Plowing gains 1 XP regardless of what you plant any unused piece of ground can be used.

Unlike farm town your neighbors and friends cannot help you plow.

Using a tractor allows you to plow larger swathes of land. However they require fuel and fuel can only be purchased with cash not coins or you can wait for it to refill. It refills at the rate of one per 2 minutes. Each fuel unit allows you to do one thing to one square of grown.(Plow, Harvest, or Seed)

If you build a fence around yourself your character won't walk to the different squares and will plow much quicker. But a better tip is to watch where your character pops up on the screen. At that point put 4 hay bales around him/her. This will make it so your character can't move. This cuts down on the time spent walking from one square to the next.