22 Different Gardening Methods, Clearly Explained

by Bethany Hayes (revised and updated)

The 30-second version: “Gardening method” is really two different things wearing the same name, and that’s the source of most of the confusion. Some of these — in-ground, raised bed, container, hydroponics, straw bale — are how and where you grow, and you pick exactly one for a given bed. Others — companion planting, succession planting, no-dig, organic — are techniques and philosophies you layer on top of whichever growing system you chose. You don’t have to pick a single “method” and commit forever. Most real gardens are a mix: a couple of raised beds run organically, with companion and succession planting layered in. Here’s what each term actually means, what it’s good for, and the honest tradeoff that comes with it.

First, sort out what “method” even means

When I started gardening, I assumed everyone was doing the same thing my parents did — a big in-ground plot with rows of green beans and tomatoes. It took me years to realize “gardening method” is a catch-all term that gets used for two very different kinds of decisions, and nobody ever spells out which is which. That’s why the lingo feels like a foreign language.

There are really two buckets:

The first is your growing system — the physical setup. In-ground, raised bed, container, vertical, straw bale, hydroponics, aquaponics. You choose one of these for any given bed because they’re mutually exclusive: a plant is either in the ground or in a pot, not both.

The second is your technique or philosophy — the approach you bring to that system. Organic, no-dig, companion planting, succession planting, permaculture, biodynamic. These stack on top of a growing system. You can run raised beds organically with companion planting and succession planting all at once.

Keep that split in mind as you read, and the whole list stops being overwhelming. You’re not choosing one of 22 things. You’re picking a growing system, then deciding how you want to manage it.

Quick reference: the growing systems

These are the “where do my plants physically live” options. Pick the one that fits your space, budget, and back.

System	Best for	Main tradeoff
In-ground	Big spaces, low startup cost, beginners	More weeding; you’re stuck with your native soil
Raised bed	Control over soil, drainage, easier on your back	Costs money to build and fill; dries out faster
Container	Patios, balconies, renters, tiny spaces	Needs frequent watering; limited root room
Vertical	Small footprints, climbing crops	Heavy or non-vining crops won’t work
Straw bale	Poor native soil, a temporary or raised setup	Bales must be conditioned first; dry out fast
Hydroponics	Fast indoor/outdoor growth, no soil	Expensive setup; relies on synthetic nutrients
Aquaponics	Growing fish and plants together	Expensive, space-hungry, more to learn

Quick reference: the techniques and philosophies

These layer on top of whichever system you chose above.

Approach	What it is	Layers onto
Organic	No synthetic fertilizers or pesticides	Any system
No-dig / no-till	Build soil in layers, never turn it	In-ground, raised beds
Lasagna	A no-dig start built from compost layers	In-ground, raised beds
Back to Eden	Deep wood-chip mulch over the soil	In-ground, raised beds
Ruth Stout	Permanent thick hay mulch	In-ground, raised beds
Hugelkultur	Buried rotting wood as a water-holding base	Raised beds, mounds
Core gardening	A buried sponge-like trench down the bed’s center	Raised beds, in-ground
Keyhole	Circular bed fed by a central compost basket	A raised-bed shape
Square foot	Bed divided into 1-foot planting squares	Raised beds
Companion planting	Pairing crops that help each other	Any system
Succession planting	Replanting in waves for a longer harvest	Any system
Permaculture	A self-sustaining, low-input ecosystem	A whole-garden philosophy
Biodynamic	Organic plus a focus on whole-ecosystem rhythms	A whole-garden philosophy
Conventional	Standard synthetic fertilizers and pesticides	Any system
Mittleider	Soil-or-hydroponic hybrid for small spaces	A small-space system

The growing systems, one by one

In-ground gardening

In-ground gardening is what most people picture: you grow plants directly in the ground. It’s the cheapest way to start and the easiest for beginners — no building, no filling, just dig and plant. The downsides are that you’re stuck with whatever soil you have, and there’s more weeding. I grew up with a huge in-ground bed and more than a hundred green bean plants, and what I remember most vividly is all the weeding my mother assigned me.

Raised bed gardening

You build beds up out of wood, brick, or mounded soil so the growing surface sits above ground level. Raised beds give you control over soil quality, better drainage, less compaction, and a surface that’s easier on your back and knees. The tradeoffs: building and filling them costs money, and because they sit up higher and drain well, they dry out faster and need watering more often.

