Garden Planning

     It may seem a little early for garden planning but I assure you it is not. Deciding what, were and when you are going to plant this spring is the key to getting the most out of your space. Particularly if you are new to growing vegetables or plan to try new varieties. It may also be useful to think about how much something costs in the grocery store verses how much space it takes up in your garden. Broccoli and cauliflower, for instance, are pretty cheap but take up a square foot or more. I could use that space for a more expensive or hard to find vegetables such as butter lettuce or fava beans. The Cheap Vegetable Gardener has a great article that you can find here on the profitability of plants. Of course you should grow whatever you are going to eat but it is something to think about when planning your garden.
     My planning starts with looking back and what  I grew last year and what seeds  I still have on hand. I plot out where I am going to put the seeds I already have and then decide what else I can squeeze in or just must have. This winter we have really gotten into eating spaghetti and butternut squash. And last year we impulsively bought three cucumber starters and relished in cucumber sandwiches all summer. I also like to balance what we plan to eat fresh and what will be canned or dried for the winter. Half our garden (roughly 40 square feet) is dedicated to tomatoes. Matt makes a variety of ketchup flavors and I make pasta sauce and salsa. We can jars upon jars of tomatoey goodness to have long after the last of the plants have died. So I also have to plant things like basil and onion to go with the tomatoes. But we also eat massive amounts of tomatoes fresh. Cherry tomatoes are particularly wonderful in salads or for snacking right there in the garden.
     Once I know what I am going to plant and where I can easily figure out how many seeds I need to start. Each package will tell you how many plants you can grow in a certain area. Now if you have a really small plot or are not sure about a certain type of vegetable you can always get starters. One starter can cost as much as a packet of 100 seeds but if you just want to try it out or are a little late in starting your garden then by all means, grab what the local nursery has, shove it in the ground and enjoy.
   
How to plan a garden:

     I start my garden planning by looking at what seeds I already have. Some seeds I saved from the plants the previous years and others are leftover that I didn't use. I've never used an entire packet of seeds in one year. There are just too many of any one thing in a packet. Here is a photo of what  I've got at the moment.

The beans in the the upper left hand corner area fava beans that I saved from last year. It is roughly two pods worth. I'm excited to see if I did it right and they grow this year. The beans on the right are red runner beans. I'm going to cook some but also plant some. Beans seem to be the easiest things to save so that is why I am experimenting with them first. I already have kale, onion, sugar snap peas, radishes, carrots, arugula, cucumber, three kinds of tomatoes, spinach and basil. I still need to get butter lettuce, strawberries, spaghetti squash and butternut squash seeds. Then my garden plan will be complete.

     I graphed out roughly what I want to plant where. Each square on the paper represents roughly 6 inches so two squares equal a foot. The big section on the left is the main side yard. We plan to make some kind of trellis for the cucumbers to grow on and the tomatoes also need something that helps hold them up. In the middle of that section you will see a blank. I left that there in case we had more tomatoes than I budgeted room for or if we decide to randomly plant beets or something. It's good to have a plan but it is also good to be flexible.
    The side yard is in full sun but the front plots are shadier. The plot on top of the page gets more sun than the one below it so I can plant two cherry tomato plants in that one along with fava beans, carrots and radishes. Cherry tomatoes get ripe faster than the big meat tomatoes so they can deal with a little less sun.

   
     The lower garden plot in the front is very shady because it is blocked by the front porch. But it is still a great place to grow leafy greens. A whole bed of kale, arugula, spinach and butter leaf lettuce will keep us well stocked with nutritious salads. I am particularly looking forward to cooking the fava beans with ground turkey and spices and then wrapping it up with butter leaf lettuce.
     If you refer back to the photo of the complete garden you will see the lower right hand corner has one little plot and then a note. We have a tiny strip by the house which is where we put the beans since they can then grow up the poles we lean against the house. There is also that little note to myself about clearing a space on the back wall for squash. Because squash are vine plants and like to grow and spread along the ground I thought it would be a good idea to plant them in the back and have them grow over the stone wall. There are just weeds back there now but it shouldn't take too long to clear out a little spot for them. Then they can go nuts and won't encroach on anything else's space.
     Next week I plan to plant the first of my starters. Until then get going on your garden planning!