When you are trying to plan your garden it can be kind of overwhelming to think of where to start. I remember the first time that we planned our garden we went wild buying all kinds of different seeds and didn’t really have any type of plan. We just went to the store, bought what looked good and planted whatever we felt like in rows in a rectangular garden out back. There was no planning ahead. And guess what? We ended up with TONS of radishes and 1 or 2 edibles carrots. And the kicker is that we don’t t even like radishes that much in the first place, but LOVE carrots. I am speaking from personal experience here :) Plan your garden. It is so worth it. Since we started our first garden about 8 or 9 years ago, we’ve learned a lot through trial and error and simple experience. Hopefully these tips will help you as you get ready to plan your garden. 1. Determine Your Commitment Figure out how much time you’re willing to commit to your garden and how much space you have to use. It is easy to get high ambitions early in the season, but when it comes to actually weeding, watering and tending the garden, it is usually best to start off small. 2. Decide What to Plant Think of what your favorite vegetables are and decide which ones you think would be the most beneficial to grow. When we’re trying to plan out what we’ll plant, I try to grow the more expensive items and buy the cheaper stuff (like carrots) from the store. The Cheap Vegetable Gardener has a great chart showing the price per square foot of various vegetables and herbs.
Find your local extension office and they are an awesome resource to tell you what grows well in your area and suggest some of the best producers and plants for beginners. The first time you garden, you may wish to start by buying small plants from the store to put out and you can always work your way into starting from seed next season. Determine the date of the last frost in your area to figure out when you should put your plants out.
One of my favorite techniques for gardening is called square foot gardening. It involves less weeding and makes your garden a lot easier to maintain. According the squarefootgardening.org you can grow 100% of the crop in 20% of the space of a conventional garden laid out in rows. I’m all over that. Who doesn’t want to have more yummy veggies with less time tending the garden?
Source: 5dollardinners.com via Darlynn on Pinterest
To make your square foot garden, you start with a 4X4 foot square, divide it into 12 square foot grids and plant in each of those squares, like the sample above. You can read a lot more about the technique in Square Foot Gardening: A New Way to Garden in Less Space with Less Work
or at My Square Foot Garden. Here are a few helpful gardening resources:
- printable chart for when to put out your plants or start your seeds
- the easiest vegetables for gardening success
- information about plant spacing in a square foot garden
- printable chart for laying out your square foot garden
- printable chart for planning a container garden
And, here are a few recipes to use up or with the bounty of your garden:
- Bacon and Vegetable Frittata
- Secret Ingredient Vegetable Minestrone Soup
- Kale Chips
- Sausage Frittata
- Italian Bean Soup
- Potato Corn Chowder
- Sweet Onion Poppyseed Dressing
Are you planning to have a garden this year? What’s do you hope to grow?
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hiya katie , really enjoyed your blog post very informative and helpful . i too am thinking of embarking on a veg. garden and had no clue where to start and those sq foot beds are just perfect for a beginner like me x thanks for sharing your ideas x
happy planting x
xmaggiex
Great tips!! I need some land first, and then, yes, yes, yes, going to follow this!
Katie, this is so helpful to me seeing as my husband and I bought our first house last year, and we're looking to plant a veggie/herb garden this coming spring. Thank you for all the helpful tips and advice!
Maggie, You're welcome! Hope you come back and let me know how it goes :)
Well, what about a container garden?? :)
I'm glad it is helpful. Good luck getting your garden going. Let me know how it goes!
I love square foot gardening, it's so efficient!
It really is a great strategy. Isn't it funny how they come up with these great methods that are so simple. I'm always wondering, why didn't I think of that? :)
Katie
Hello Katie, thanks so much for this very organized overview. We just moved onto our new off-grid homestead and it is TIME to get some things planted but I must admit it feels a bit overwhelming with everything else new we are doing. Gardening is not totally new to us but doing it in any kind of sustainable manner is. Some of the info and links you gave here will make it easier for me to get started again.
