After you choose a good sunny spot for your vegetable garden and draw a plan on paper, you need to clean up the area so the soil will be easier to work. ©New Africa / Adobe StockYou can clear your garden area any time during the year, but the season before planting works best — clear in the fall for spring planting, or clear in the spring for summer or fall planting.

If you're trying to conserve water for your yard and garden, it's worth looking into the various ways you can grab and save this precious resource — thereby not having to turn on the house spigot.Water collection is easy, convenient, affordable … and smart. The two main options are rain barrels and cisterns. You may hear these projects referred to as rainwater harvesting.

Water conservation is becoming ever more important in sustaining a healthy planet. Paying attention to your water usage in the garden is one way to promote an eco-friendly lifestyle. You have two primary goals for green watering: Water your garden as infrequently as possible. By using native plants, you can design the sort of garden that can stay green without a lot of water in the first place.

Growing your garden requires the aid and cooperation of many forces including the climate in your hardiness zone; insects, good and bad; fertilizers; and soil amendments.Decorative material (such as mulch, stone, sand, and gravel) adds a nice finish, so know how much you need to buy. Adapting each element to your garden's needs — as best you can — leads to a successful gardening experience.

Pacific Northwest, including the milder parts of British Columbia, has a long season from spring through fall. West of the Cascade Range, the lingering cool spring tends to favor cool-season annuals, and the relatively cool summers encourage spectacular displays of annuals. East of the Cascades, where winters are longer and much colder, the annual season is shorter, but the heat and the dry climate are terrific for sun-loving annuals.

The Southwest deserts encompass mild-winter climates of the low-elevation deserts of Arizona and California. (The mountains of Arizona and New Mexico, as well as west Texas, have a more typical cold-winter, summer-only season for growing annuals.)Glory time for annuals is late winter and early spring in low-desert Arizona, primarily around Phoenix and Tucson, and California’s Coachella Valley.

The best advice for planning your first vegetable garden is to start small. Just be sure you locate your garden in a sunny spot where expansion is possible. As for actual size, it depends on what you want to grow. Here's what you can put in the following standard-size gardens: A 6 x 8 foot plot can support a couple tomato plants, maybe some bush beans, and some lettuce.

Gardening in Canada presents specific challenges due to our cold climate and short growing season. This cheat sheet offers tips for getting the most out of your Canadian garden.Start by checking the frost dates in your region and consult some of the many online gardening resources that are available. Protect your perennials through the winter and choose the best grasses for Canada’s climate to maintain a beautiful, thriving lawn and garden year after year.

Gardening sustainably just makes sense in our fragile world. Doing it in your own backyard takes a little effort, but more and more gardeners are finding that every step is worth it to create a sustainable garden that not only looks after your plants and you, but also helps the whole planet.Reducing your environmental footprint in the gardenSwitching over to sustainable gardening practices goes a long way to building a garden that you can enjoy, admire and even eat.