Every year I sit down and draw my garden out on paper and this helps me keep my garden plan on track. Here are my garden planning tips to help you this year.
Every gardener goes about planning their garden a bit differently. Some use apps on their phones and other like to use a good old piece of graph paper and a pencil.
I, for one, enjoy laying my garden out on paper. Below I will layout the steps you should take to start planning your garden. Each step is laid out in chronological order.
Step 1: Decide What To Grow
Before you even start laying your garden out, think about what you want to grow. I recommend ordering seed catalogs to help you in this step.
I believe the majority of your garden should be planted with vegetables that you and your family already enjoy. Don't plant a patch of radishes if you don't know you like them.
I also like to save a bit of my garden for trying new plants and experimenting because you may find a new vegetable you like.
Make a list of vegetables that you plan on growing and move on to the next step.
Step 2: Choose A Spot For Your Garden
This is of course a very important part of the garden planning process. The first thing to do is survey your entire property.
A garden should not be in full shade, low areas that flood, or too close to utilities. This post can help you to choose an area to put your garden.
Once you find a spot also think of how you will keep animals out of your garden. I used a temporary fence for many years, but I now have a permanent fence. You can find plans for my fence here.
Step 3: Decide On Your Gardening Technique
Do you want raised beds, an inground garden that you till, or a no dig garden with mulch? No answer is right for everyone because this can depend on your soil.
If you have very poor soil you may decide on raised beds that you fill with good soil. My garden is a traditional inground garden and I use both no dig and tilling techniques.
I recommend getting books on different gardening methods and reading them to find which one suits your needs best.
Step 4: Narrow Your Plant List Down
That plant list you made earlier should now be narrowed down based on your garden plot. Think about how much of each vegetable you will want.
For my family 6-8 tomato plants produces all our needs. Go through each vegetable that you want most and see how much space it will take up.
Listing your plants in order of what you want to grow the most is helpful with this step.
Also read about each plant to see if your climate is even good for it. Finding the light requirements of your vegetables is also a good idea. If your garden is in full sun don't plant something that likes shade.
Step 5: Lay Your Garden Out On Paper
This is the exciting part of garden planning! You can now lay your garden out on paper and see it come together to get a vision of what it will look like.
I like to use this garden journal which has graph sheets that make laying my garden out easy. You can also just use a piece of graph paper for this step.
When I plan my garden I make each square of graph paper equal one foot. This makes it easy to space your plants out. (Make sure to look up recommended spacing.)
I draw the perimeter of my garden and then fill it in with plants and beds while leaving some room for walk ways.
When laying your garden out also think of plant heights and shade. You don't want your corn stalks to shade out your pepper plants.
The tallest plants should be planted in the back of the garden keeping other plants from being too shaded.
Once you have it all filled in you have a completed garden plan. Don't be afraid to rearrange it or change it after it is all written down!
Step 6: Buy Seeds
This is the best part in my opinion! By now you should know what plants you are going to grow, and how many seeds/plants you need.
Now it is time to choose what plant varieties you want to grow. Heirloom seed catalogs have so many choices and sometimes the variety is surprising.
Here are some of my favorite seed companies to order from.
Step 7: Stick To The Plan
If you followed all of these steps you should now have a planned out garden! Remember to keep your plan close by and use it when planting time rolls around.
It is easy to forget where you plan on growing certain plants and that is why writing it all down and laying it out is so helpful.
Also remember to date and save your garden plan. Old garden plans come in handy when it comes to crop rotation.
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