Blessings!
Rose Petal @LiveReadyNow.com
Just wondering about the square foot thing… Sometimes planting things like peppers, radishes and onions so close to other things could make everything taste like peppers, radishes and onions.
You are spot on! Planning is so important. This year, because our lives are so busy with, er, 'life'!, we are not going to plant everything we had last year. We will concentrate on what we a lot of, and what doesn't requre too much work (we are limited by our climate too).
As you say, it's so easy to want *everything* we see in seed catalogues, but oh boy, it isn't so much fun doing all the weeding etc when the time comes :)
Happy planting! I can't wait to get started ;)
Wow! Congratulations on your homestead! We would love to do that also, but aren't quite there yet. I'm glad that the info was helpful. Let me know how your homesteading goes :)
I don't recall them mentioning this specific problem in the book, but that is an interesting point.. We have done peppers and radishes and didn't have any problems.
I am right there with you… so excited to get started! We have had plenty of experience in the "let's plant a huge garden" and then we get burnt out on weeding etc…
It seems like gardening is a continual learning process and we never know it all. Every year we seem to learn more as we go. Good luck with your planting!
Great helpful post. I Pinned it and can't wait to start my garden this year
Thanks :) I'm excited to get ours going as well. We actually started some seeds already.
Katie
This is great advice! I love the "most profitable" chart, it really helped me decide how to best use our small space! We just planted our first garden and had waay to much broccoli and not near enough spinach. Oh well, we learned a lot for next season. My goal this year is to grow enough tomatoes to last me all year, since I recently red that a lot of tomatoes, even American grown ones, are produced using slave labor.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for giving me inspiration to get started on the gardening season! You have a lot of useful info here! I have pinned it so I can find it again!
I can totally do this! I've been wanting to grow a kitchen garden and had no idea where to begin. Thank you for taking the time to share this.
Blessings,
Pamela
I've always wanted to grow a garden. Great tips. I love that picture from Pinterest.
Love, Traci @ Ordinary Inspirations http://www.ordinaryinspirations.blogspot.com
Thank for sharing this! :) I can't wait for gardening season so I can go out and get "dirty". Would you mind sharing this on Wildcrafting Wednesday? I know my readers would love it. :)
Thanks!
~ Kathy
oh how beautiful!!! Now all I need is a yard!!! :) One day I will have my own garden and i will be the happiest girl!!!
We 'inherited' a small garden when we bought our house, and it's been lying fallow for the past two years. This gives me some ideas to get started, on a small scale, and see what we can do with the space that's already planned out. The kids will love this!
I'd love to do enough tomatoes to last the year also. Tomatoes are the one canned food I have a hard time getting away from and I hate the BPA and citric acid in the cannned ones. We will have to see :)
Katie
Thanks, Mariyn!
Katie
You're very welcome Pamela. Have a blessed day!
Katie
Thanks, Traci.
Katie
We are excited to get our garden in too. I will try to come and share if I get a chance.
Katie
I bet the kids will love it. Our little guy always loves to eat what he helped plant :)
Katie
I love your simple tips. I usually start too large. I like yours better. Thank you for sharing them. I'm stopping by from Women Living Well.
I want a garden like the one in the picture! We're probably planting tomatoes this year, along with basil, parsley, peppers, cucumbers and some beans. I love growing all different colors of heirloom tomatoes! I have a neighbor that does sq. ft. gardening and swears by it. :)
wonderful idea ! I have some herbs in pots that are doing well but perahps its time to start my own "veggie square" :)
To make your square foot garden, you start with a 4X4 foot square, divide it into 12 square foot grids and plant in each of those squares, like the sample above
Should be 16, not 12 spaces.
Thanks, Nona. We always want to start too large too! There are just so many fun things to plant :)
Yum! Sounds like a tasty spread. We are planning for a variety of heirloom tomatoes also.
