunlight casts a natural glow over the scene, highlighting the freshness of growing tomatoes.

Choose the Right Location

Next, figure out where your garden should go.

The biggest factor here is sunlight.

6–8+ hours = full sun
4–6 hours = partial sun
Less than 4 hours = shade

If you’re not sure how much sun a spot gets, spend a day watching it. Check in the morning, mid-day, and afternoon. It’s simple, but it will save you from planting something in the wrong place.

I’ve learned this one the hard way more than once.

Tall purple flowers (playin the blues salvia) in the foreground with clusters of vibrant pink and red flowers in the blurred background, surrounded by lush green foliage in a garden setting.

Test Your Soil Before You Plant

I always recommend doing a soil test before starting a new garden.

I know it feels like an extra step, but it will save you a lot of time, money, and frustration.

Your soil affects:

How well plants grow
How water drains or holds
What nutrients are available

For example, if your soil is more alkaline, certain plants just won’t thrive no matter how well you care for them. And if you don’t know that ahead of time, it can feel like you’re doing everything wrong.

You can get a soil test through your local cooperative extension, and it’s one of the best things you can do before planting.

A lush flower garden with vibrant purple, pink, and red blooms growing along a curved edge, bordered by neatly trimmed green grass, with trees and a house in the background on a sunny day.

Plan the Size and Shape of Your Garden

Before you start digging, map out your garden.

I usually:

Lay out the shape with a hose or extension cord
Measure the space
Think about how many plants I want to include

Also keep in mind how large plants will get over time. It’s really easy to overplant in the beginning, and then everything feels crowded a year or two later.

A vibrant garden filled with various flowers, including pink dahlias, coneflowers, and marigolds, in front of a shed with green and beige siding and a brown shingled roof. The lush greenery is accented with garden lights and a wooden fence. — My Former Cottage Garden by the Shed Started Using the Lasagna Gardening Method

Is This the Best Way to Start a Garden? My Honest Take

I’ve started a lot of garden beds over the years, and I’ll be honest with you… this method works, but it’s not always my favorite.

Removing grass and digging out a new bed is a lot of work. If I’m doing it myself, it’s a full workout. And unless I have help, it can be pretty tiring.

Whenever I can, I actually prefer using the lasagna gardening method because it’s easier and much less labor-intensive.

That said, there are times when removing the lawn makes the most sense.

If I have an area where grass isn’t growing well anyway, I’ll remove it and turn it into a garden bed instead. At that point, I’d much rather have flowers growing there than struggling turf.

Less grass, more blooms.

A lush flower garden with vibrant pink, orange, yellow, and white flowers; a stone border separates the flowers from the green grass. A small, fluffy brown cat sits among the blooms. Green fencing and trees are in the background.

Supplies You’ll Need to Start a Garden Bed

If you’ve been gardening for a while, you may already have most of these. But if you’re starting fresh, here’s what I typically use when creating a new garden bed.

You don’t need anything fancy, just tools that can handle digging and moving soil.

How to Start a Garden From Scratch (Step-by-Step)

Here’s exactly how I start a new garden bed when I’m removing grass.

Step 1: Mark Out Your Garden Bed

Use a garden hose or extension cord to outline the shape of your new bed. This helps you visualize the space before you commit to digging.

Starting a garden from scratch by removing the grass after outlining the new shape

Step 2: Cut and Remove the Grass

Using a spade shovel, cut along the outline and start lifting out the grass.

This is the most labor-intensive part of the process.

You can:

Reuse the grass in other parts of your yard
Or compost/dispose of it

A person wearing a blue hoodie and jeans gardening with a fork, shaping a stone-lined flower bed in a residential yard with a red tricycle and parked cars in the background. Starting a garden from scratch for beginners

Step 3: Loosen and Turn the Soil

Once the grass is removed, use a pitchfork or shovel to loosen the soil.

This helps:

Improve drainage
Make planting easier
Allow roots to establish more quickly

a man dressed in jeans, a blue shirt, and orange hat digging out the grass after making the outline using a spade shovel and wheelbarrow

Step 4: Amend the Soil

Before planting, I always add compost or organic matter.

Sometimes I’ll use a garden soil blend that already includes compost and humus. It’s just easier and helps improve soil structure right away.

A gardener aerates the soil with a fork, preparing a flower bed for planting, exemplifying hands-on garden care for cultivating vibrant fresh cut flowers.

Step 5: Lay Out Your Plants

Before planting, set your plants in place.

Check plant tags for spacing
Group in odd numbers
Give plants room to grow

It may look a little sparse at first, but it fills in faster than you think.

new garden with freshly added mulch tin suburban landscape

Step 6: Plant Your Garden

Dig a hole about twice the size of the root ball
Loosen the roots slightly
Place the plant and backfill with soil
Water thoroughly

Step 7: Add Mulch

Finish by adding a layer of mulch.

This helps:

Retain moisture
Suppress weeds
Regulate soil temperature

How to start a new garden - summer mixed border with daylillies smoke tree, zebra grass and hydrangea — This border conceals equipment for our well. The bed we added this weekend is an extension of this border.

