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The first thing you need to do is find a good location. You will preferably want a location with at minimum 6 hours of direct sunlight but you also don't want too much shade. As well as a location that has good drainage, standing water is not good for the produce.

Now let me say that I live on 2/3 acres, so I had a better choice of locations, than some may. Above is a picture taken at of my garden 2009 on an overcast day, still plenty of light all day long. You can pick a place in your back yard, side yard or even the front yard if that is where you get the best sunlight and have the best drainage.

There is nothing written that says you cannot plant tomatoes and lettuce plants on one side of your front door and squash, zucchini, corn ect... on the other side of your front door. But, you might want to make sure that it is planted so the tallest is in the back with the shortest in the front. I know a person that has their entire southern exposure front yard as a vegetable garden. She gets more comments on how beautiful her front yard is than anyone else in the neighborhood.

After choosing your location, stake out your garden plot, You can use anything for stakes from big rocks, to old tree branches, to tent spikes, whatever you have on hand, there is no need to buy anything there. After the area is laid out, take a string trimmer and take the grass and everything down to the dirt. Then place some black plastic over the area for at least a week preferably two. This will help reduce the weeds and warm the soil prior to your planting.

If this is the first time you have ever planted a garden in this area you will need to add some bio-matter to the soil. You should have the soil tested and you can get a soil test kit fairly inexpensive at your local nursery or some hardware stores. Or contact your local agriculture extension office or community college some will test your soil for free or for a small fee. And make a recommendation on what you may need to add to the soil (if the ph balance is too high or too low).

For most location you will want to add some good aged manure, fresh may be too "hot" for your garden and prevent the seeds from growing. At a local horse stable or ranch you can get a load of horse or cow manure fairly inexpensive. Here I can get a pick-up load of aged horse manure for $8. As well as some peat moss for a bio-matter

This is the first point where the "rubber meets the road". Time to break up your soil. First thing is you will want to water the area, there is nothing harder than trying to work dry soil. Next, you can either rent a rototiller, which in the long run would be the quickest method and gets the best mix of manure and peat moss. Or you can get a shovel and garden fork and do it all by hand, great cardiovascular exercise, lol.

The next point is totally up to you. After the soil is mixed with the bio-matter and manure, you can take a bow rake and take out all the grass root balls or you can leave them. I would recommend this so you won't have grass growing in the middle of your garden. Personally, when I rototill my garden area I work the soil to the point that all the grass root balls are totally broken up and it looks almost like those farm fields out in the country.

And now you are ready to plant your seeds and starter plants.