Planning begins with a list of plants that you want to grow and a blank garden diagram you can draw yourself. Our approach to mapping out your vegetable garden beds depend highly on priorities.
For example, I love growing peppers, tomatoes, and lettuce. I begin with these crops and plot out where they will be planted for the new season. Then I move on to other crops that will need trellis supports to grow. Finally, I fill in with short seasoned spring crops along with what will be planted once these crops are finished.
Switching out “short season” crops after harvest through out the growing season is called “succession planting”
Before you begin plotting out your garden layout, review the list of crops you want to grow, decided roughly how many plants of each vegetable you would like to grow, and check the seed package to see how much space each plant will need.
Step 1: First, make a sketch of the garden area showing the dimensions of your garden beds. This can be done on a computer program simply sketched out on graph paper, or just plain paper.
Step 2: Refer to your seed list and begin arranging the crops in the garden map.
Use the recommended space between plants indicated on the back of your seed package to estimate how many plants you can grow in an area. We like to use the square foot gardening technique.
Step 3: Start plotting your garden with the crops you consider important.
For example, tomatoes and peppers are very important in our garden. These are plotted first on my garden map to insure there is plenty of room to grow enough of these crops for preserving.
Step 4: Move on to crops that need trellis supports to grow. Remember tall crops should grow on the north side of your beds, so they donât shade other plants.
Plan out where you will grow your indeterminate tomatoes, cucumbers, pole beans, peas, and other crops that will benefit growing with supports.
Step 5: Finally, fill in with short seasoned spring crops along with what will be succession planted once these crops are finished.
Mapping the garden beds each year will help give you an idea of what garden will look like. It makes it easy to figure out the amount of seeds and seedlings you will need to fill the space.
In addition, mapping the garden beds provides a record of what was planted in each location from year to year.
Also, Gardeners Supply offers a great (and free) tool (works best on desktop) that allows you to either create your own plan by dropping your desired crop per box OR offers tons of pre-planned beds for inspiration. Try it here!
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This is super helpful! I especially appreciate the visual with how many plants will fit within each square foot. Thank you!!