A Much Easier Option: Lasagna Gardening

If you read through that and thought, that sounds like a lot of work… you’re not wrong.

That’s why I often use lasagna gardening instead.

This method involves layering materials right over your lawn:

Cardboard or newspaper
Compost
Leaves or other organic matter

Over time, everything breaks down into rich, workable soil without digging.

I’ve started many garden beds this way, and it’s a great option if you want to avoid the heavy labor.

To learn how I’ve used this method in my gardens, please visit my guide on lasagna gardening.

A vibrant cottage garden filled with blooming flowers and lush greenery, leading up to a small, beige garden shed. The scene is sunlit, creating a serene and inviting atmosphere. Tall grasses and sedum autumn joy add texture and depth to the landscape. — Sedum autumn joy as it starts to bloom in backyard garden that I started from scratch with divisions and lasagna gardening.

How to Care for Your New Garden

Once your garden is planted, the focus shifts to maintenance.

Watering

Water deeply and consistently, especially while plants are getting established.

I always recommend:

Watering at the base of plants
Watering earlier in the day
Avoiding overwatering

If you want a deeper look at how I manage watering across different garden types, you can read my full guide on watering your flower garden.

Bright pink and yellow dahlias bloom among green foliage in a garden, with a few terracotta pots visible and sunlight filtering through trees in the background.

Feeding Your Plants

Use a balanced fertilizer or compost to provide nutrients throughout the growing season. Slow-release or organic options tend to work well too.

Ongoing Maintenance

Deadhead flowers to encourage more blooms
Stake taller plants if needed.
Keep an eye on spacing as plants grow

If you need to drill down on any of these topics please visit my guides on deadheading flowers and supporting tall flowers.

A woman in a sunhat and light summer clothes stands in a vibrant garden full of colorful flowers, smiling while holding gardening shears and a white cup. Lush greenery and blooming plants surround her.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Starting a Garden

These are the things I see most often:

Skipping the soil test
Planting in the wrong light conditions
Overplanting and crowding
Overwatering
Not mulching

Avoiding these early on will make a big difference.

A lush garden with purple and pink flowers, green foliage, and a small wooden footbridge in the background. A yellow house with a green fence is partially visible on the left, surrounded by tall trees.

What to Do After You Start Your Garden

Once your bed is in place, the next step is learning how to grow and care for what you planted.

If you’re focusing on flowers, my flower gardening for beginners guide walks you through plant selection, layout, and care.

If you’re growing food, you’ll want to read my vegetable gardening for beginners guide so you can set yourself up for success.

And if you’re starting small, my herb gardening for beginners post is a great place to begin.

How to Get Better Results With Each Garden You Build

One thing I’ve learned after starting so many gardens over the years is this… it’s not just about building the bed, it’s about learning from what happens after.

Because every time you start a new garden, you figure out something new:

What plants actually thrive in your space
What struggled and why
How your soil behaves
How much watering your garden really needs

And the truth is, if you don’t keep track of it, you won’t remember it next season.

That’s where most gardeners get stuck. It ends up feeling like starting over every year.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing everything right but your garden still isn’t coming together the way you pictured, that’s exactly the problem I wrote The Bricks ‘n Blooms Guide to a Beautiful and Easy-Care Flower Garden to solve. It walks you through plant selection, garden design, and my real-life, easy-care approach so you can stop guessing and start growing with more confidence. You can find it here.

And once you start building gardens, tracking what works becomes just as important.

Things like:

When you planted
How your soil performed
How often you watered
What you’d change next time

If you’ve ever thought “I should remember this for next year” and then didn’t, that’s exactly what my Bricks ‘n Blooms Beautiful and Easy Care Flower Garden Planner is for.

It’s not just a place to write things down, it’s a system to track your garden, your results, and your ideas so your garden actually improves year after year instead of staying the same. Take a look here .

5 Ways to Grow a Cottage Garden — Front walkway border that blooms throughout the season and attracts pollinators.

Final Thoughts on Starting a Garden From Scratch

Starting a garden from scratch is one of those projects that feels big in the beginning, but once you do it, it gets easier every time.

I’ve created a lot of garden beds over the years, and no two have ever been exactly the same. Every space has different soil, different light, and different challenges. But that’s also what makes gardening so rewarding. You learn as you go, and each garden gets a little better than the last.

If there’s one thing I’d tell you, it’s this… don’t overthink it.

Pick a spot, start your bed, and learn from it. You don’t have to get everything perfect the first time. I certainly didn’t. Some of my best gardens came from experimenting, adjusting, and trying again the next season.

And whether you’re planting flowers, growing vegetables, or just adding a small herb garden, the process is always the same. Start with a solid foundation, pay attention to what works, and build from there.

Because once you get started, you’ll start to see the possibilities everywhere. And before you know it… you’ll be looking around your yard thinking, I could definitely add another garden bed right there.

Have you started a garden from scratch before? Do you have any tips to share? If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, please let me know in the comments below. I’d love to chat more!

For more information about starting a new garden, please read this article from the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension.

Thank you for stopping by the blog today.

Enjoy your day! xo