Garden Planning for Beginners
Hey there friends! It’s the dead of summer here in Texas and we’ve been “enjoying” almost constant triple digit heat since May. This heat has me dreaming of all things fall, mainly my fall garden. What about you?
It’s that time in the summer season when I start thinking about WHAT I want to plant and WHERE I want to put it. Hopefully this post will walk you through my process so that you can have a plan ahead of time too.
Find a list of vegetables that grow well in YOUR zone for the season you want to plant. The Farmer’s Almanac is a good place to start if you’ve never done this before. You just enter in your zip code, and they give you a list of what to plant, when. I also like the app From Seed to Plate, get the app HERE. I like this app because it gives you personalized planting dates, companion planting guides and helps me keep track of when to plant what. I’m a sucker for a checklist!
Using the list of what WILL grow make another list of WHAT your family likes to eat. It makes zero sense to spend the money and time growing something no one in your house enjoys eating. This is where the fun begins. Sit down with your family and make a plan together, maybe have each kid pick 3 vegetables they’d like to try growing.
Take the list of what your family likes and begin looking up companion plants for each fruit/vegetable. I made a COMPANION BLOG POST that gives some suggestions, or you can do a google search and figure it out on your own. Doing your own research is always a good idea. You’ll likely see some overlap once you have this chart/list. This is a good thing; it tells you what plants can be near each other and can go in the same beds.
It’s finally time to draw out your plan. What type of garden do you want? Rows? Square Foot Gardening? Companion/Free Flow Gardening? The layout is totally dependent on you and your preferences! What speaks to your heart the most? I like to make a rough sketch and figure it out as I go along. My main objective is to know where I planted the previous season so I can rotate crops throughout the garden each season. This leads to healthier soil since some plants take nutrients away from the soil and some plants feed the soil. If you’d like to draw your plans to scale and get more technical, HERE is a good guide.
Lastly, expect your finished project to look a little different than your plan. Plans change, and that’s okay. Gardening is like art; it changes as you work with it. Enjoy the process and watch what the plants do. Mix in flowers, herbs and a few trees for shade. This is meant to be FUN!