Container gardening

No yard? No problem. Container gardening grows plants in pots, buckets, or anything that holds soil and drains, which makes it perfect for balconies and patios. It maximizes small spaces and you can move plants around to chase the sun. The main downside is that pots dry out fast and need frequent watering, and root space is limited. You don’t have to spend a fortune on planters — a five-gallon bucket with drainage holes grows a tomato just fine. Peppers and lettuce do well too.

Vertical gardening

When floor space is tight, grow upward. Vertical gardening trains plants up trellises, structures, and walls, which lets balcony and patio gardeners grow real amounts of food. It looks beautiful, too. The catch is that not everything climbs — heavy fruit or non-vining crops aren’t good candidates.

Straw bale gardening

Instead of planting in soil, you plant directly into conditioned straw bales. You have to condition the bales first (a week or two of watering and feeding to kick off decomposition) so the inside breaks down enough to host roots. It’s a handy option when your native soil is poor, and gardeners often pair it with raised beds to build up height. The downsides: bales dry out quickly, and you need to find straw that hasn’t been sprayed with weedkiller, which can stunt your plants.

Hydroponics gardening

Hydroponics is soil-free growing — plants root in continuously circulating, nutrient-rich water. With every nutrient delivered straight to the roots, it’s one of the fastest ways to grow, and you can do it indoors or out. The tradeoffs are real, though: the setup is expensive and it depends on water-soluble synthetic fertilizers.

Aquaponics gardening

Aquaponics is hydroponics with fish. Plants grow in water that fish live in; the fish waste is broken down into nitrates that feed the plants, and the plants clean the water. You can even harvest the fish. It conserves a lot of water, but it’s expensive and space-hungry, and you’re now keeping both a garden and an aquarium healthy at once.

The techniques and philosophies, one by one

Organic gardening

One of the most popular approaches: growing without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. Organic gardeners focus on soil health and on supporting the microorganisms and beneficial insects that keep a garden in balance, leaning on compost, cover crops, and crop rotation. It’s a philosophy you can apply to almost any growing system.

Conventional gardening

The flip side of organic, and what most home gardeners actually do: using synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides in varying amounts. It’s the default approach unless you’ve deliberately chosen otherwise.

Biodynamic gardening

Biodynamic gardening starts where organic does — no synthetic inputs — but goes further, treating the whole garden as one living ecosystem and working with natural rhythms rather than against them. Soil health and composting are central. It’s a philosophy, not a growing system.

No-dig (no-till) gardening

Instead of turning the soil, you build it up in layers and leave it undisturbed. You typically start with cardboard or newspaper to smother grass and weeds, then add compost and organic material, often topped with wood chips or more compost as mulch. The payoff is little to no weeding and steadily improving soil; the ongoing cost is topping up that mulch layer through the season.

Lasagna gardening

Lasagna gardening is a specific way to start a no-dig bed: you stack alternating “green” and “brown” compostable layers — hence “lasagna” — with soil on top. It’s a favorite for starting a bed over weedy ground or grass without removing it first. Build it deep (around two feet) because it compacts a lot as it breaks down.

Back to Eden gardening

This method covers the soil with four to six inches of wood chips that protect the ground, hold moisture, suppress weeds, and slowly feed the soil as they decompose. The honest downside: sowing seeds is a hassle, because you have to rake the chips back to reach soil, and direct-seeded crops struggle to push through.

Ruth Stout gardening

Named for the gardener who popularized it, this is the “no-work” hay-mulch approach: keep a permanent six-to-eight-inch layer of hay over the soil at all times. It suppresses weeds, conserves moisture, and feeds the soil as it breaks down, so you water and weed far less. Works in raised beds or in-ground.

Hugelkultur gardening

If you’ve got scrap wood and brush, hugelkultur puts it to use. You pile logs and organic material into a trench or mound and bury it under soil. The buried wood acts like a sponge, holding water, and slowly releases nutrients as it rots — so an established hugel bed needs very little watering. It takes some material and effort to build.

Core gardening

Core gardening is adapted from sub-Saharan growing techniques and is built around water retention. You dig a trench down the center of the bed and fill it with straw and organic material, then “charge” it with water so it acts like a giant sponge feeding the bed for weeks. It cuts watering dramatically and improves drainage. It looks odd at first, but the concept holds up — great if you hate watering.

