Potatoes and onions are considered easy to grow as they need only a sunny location and good soil. You can plant onion sets or onion seeds in early spring into well worked soil that drains well and when it comes to potatoes you can plant the spuds in mounds or hills, in rows or even in tall containers or wire cages. You should see onion "sets" and "seed potatoes" for sale in the spring at garden centers and nurseries. You can look for planting instructions near the sale bins or ask the nursery owner for an information sheet on planting these crops. One tip is not to mix fresh manure into the area where you want to grow potatoes as this encourages disease. Improving any soil can be done by working organic matter such as compost into the top 12 inches of soil before planting. All soils are different so if you want to grow lots of veggies I recommend you get a soil analysis done. This will help you to learn how you can better improve your soil over the next few years by adding amendments along with fertilizer.  Keep growing, Marianne Binetti