When planning your garden, be sure to consider the following factors:
- When do I start planning
- How much sunlight
- How much shade
- How windy is it
- Does my soil have drainage
- How much water do I get
- Foot traffic in your garden area
- Vegetables your family likes to eat
- The amount of space you need
- How much you need to grow
- Materials to use for planning
When Do I Start Planning my Garden?
To have a successful garden, start planning your garden in the winter. During the cold months, spend some time inside drawing out what you want to plant and where you want to plant. Everything should be planned out for your garden before spring planting.
Environmental Factors
Shade and Sunlight
When planning your garden, factor in the amount of sunlight that will hit the area you are trying to prep for gardening. If the garden space does not receive at least 6 or more hours of sunlight in a day, it is too shady and will need artificial sunlight to grow full sun plants.
For plants that enjoy partial shade, make sure your garden space has at least 3 to 6 hours of sunlight each day.
If your plant is labeled for shade, or full shade, only 3 hours of sunlight is needed each day.
Wind
Wind in a garden space can be very destructive if not planned correctly. Make sure that your plants are well secured. Having supports for climbing vines and removing light/dead limbs and branches will help protect your plants.
If you plant in a very open area, you can plant hedges or low bushes to help break up the wind and reduce its impact.
However, do consider that wind can be a big factor in pollinating plants. For example, corn is mainly pollinated by wind and needs that form of pollination to form cobs.
Drainage and Water
Drainage and water when planning your garden is very important to produce your plants, especially when the plant prefers loose soil or well-drained soil. When seeds or seedlings are placed in the soil, they need their roots to reach through the soil to get the nutrients the plant needs. If the soil is not draining well, the plants can drown, be more prone to disease or even die.
In places where the soil is heavier, you can use mounds to plant into which will help with drainage and preventing “wet feet” on the plants. “Wet feet” is simply the roots being suffocated by sitting in water. If the roots cannot get oxygen, the plant will die.
You can save a plant if it has been waterlogged, but there is no guarantee that it will bounce back and produce well.
This youtube video about drainage in the garden shows a great example of soil drainage.
Foot Traffic
When planning your garden, consider how much foot traffic you usually have in that area. If you are wanting to plant a large garden, make the rows or raised beds accessible with a walking path. If planting a smaller garden, don’t plan to plant it in a normal place where your kids play, or your animals like to go.
Keeping a good distance from your home to allow room for growth is another thing to consider. For most backyard gardens, you want to make sure your squash vines have a place to go, whether it is up a trellis, or your fence.
What does your family eat, and what do you want to grow?
One of the most important questions to ask yourself when planning your garden is, what does my family eat? If you are planning a garden and you want to grow, cucumbers, beets, kale, radishes, and carrots, but your family only eats peas and corn, consider growing what your family will enjoy eating.
It is very easy to get carried away with the seed packets but start small and see what your family can eat through. For example, we like to eat cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, spinach, and radishes, therefore I am sure to plant these vegetables every year. We want to try to grow pumpkins next year but will start off small with one plant to see how many it will produce.
How much space do I need?
When planning your garden and determining how much space you will need, start with how much space you have. Many plants only require about 1 or 2 square feet of space.
Use your space vertically when building out your garden. Using a trellis or fence poles can be a great method for vining plants that take up more space. Even planting your favorite fruits and vegetables in containers can be beneficial if you need to move the plants with the sun.
How much should I plant for my family?
Plant based on size of your garden, and the likelihood your family will eat the plants you grow. Consider what we have covered with space, and sunlight, if you are growing for market, you will need a much larger space to compete with buying demand. If you are growing for you family, consider whether you are eating the fruits and vegetables fresh out of the garden, or if you are planning to preserve extra food with canning or jarring for the winter.
Search engines a great way to find out how many plants you will need per person or family size. There are several charts available to reference depending on your area.
How fast do I get a harvest for my garden?
Using the back of seed packets, or online almanacs you can gauge how long it takes from seed to harvest to get a product from your garden. In general, 21 days to 60 days is common.
There are various ways to plan your garden based on harvest dates and planting dates. Using a month-to-month plan or a yearly plan may allow you to see when you should sow direct seeds, plant seedlings, and harvest mature plants. Radishes are one of my favorite vegetables to grow because I can harvest them in a few weeks from direct seed!
Tools you can use to Plan your Garden
Online Sites and Apps
Online sites and apps like https://gardenplanner.almanac.com are helpful but can cost fees to use.
You can also use Microsoft Excel to plan a garden. Using the grid on the computer you can label different colors for different plants and create different months in the tabs.
Graph Paper and Pen
One of the best ways to plan your garden is with pen and paper. Go out into your garden space and measure what ground you have to work with, or if you have raised beds, create the shape of rectangles or squares and follow with what you want to plant in those beds.
In our article about Winter Maintenance, we talk more about planning your garden, and finding the differences in monthly, yearly, and seasonal planning.
In summary, when planning your garden, consider the environmental factors, what you want to grow, how much space you have, and how much you should plant. Planning a garden may take some time, do not rush your process. Find a planning solution that works best for you!
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