1. Choose your site… Make sure that you read the tags on your plants (full sun, shade, partial sun/shade, morning sun only) or seed packets. Most edible crops need full sun to grow—at least 6-8 hours per day. Raised Beds allow you to make a garden where there is none and work for areas with poor soils. You can even put a raised bed on a concrete slab. Landscape borders are designed to add beauty to the edges of your garden. By mixing edibles with flowers, your garden will look fresh all season long. Container gardening allows you to garden on deck, patios, and balconies, with the flexibility of changing crops or flowers out for the seasons.
2. Preparing your soil… Healthy plantings start with healthy soil. In raised beds and containers, choose an all-purpose potting mix specific for flowers or vegetables, with or without fertilizers. This soil can be reused for many years; just add fertilizer if needed (see number 4).  When gardening in the ground, get a soil test. DIY with a home test kit or contact your County Extension Agency. Amend soil with recommended nutrients and adjust the pH. Most vegetables like a pH between 6–7.
3. Watering… Make watering easier by putting your garden near a water source. Or try snaking a hose hidden discretely under bushes or mulch, to your garden bed. Get an inexpensive rain gauge and keep track of how much water your garden is getting. If your garden doesn’t get an inch or more that week, supplement from the hose. Water early in the morning or evenings. Water at the base of each plant, not overhead. Water containers and raised beds when dry. Water ground plantings weekly as needed. Mulch helps retain moisture.
4. Feeding plants… To feed your plants, you must nourish the soil. Fertilizing will improve plant health, pest and disease resistance, and flower or fruit production. Fertilizer provides the added nutrients needed to amend your soil. Plants require large amounts of nutrients, so they often need replenishing. This is particularly true for annual vegetable plants. Fertilizers use a 3 number identifier, called NPK. N is Nitrogen, which helps foliage. P is for Phosphorus, which helps roots. K is for Calcium which helps overall plant health. Give all your plants a good start by fertilizing at planting time. Containers and raised beds should be fertilized twice a week. Ground plants need fertilized twice a week. Look for NPK analysis like 4-6-6
5. Protecting with Mulch… Mulching is one of the best things you can do to achieve great gardening success. Mulching helps retain moisture, adds nutrients back into the soil, suppresses weeds, and keeps the garden looking tidy. A 2-4 inch mulching also moderates your soil temperature—keeping the ground cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter—there by reducing the likelihood of heaving. Also called frost heave, heaving is when plants are pushed out from the ground during repeated freezing and thawing. Organic mulches, such as compost, composted leaf mulch, and chopped autumn leaves, are excellent sources of mulch. In dry beds where you might grow rosemary or lavender, gravel mulch works well.  
6. Chasing Away Pests… Keeping pests away from your plants all starts with prevention. Allowing space between plants helps reduce pest problems. Air circulation keeps the foliage dry, creating less hospitable conditions for opportunistic pests and fungus. Know the difference between good bugs and bad bugs. Beneficial bugs include Aphidius Wasp, Assassin Bug, Lacewing, Hover Fly. Pests include: Aphid, Asparagus Beetle, Cutworm, and Cabbage Worm.

Good Luck and Happy Gardening!