Your question is very wide divadebbie and covers almost the whole subject of vegetable gardening. Firstly, try to think of what vegetables you like to eat. Then research to see if they will grow in your area. Then research which time of year each one needs to be sown, planted and harvested. To get vegetables all year long you have to live in the right climate and choose the right varieties. You also have to sow and plant at specific times of the year. You can't just stick a bunch of plants in once and have veggies for months. I would suggest you break down your question into more specific ones and repost over on the Vegetable Growing Forum which gets a lot more traffic than this one. There are also FAQs over there to get you started. As for slugs .... that's a study in itself. Vegetable Forum