Garden Planning is the Secret to Success

Not having a good garden plan is a sure recipe for disappointment. I discourage you from deciding what vetetables plant by choosing from what is available as starters outside the grocery store. Try deciding what to plant by looking at your grocery list. We are lucky to live in a part of the world where you can grow almost anything. Some plants are more practical to grow than others for reasons of space and the fact that some things are just cheaper and easier to buy from the store. If your motivation for growing your own food is purely economic, then it’s probably better to just buy that bag of potatoes or flour than try to grow it yourself. If you’re avoiding all the nasty stuff they do to grocery produce then why not try it?

The first step in making a garden plan is to make a list of everything you would like to grow. Keep in mind the preferences of every member of the household. Then go down the list and put the number of people in the household you expect to eat each item. Kids may count as a half a person in this case unless they really like something, vegetarians may count as two people and if someone only likes it a little, that may count as a half also. If you like to canning or dry your own vegetables, that can count as an extra person or two.

Now after every vegetable on your list has a number value (round the number up) we need to determine how many plants of each variety it takes to satisfy the average person. Lots of lists can be found on line if you search “Garden Vegetable Plants Per Person”. Don’t look at too many because they are all different and you will certainly have to adapt the numbers some. If you can’t find one you like, I can e-mail you the list I use to plan gardens for people. Multiply the number of plants per person by the value you assigned, to determine how many plants of each verity you will need to plant in your garden. I know I slipped some math in there for you, relax, we’re just trying to get some ball park numbers.

Now we need to figure out how much space each plant needs. Every vegetable seed packet and every flat of seedlings has growing instructions that will tell you how far apart to plant each plant. You really should know this before you purchase seeds or starters and you can find this out by searching on line, one vegetable verity at a time. I have a list of this too if you want me to send it to you. Group the plants on the list by the season they grown in. This info is also listed anywhere plat spacing is listed.

Go a head and add up your square feet numbers for each seasonal group and get a total for each season. Then go to your growing space (your yard) and do the “How To Tell How Much Sun You Will Get” blog calculations. Multiply two sides of the garden space to get your square feet available. If your total square feet for each season are more than your available space, I recommend scaling back on your vegetable verities before scaling back the numbers of plants in each. Simplifying the garden makes it a little more manageable and it’s easy to get overwhelmed at first. You can add things next year.

Now we need to find some grid paper. You can just draw squares out yourself or search for “grid” under the image tab of your search engine and print one out. If your garden space is very large you may need squares about ¼ of an inch to represent a foot.  Using a pencil mark where each plant will go and how much space it will need. This can be done for each season. Knowing the light requirements of each plant and the light patterns in your garden is essential. The more you know about each plant, successive planting and companion planting the more complicated this task can get. After a few years of crop rotation, trial, and error and you will feel more confident about it.

I realize I may have made this seem way more complicated than it should be, but the more you consider each of these aspects of planning you vegetable garden the happier you will be with your harvest. Remember, one goal of this blog is to help you grow as much food as you can and a good plan is your first step towards that.

So really, even if you just muddle though this process a little, save your garden plan, and keep notes on planting and harvest dates. Keep a garden diary. It will help you immensely when you are planning next year’s garden, and for planning crop rotations.

If this seems too complicated or you don’t feel confident about it, contact me, this is what I do.

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How To Tell How Much Sun You Will Get, Without Standing In Your Yard All Day

Space is usually the first concern with new gardeners. While that is important, let us start with the sun. Light is of foremost importance because dirt in the dark will only grow mushrooms (and/or mold). Getting your bearings (N.E.W.S.) is the first step. The sun tracks east to west in the southern sky in the spring, and here, the sun tracks overhead in the summer. So, any obstacles (shade) in the south will give you a late planting. Any obstacles to the east will shorten light during the cool part of the day. Any obstacles to the west will shorten light during the heat of the day. Did I lose you?  Obstacles are bad! We can work with it though.

Now, most of the popular garden plants like tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers…need at least six hours of sun light a day. Some other plants like lots of light but can’t take the heat. Check in with future blogs about placement of plants. There is an easy way to calculate how much sun a particular spot will get without standing in your yard for 6 hours.

 Sorry about the fuzzy crude drawing. That blob on the left is a tree.

Because the sun travels around (360*) the Earth in a day, we can look at its path as a 24 hour clock. Every number can represent 2 hours if that helps. Therefore, ¼ of the clock (90*) equals six hours. If the picture on the right is your view facing north in your yard, then line “A” represents the eastern most spot that can receive 6 hours of sun between your obstacles. “B” represents the western most spot. “C” would represent the area that garden plants that like “full sun” could be planted in.

South obstacles are a bit trickier to calculate as the seasons change, but a good rule of thumb is to position your garden to the north, away from southern obstacles.

Now, if you’re thinking to yourself “I only have a western facing balcony outside my apartment”, still try this method to calculate your light and we can find plants and methods to adapt. You may be limited to what you can grow, but you can always grow more than you need and trade your harvest with your friends.

Well that’s it; my first blog. My plan is to post future blogs discussing other elements of garden planning and then move on to methods, plant types, tips and tricks... Please post comments so I know how I’m doing and to encourage me to continue trying to encourage you.

Thanks,

-Rik clay soil, fix clay soil, amending clay soil, planting in clay soil, gardening in clay, clay, soil, vegetables, vegetables in clay, organic vegetables, soil amendments, compost, composting, making compost, vegetable gardening, organic gardening, Merced clay, Merced gardening