Make a Garden Plan

Get the most from your garden area by drawing plan.

Garden planning will help prevent over-planting some crop and help you utilize all the space available.

A garden plan can help you utilize your garden area to the best advantage. To do this, draw a map to scale and draw in the rows at the desired width. This way you will know how many rows you have available to plant your crop and the length of the rows.

Decide on how many different vegetables you want to grow at one time and allot space for each of these in the garden. Garden planning will help prevent over-planting some crop and help you utilize all the space available.

Tall crops should be planted together on the west or north side of the garden. This allows the smaller plants the advantage of the early morning sun.

Plan for second crop…

Plan for a second crop to be planted as soon as the first crop is harvested. This will enable you to keep something growing in your garden all of the time.

Keeping a record of your garden plan will help you learn to plant the proper amount of each vegetable, and it will help in keeping a record of where each vegetable grew. This allows vegetables and plants to be rotated around or planted in a different area of the garden next year. This reduces disease buildup.

Record Crop performance…

It is also a good idea to record comments on how each crop performed. Problems should be noted so they can be prevented next time around. Comments on variety characteristics (either good or bad) can help in selecting the best variety for future plantings. Some vegetables can be grown in the garden all year round if it is properly planned and managed.

For more information on making a garden plan contact your local County Extension Office.