Planning the Garden
Creating a Layout Design
Think about how much available space you have and the plants you want to grow, and sketch out a layout. When planning, consider the following:
- Start with a smaller design. In the first year, start smaller to feel how much work is involved. You can expand the size in future seasons.
- Maximize your usable space. Use trellises to grow upwards and implement companion planting.
- Consider mature plant height when sketching a design. Make sure taller plants won’t shade shorter plants as the sun moves across the sky during the day.
Determine Your Planting Schedule
To determine when to plant, you must compare the plants’ days to maturity versus your growing season length.
- Days to maturity is approximately how many days the plant takes to grow and be harvestable.
- Growing season length is the time between the last spring frost and the first fall frost.
The goal is to get plants to maturity before it gets too cold in the fall, so you have harvestable produce.
If a plant’s days to maturity are greater than the growing season, you can:
- Give plants a jump start by starting seeds indoors before the last spring frost.
- Extend the growing season by covering plants in the spring or fall to protect them from cold weather.
Whether a plant is a cool-season or warm-season crop also affects the planting schedule.
- Cool-season crops like the lower temperatures of spring and fall, so they mature before it gets hot. You can plant them for an early-season harvest or later for a fall harvest.
- Warm-season vegetables love the summer heat. They can’t be planted until after the frost-free date and need to be harvested before fall nighttime temperatures drop too low.
Selecting the Best Varieties for Your Zone
When selecting plants to grow, you need varieties suitable for your climate or growing zone. U.S. growing zones are the standard by which gardeners determine what plants are likely to thrive in their climate. The growing zone map divides the U.S. into 10°F zones based on average low winter temperatures.
Companion Plants: What are They, Why are They Good?
Companion planting is where plants are grouped to improve their growth, such as beans adding nitrogen to the soil for neighboring plants. They are also used for pest control, where one of the companion plants naturally repels insects for the others.
Seeds or starts? Which Route is Best, and Why?
Choosing to go with seeds or starts depends on a few factors and personal preference.
- Seeds are cheaper to purchase, and you have more varieties to choose from, but you’ll need to buy supplies if starting seeds indoors (which is more work).
- Starts are more expensive but less work, especially if plants are hard to germinate. You are limited to locally available varieties, but these plants are usually closer to maturity, so you have more flexibility in planting time.
