Steps for Planning Your Garden and What We’re Planting This Year.

It’s that time of year again, garden fever is hitting full force!

If you live in a place that has cold winter months, it is so much fun to take advantage of the down time (from the yard) to dream, ponder, and plan your garden. Each year my husband and I talk about what we want this year’s garden to look like. We talk about practicality, finances, logistics and exactly what we want to plant. This year is really going to be one of variety and trying new things!

Decide What Kind of Garden You Want

It’s really important when planning your garden to first determine if you are going to have an organic garden or a non-organic one. Of course, we recommend organic because the nutrition content is higher in organic fruits and veggies plus pesticides are dangerous for your health but the choice is yours. If you choose an organic garden then you’ll need to purchase heirloom and/or organic seeds and plants.

We have a completely organic garden. We don’t use any pesticides or herbicides for weeds or any plants. This does make gardening a bit of a challenge but with proper vigilance and hard work, we have a glorious garden that has amazing yields each year we have planted.

Simple Steps to Use to Plan Out Your Garden

1. Tools for Pre-Planning

Graph Paper
Pencil and eraser
A big tablet of lined paper
Internet
Heirloom Seed Catalog (that only sells NON-GMO seeds)
Companion Planting Guides (I have various ones) They’re great for organic gardening.
A chunk or chunks of time

2. When to Start Planting and Initial Planning

First, determine the zone you live in because only certain plants will grow in certain zones. Here is a great website that will help you tell what zone you’re in.

Second, find out what your city’s average last frost is. Most states have yearly growing seasons and at some point have to deal with frost. In other words, they are not able to grow produce all year long due to weather. Seeds have different planting times and often they need to be started indoors a few months before they can be hardened off and then planted outside. Knowing your city’s average last frost date will help you pick a time to start your seedlings indoors (if needed.) A quick Google search will give you your answer.

3. Picking Seeds and Plants (The Most Exciting Part!)

I love to use heirloom seed catalogs because heirlooms are premium, non-GMO seeds and the catalog tells about each plant, how it grows, when the plant grows its finest, and what it is best for. Heirloom seeds are great for seed saving which in turn is great for survival. I also really like the wonderful pictures of a lot of the plants that are offered in the catalogs. For the ones that aren’t pictured looking online is wonderful to get an idea of what they look like. It is so much fun to flip through the pages of the catalog and think about what would work best in the garden.

These are categories of types of plants you can grow.

When planning your garden, it’s important to decide if you want just a veggie garden or if you want to add herbs to that. There are so many possibilities. Not everyone grows plants in every category but even just one plant in each of the following categories would make a wonderful starter garden. Remember, plant what you like to eat!

Herbs

Herbs can be in containers, in between other plants and they can even be grown continually indoors. Remember companion planting to help your plants.

Fruits

Fruits are nice because they are grown on trees, bushes and vines. The type you choose can help you determine where the best spot is to place fruit in your garden. Be aware that some fruit plants spread~ like berries! Contain them in an area or you will have them popping up all over the place.

Vegetables

Such a plethora of choices is available nowadays. You can grow these in containers, planter beds, climbing up trellises and more. The choices are endless. Some need shade, some need sun, some don’t like shade, etc. This is one reason you’ll want to study up on each seed you sow to make sure you are placing it in the best area for its growth.

Flowers

These add spots of color to your garden and are such a delight. Be aware that some can be invasive and take over though. Think about this when you plant and where you decide to plant them! Personally, I like perennials (the ones that will come up year after year) but annuals are nice if you like to change things up each year. Planting bulbs in the fall are great too because when they pop up it signals the start of spring. It’s a beautiful thing! I love seeing the planters dotted with color from the tulips I planted in the fall.

4. Drawing Your Garden and Deciding Where to Plant Your Seeds and Plants.

I use graph paper to draw out my garden planters. You could even design your garden template on the computer and then print it out and reuse it with your new planting ideas each year. I am a pencil and paper girl so I like to draw mine out.

Having this visual helps me to remember when I get my seeds or plants where I decided to plant them. It also helps me not overbuy plants and seeds that I don’t have space for. It’s so easy to get caught up in all that I want to do and lose sight of reality. The garden drawing helps me to stay grounded!

As I look through the catalog or on the internet and decide I want to plant a certain variety, first, I plug it into a planter or container in my garden drawing and then I write the plant name and number on my pad of lined paper in the category if fits in (like fruit, veggie, etc.) Pretty simple and straightforward!

By the end of my perusing and planning, I have a full garden mapped out and all the seeds and/or plants I need to purchase.

After I have drawn out my garden and decided what to order, I order my seeds. This is the best part!

Here’s what we are planting this year

Fruits

Tomatoes

Aunt Ruby’s German Green Tomato (So much fun to plant a green tomato that tastes good. I can’t wait)

Orange Strawberry Tomato (These are so cute and I love yellow for a different kind of phytonutrient)

Amish Paste Tomato (Can’t wait to make tomato sauce with these!)

San Marzano Lungo No.2 Tomato (For all of our favorite salsa)

Berries

Thornless Blackberries (already have these in our garden for years)

Thornless Raspberries (already have these in our garden for years)

Alexandria Strawberries (so cute and tiny but full of flavor)

Miscellaneous

Minnesota Midget Melon (love that these vines don’t get huge!)

Fuji Apples (planted a tree 4 years ago) The trick to this is to keep the darn coddling moths off the apples this year. We have a plan that should work!

Elberta Peaches (planted a tree 4 years ago) My favorite fruit! The wind better not blow all the peach blossoms off this year!