Growing your own vegetables is one of the most enjoyable, rewarding sorts of gardening you can do: in return for your efforts, you'll harvest food that's fresh and bursting with flavor. To make your vegetable patch a success, do a little planning before you plant.

If you're new to vegetable gardening, start small. An area of just 100 to 130 square feet can provide a substantial harvest. As you gain experience, you may want to expand the plot.

List the vegetables your family really enjoys, then consider how much room each kind requires. If space is limited, raise plants that give a good yield for the area they occupy. Beans, tomatoes, and summer squash, for example, can overwhelm you with their bounty from a postage stamp-size plot. At the other extreme are some other kinds of squash, melons, and corn, which require a great deal of space relative to their yield.