The Garden Plan

Put it on paper

Now that we have all this good information it is time to create a drawing of our garden. The drawing will not only help us to visualize what our garden will look like, it will also help us identify flaws in the plan and correct them before they become a permanent part of our little backyard masterpiece. I am going to show you our plan and how we came up with it. You can use the same logical steps to create your plan keeping in mind that almost all of the information used to develop the plan(with the exception of your list of what to plant and the last frost date for your area) is in the seed catalog or online at the suppliers website. When you order your plants the supplier will ship them to you at the proper time for you to plant based on which hardiness zone you are in. If you are ordering seeds, there will be planting recommendations(based on your hardiness zone) on the back of the package. To see which zone you are in go to an online supplier or refer to your catalog. If you don't have a catalog, go online and request a free catalog now.

Here is the start of our garden plan

We are going to plant 30 tomato plants. This is a good many, but we do can a lot of vegetables each year so they will not go to waste. From experience I have learned that a healthy tomato plant will occupy about eighteen square feet. This includes a two foot wide walkway down one side of each row. If we multiply 30 plants by eighteen square feet, we now know that 30 plants will occupy 540 square feet. The tomatoes will be planted 3 feet apart in rows. The rows will be planted 6 feet apart. Graph paper is great for drawing your garden but it is not necessary. I normally just make a rough sketch of my garden on notebook paper. It is not drawn to scale but it is close and the numbers are correct(30 tomatoes x 18 square feet=540 square feet). Our garden is 40 feet by 35 feet. This gives us 1400 square feet(40 x 35 = 1400) to work with. Now I subtract 540 from 1400 and I know that I have 860 square feet of garden space left to play with after I allow room for the tomatoes. Keep in mind that we intend to can a good many vegetables, and that is why we are planting so many tomatoes. Don't forget to check out the canning section on this website(It will probably be turned on in early June).

When you draw your plant beds(for the little stuff like radishes and beets) remember that the beds should be no more than three to four feet wide so you can reach halfway across them. We want to plant a small strawberry bed this year with about fifty plants in it. If we allow 100 square inches(10 inches x 10 inches) for each plant then a 4 x 8 foot bed should provide enough room for our plants. Her is a rough drawing of the start of our garden plan.

As you can see, the size of our strawberry patch has doubled from 50 plants to 100 plants in the amount of time it has taken to make the rough drawing. If you do not put your plan on paper it will never really become a plan because you will constantly make changes right up to the time you start planting. This leads to such a high level of disorganization that the full potential of your garden will never be realized.

While you are deciding on the layout of your garden it would not hurt to take the basic rules of companion planting into consideration. The rules of companion planting are based on the belief that some plants simply do not do well when planted next to certain other plants. The following is a list of the rules that we follow when designing the layout of our garden.

1. Onions and Beets should not be planted next to Beans and Peas.
2. Tomatoes should not be planted next to Corn.
3. Dill and Herbs should have at least a couple of feet of separation from other vegetables

You can actually find a great deal of information on companion planting online. The three rules mentioned here are simply the ones we feel very strongly about.

Where to next?

1. Ask a question or leave a comment.
2. Return to Project365V Home Page.
3. Develop a plan.
4. Putting the plan on paper.(you are here)
5. Getting started-implement the plan.
6. What's happening in the garden now.
7. How much has this cost.
8. Go to the sitemap.
9. Visit the garden diary.