Keyhole gardening

A keyhole garden is a circular raised bed with a wedge-shaped notch cut in one side (the “keyhole”) so you can reach the center, where a wire-mesh compost basket runs the full depth of the bed. You feed and water the compost basket, and moisture and nutrients spread outward through the whole bed. It’s really a raised-bed shape with built-in composting.

Square foot gardening

Square foot gardening divides a raised bed into a grid of one-foot squares, with a set number of plants per square depending on size. It packs a lot into a small area, cuts down on weeding, and pairs beautifully with succession planting. One of the best approaches for small-space growers.

Mittleider method

The Mittleider method is a hybrid built for small spaces — it combines soil-based growing with hydroponic-style precise feeding, and it’s often paired with vertical gardening to grow more in a tight footprint. Think of it as a structured, high-yield system for gardeners short on room.

Companion planting

More a technique than a standalone method, but every gardener should know it: you grow certain crops near each other so they help one another, whether by repelling pests, attracting pollinators, or making better use of space. A classic example is pairing basil with tomatoes. (If you want the evidence-backed pairings specifically for tomatoes, we go deep on that in our tomato companion planting guide.)

Succession planting

Another technique rather than a system: instead of planting everything at once, you sow in waves so you harvest steadily through spring, summer, and fall. It works best for fast-maturing crops like lettuce, carrots, radishes, greens, and green beans — not for long-season crops like tomatoes and peppers.

Permaculture

Permaculture is a whole-garden philosophy aimed at building a self-sustaining ecosystem, sometimes called a food forest. It leans on perennials and natives — berries, fruit trees — though that’s not the only way to do it. It avoids tilling, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides, and instead designs plants, soil, and insects to work together with minimal ongoing input.

So which one should you choose?

Here’s the part the original “list of 22” never told you: you don’t choose one. You make a couple of straightforward decisions.

Start with your space and budget. Tight on room or renting? Containers or vertical. Have a yard and want to keep costs low? In-ground. Want control over your soil and an easier time on your back, and don’t mind spending on setup? Raised beds. Bad native soil? Straw bale or raised beds with imported soil. Fascinated by growing without soil and willing to invest? Hydroponics or aquaponics.

Then decide how you want to manage it. Most home gardeners land on organic or close to it. From there, layer in the labor-savers that fit: no-dig, Ruth Stout, or Back to Eden mulching if you hate weeding; companion and succession planting to get more out of the space; square foot if you’re working a small raised bed.

A perfectly normal, productive garden might be “two raised beds, grown organically, with companion plants tucked in and a square-foot layout.” That’s four “methods” from this list working together, not in competition.

Common Questions

Do I have to pick just one method?
No — and that’s the main thing I wish someone had told me early on. You pick one growing system per bed, then layer on as many techniques as you like. Mixing is the norm, not a compromise.

What’s the easiest method for a total beginner?
In-ground if you have decent soil and space, or containers if you don’t. Both are cheap to start and forgiving while you learn. You can always graduate to raised beds later.

What’s the difference between no-dig, lasagna, Back to Eden, and Ruth Stout?
They’re all variations on the same idea — build soil from the top down and don’t disturb it — they just use different top materials. Lasagna uses layered compost to start a bed, Back to Eden uses wood chips, and Ruth Stout uses a permanent layer of hay. No-dig is the umbrella term for all of them.

Is organic the same as biodynamic or permaculture?
They overlap but aren’t identical. Organic means no synthetic inputs. Biodynamic adds a whole-ecosystem, rhythm-of-nature philosophy on top of organic. Permaculture is a broader design philosophy aimed at a self-sustaining, low-input system, often built around perennials.

Which methods save the most water?
The mulch- and sponge-based approaches: Ruth Stout, Back to Eden, hugelkultur, and core gardening all hold moisture so you water less. Hydroponics and aquaponics also recirculate water efficiently. Containers and raised beds are the thirstiest because they drain and dry out fastest.

Final Thoughts

Twenty-two terms is a lot to throw at a new gardener, but once you split them into “where my plants grow” and “how I manage them,” it gets simple fast. Pick a growing system that fits your space and budget, choose a management style you’ll actually keep up with, and layer in the techniques that solve your particular headaches. The best method is the one you’ll enjoy and stick with — so try a couple of these this year and see what your garden tells you.