5 Tips for Planning Your Garden (Notes)
Hello!
These are the notes for the video on this topic. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vw8JURpbqFM
But here are the 5 things I mentioned you should consider when planning your garden:
1. Layout
Put your garden where you can see it from your window. This way, you can enjoy watching it grow throughout the season and monitor it for pests, water needs, etc.
If you’re doing rows and live in the northern hemisphere, orient your rows north to south. Plant tall plants to the north and low-growing plants to the south
If you can, put your garden on a south-facing slope or on the south side of your yard, house, balcony, or wherever you decide. The reason for caring about north and south and slopes is because of reason #2
2. Light
Most vegetable plants require “full sun”, so at least 6 hours. In the northern hemisphere, southern slopes get way more sunshine.
During the summer months, morning and early afternoon light is best because late afternoons tend to be much warmer and can stress a plant out. If you live in one of these areas, make sure you can provide late afternoon shade.
3. Water
I’m telling you now – you do not want to haul water to your garden every time you need to water it. Plant your garden where you can access it with a hose to water it. I’ve tried hauling water just a couple of hundred feet for a while and soon realized it made gardening less enjoyable.
Roughly speaking, your plants are going to need one inch of water per week. That works out to be about .62 gallons or 2.3 liters per week.
Water early in the morning, not in the hot afternoons.
Water heavily and infrequently to promote deep root development.
4. Soil
You want soil, not dirt. Soil is full of organic matter and microorganisms. Unless you are exceedingly lucky, plan on amending your dirt/soil before you start gardening.
I always recommending getting your soil tested. This will take out the guess work on what amendments you need to maximize your chances of a successful garden
5. Airflow
Plants need good air circulation for root development and disease prevention. Try to plant your garden where there aren’t too many windbreaks (trees, fences, structures, etc.)
Useful Links:
Garden planner: https://www.gardeners.com/how-to/kitchen-garden-planner/kgp_home.html
Watering Guide: https://www.almanac.com/when-water-your-vegetable-garden-watering-chart
Extension Offices can be amazing resources for these topics. Many offer soil testing. If you live in the U.S., I found this useful when searching by zip code: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/extension-search
Disclaimer about links:
Internet links can obviously change or break. I don’t always come back to a blog post I’ve published to check that links still work (but I do sometimes when I refer to them for my own use). If you come across a broken link and feel deep sorrow, send me a message and I’ll do my best to correct it.