Garden Planning

Monday, January 05, 2009

There’s no more local food than that you grow in your own backyard, and now’s the time to start planning - which is my favorite part. I love planning and organizing things, looking through seed catalogs, and of course in the planning stage every garden is perfect - no mysteriously dead or dying plants, no diseases, no pests, no weeds, and not a whole lot of work .

I’m going to give a brief description of my planning process for 2009.  While reading, please keep in mind three things: 1) I have a relatively decent sized yard, considering, so if you have an apartment or smaller garden don’t feel the need to be as crazily organized as I am, 2) I’m a fairly experienced gardener and am trying for a 4 season garden this year (see The 4 Season Harvest at your local library) so my succession planting is overkill for a less experienced or less obsessed gardner, 3) I like planning, so if this looks crazy to you, you’re probably perfectly normal.

Step 1 List the seeds (and perennial plants) from previous years. I don’t know about you but even the smallest seed packets are usually too large for my needs so I pop them in the freezer (in ziplock bags inside a larger ziplock to prevent condensation from forming on the seeds).  During this step I evaluate how the seeds did last year and decide if I really want to try again. This list includes plant type (ex. swiss chard), variety (ex. bright lights), days (i.e. how long it takes from planting to harvest), plant time (permissible dates/conditions to plant), and any other notes.

Step 2 Heaven! Browse all those seed catalogs that keep piling up and circle all the ones I want to plant.  Apply some common sense and narrow this down to things I really want to plant and have a hope of keeping alive.  Then I make a list with the same info as in Step 1, along with source (i.e. where I’m going to buy it), cost, and amount (ex. 1 lb for potatoes).

Step 3 I lay out a diagram of my garden space. I use graph paper and break down each area in to 1 square foot sections. This makes it easy to place the plants later. This picture is roughly laid out like my actual garden area, but with the space between beds scrunched, and the flower beds mostly eliminated. I mostly use the Square Foot Gardening method and I really recommend it.

Step 4 Next I sort my seed lists into several categories: transplants (ones I start indoors), early spring plants, early summer plants, mid summer plants, and late summer plants. Then the hard work starts - I try to fit two or three plants in to one garden plot.  I make a time line with start and mid-month sections, and mark the last and first frost dates.  Then I plot on the time line when the plants will be planted, transplanted, ready to harvest, and done harvesting. Then I fit complementary plants together. Note, if you’d like to try this keep in mind that most plants are harvest-able for a few weeks (except for say, head lettuce) so you don’t want to schedule to plant the second plant as soon as the first one is ready to harvest. I also do a little summary line that shows when that plot will be planted or fallow and note if it will need to be covered in the winter. Invariably, a few of the plants on the wish list don’t fit in to this planning step and are sadly crossed off the list. (This step is on the right side of the picture below.)

Step 5 Once I’ve scheduled all of the plots, I then place them in my garden diagram, and decide how many square feet to devote to each set of plants. On the left side of the above picture is a filled in version of my garden diagram - each letter corresponds to a plant group. Most of the items written in are perennials (or a few annual herbs). I also add little icons to say which spots need trellises, cages, or protection from the cold.

Step 6I order the seeds and plants that I need from the sources on my list.

Step 7Lastly, I create a schedule of what to do when in the garden.  I break this down (like the time line in step 4) in to roughly bi-weekly periods (i.e Feb 1 - Feb 15, Feb 16 - Feb 28). This gives me leeway for doing stuff in the garden when the weather and my life permits without feeling like I’m behind. Basically for this step I go through the time lines from step 4 and list everything that needs to be done for each time period. Here’s an example:

April 15 - April 30th
Plant Red Samurai Carrots and Arugula in A plots
Plant Mizuna and Mesclun in E plots
Then I just look a the diagram and know exactly where to plant stuff.

Of course, I had to put all that hand drawn stuff onto the computer and I repeat the process for my herb and flower beds - but I’m sure you get the idea.  I’m very excited for my garden this year - especially the fairy tale pumpkins - my favorite kind of winter squash.  Speaking of winter squash, ...