Getting started — your first SFG year
If you have never grown vegetables before, the Garden Guide can look overwhelming. This page is your shortcut: a realistic, month-by-month roadmap for your first SFG season, with just enough detail that you know what to do, when to do it, and — just as important — what to skip in year one.
Five decisions to make before you buy anything
Answer these five questions on paper before you spend a cent. Good answers save you both money and frustration.
Where will the bed go? Minimum 6 hours of direct sun, within hose-reach of a tap or rain butt, and accessible from all sides. See the "Bed Layout" tab for a full pre-build checklist.
How big? For your first year: one 1.2×1.2 m bed. Nothing bigger. It already holds 16 squares — plenty to learn on, too small to overwhelm you.
What do you actually want to eat? Tomatoes because the shop ones are tasteless? Fresh salad in five minutes? Herbs for cooking? Build the wishlist around what you'll actually use, not what's on the seed rack.
How much time per week? Honestly. 30 minutes per week is enough for a 1.2×1.2 m SFG bed once it's running. If you only have 10 minutes, shrink the bed, not the time budget.
What's your climate zone / last frost date? This determines when you start and what grows in your winters. PlotMate's location setting auto-detects this — but also worth knowing roughly in your head.
Shopping list
You actually need
A bed frame — four untreated wooden boards, ~20 cm high. Cost: €30–80 for a 1.2×1.2 m DIY bed, or a pre-made raised-bed kit (€80–200).
Fill material — compost, coir (soaked), vermiculite. Budget roughly 150 litres each for a 1.2×1.2 m × 20 cm bed (~450 litres total).
A visible grid — thin wooden slats, sash cord or plastic-coated wire. €5–15.
Hand tools — a trowel, a pair of bypass pruners, a watering can. That's it for year one.
Seeds and seedlings — more on this in the roadmap below. Start with 4–6 crops, not 20.
One garden notebook (or PlotMate!) to track what you planted where and when.
Skip for year one
Fancy tools (digging fork, hoe, rake) — you don't dig an SFG bed and you can't reach into it anyway.
Chemical fertilizers, "vegetable boosters", soil conditioners — Mel's Mix already contains everything needed.
Greenhouses, cold frames, grow lights — lovely in year 3, overkill in year 1.
Expensive seed varieties and heirlooms — use cheap standard varieties for your first season and upgrade once you know what works.
Your first-year roadmap
Based on a Central European / zone 7 climate. Shift the dates ±2–4 weeks if your climate is colder or warmer.
Winter (Dec–Feb): Planning
Read this Guide. Sketch your bed on paper. Order seeds from a reputable supplier (Bingenheimer, Kokopelli, Real Seeds). Build the bed frame in a sheltered spot — wood is cheaper out of season.
Early spring (Mar): Set up
Place the bed in its sunny spot. Fill with Mel's Mix (1/3 compost, 1/3 coir, 1/3 vermiculite). Install the grid. Sow the cool-season crops directly: peas, radishes, lettuce, spinach, carrots.
Spring (Apr–May): Planting
After your last frost date, transplant warm-season seedlings (tomato, pepper, basil, courgette). Start a weekly 10-minute garden walk: water check, pest check, harvest the early radishes.
Summer (Jun–Aug): Harvest & succession
Peak harvest season. Pick often (picking = more picking). As each square empties, top with compost and replant. Tomatoes: tie to stakes weekly, pinch side shoots. Water deeply 2–3× per week at the base.
Autumn (Sep–Oct): Second harvest
Plant autumn crops in cleared squares (kale, winter lettuce, lamb's lettuce, spring onions). Mulch the summer squares. Save seeds from the best tomato and bean plants. Harvest final tomatoes before frost.
Late autumn (Nov): Wrap up
Add a 5 cm top-up of compost to each empty square. Cover with cardboard or a mulch of leaves. Clean and store tools. Write down what worked and what didn't — year 2 starts with that list in hand.
Year-one crops (pick 4–6 of these)
The easiest, most rewarding crops for a first SFG year. High success rate, tolerant of beginner mistakes, delicious eating.
Radishes — 4 weeks from seed to harvest. Fail-safe and motivating.
Lettuce — continuous harvest from spring to autumn with staggered sowing. Pick outer leaves, let the plant keep growing.
Cherry tomatoes — choose a disease-resistant variety (Primabella, Rote Murmel, Sungold). Easier than big tomatoes, sweeter than shop ones.
Bush beans — sow directly in May, harvest July–September. They fix nitrogen for free for the next crop.
Herbs — basil, parsley, chives in one square each. Expensive to buy, stupidly easy to grow.
Courgette — one plant per square, one plant produces more than most families can eat.
Realistic expectations for year one
You will not be self-sufficient. A first 1.2×1.2 m bed provides roughly 1–2 salads per week at peak, plus tomato and herb highlights. That's fine — the real payoff is the learning.
Some crops will fail. Every single experienced gardener still has failures every year. Don't let one bolted lettuce or one failed cucumber talk you out of continuing.
Your year two will be 3× better than year one. The soil matures, your timing improves, you know what your family actually eats.
You will save time, not lose it. Once the bed is running, 15–30 minutes per week keeps it productive. You'll spend more time eating homegrown veg than growing it.
First-year mistakes to avoid
Building too big. One 1.2×1.2 m bed. Resist the 2-bed temptation for year one.
Growing 20 different crops. Pick 4–6 year one, master them, add 2–3 new ones each year.
Sowing everything on day one. Sow lettuce, radish and carrots every 2–3 weeks — not the whole packet in March.
Ignoring the bed for 2 weeks in summer. Missing 2 weeks of harvest means bolted lettuce, tough beans, and split tomatoes. The weekly 10-minute walk is non-negotiable.
Giving up after one bad crop. Nobody's first tomato plant looks like Instagram. Keep notes, adjust, keep going.
Year one is for learning, not for maximum yield. The single most valuable thing you can do is keep a short weekly note of what you sowed, what grew, what you harvested, and what your family actually ate. That notebook (or PlotMate journal) is worth more than any fertilizer.