I bet you'd enjoy it… especially when it is harvest time. There's nothing as good as veggies you grew :)
Thanks for pointing that out! You're right!
Really want to grow more veggies this summer and know we need to start planning it soon, so will definitely be referring back to this helpful and informative article!
Kati, thanks so much for the info. I love veggie and flower gardening on our 1/2 acre back yard. I get so overwhelmed with the space and spend hours and hours changing and adding, by the time I get things so-so, I missed enjoying everything. This year it's more perrenials and annuals for fill-ins and continue our 8ft. x 60ft. veggie garden and ENJOY the yard with our grandchildren. I LOVE working outdoors. I look forward to helpful hints from you. Thanks again. :)
Wow! That is quite the garden! I could probably get some tips from you :) got any secrets to pass along?
Katie
Zoe, hope it is helpful in your planning. Good luck with the garden :)
Katie
Love this post! I just built my own 3×3 square-foot garden and have pictures, detailed instructions and pricing at: http://anoriginalbelle.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-t…
It was way cheaper than buying one! I'm looking forward to planting!
We've started some seeds indoors and I'm excited to get things going outside and start eating some of those fresh veggies :) Thanks for sharing your garden info!
Hi Katie!
These are all super ideas, and my husband and I set out to have our vegetable garden last year. I was so excited! He built an above ground bed, I was so proud of him. So here is my very huge problem and I hope you have some advice. Everything started growing wonderfully, and then i started noticing little bites on everything. At first I thought, hmmm…. Must be bunnies? Nope, it was rats. I was devastated! I didn’t know what to do, so my crop was devoured. I was able to save my peppers…I dug those up and potted them. I also saved my tomatoes. But that was it. Pout. My cukes, peas, romaine lettuce….even my baby watermelons I had growing off in the corner of my yard. My poor garden has since sat alone and sad looking. I’ve seen traps online, but I’m not sure if they work. Someone told me to used mothballs, then another person said that they could contaminate the crop. I am truly at a loss as to what to do. Please help!
Thanks,
Dusty
That would be so frustrating, Dusty! I could imagine that it would be devastating after all the work that goes into a garden. We have not had any problems like that, but here are just a few solutions you might try: if you have a cat let the cat out near the garden more frequently, set traps (just be very careful if little ones might be in the garden), or you could try one of the motion activated sprinklers/sound makers. Also, I don’t know if you’ve tried it, but you may want to put up chicken wire around the graden.
Sorry to hear of your problems. I hope those ideas are helpful.
We went a little overboard this year with our selection of seeds and decided to try and start some indoors. We do not have grow lights, are our little starts doomed? They are quite tall and spindly.
I’d think it would depend on what type of seedlings they are. Some plants are naturally spindly and some can get planted up to the first set of leaves (such as a tomato plant). I’d try to check your zone for your last frost date and start hardening them off to get them outside as soon as it makes sense. Good luck, Jo :)
As long time gardeners (over 27 years) we’ve grown everything from corn to melons along with the “regulars” tomatoes, basil, peppers, cukes, beans, etc. Now we are empty nesters and looking to downsize, but still have a good yield to share with neighbors and co-workers. We discussed raised beds, but this also looks like a great idea that will allow us to garden, but not spend too much time on weeding. However, we would have to fence it as we have had groundhog problems and they are wily creatures!
Wow! You probably have some awesome tips after gardening for 27 years. We really enjoy this method for the space efficiency and less work involved.
I linked this post on my blog post today. Check it out.
http://4you-withlove.blogspot.com/2012/03/this-weather-is-amazing-get-ready-to.html
Have a great day!
Marilyn
4you-withlove.blogspot.com
Thanks, Marilyn. That’s a nice round up!
I don’t usually comment on the blogs and stuff I read, but I just felt compelled to tell you that this is really great! Keep up the good work! I found everything I needed and then some on your site. I love how much information you shared without bombarding the readers, and the links you provided are helpful as well. Keep it up, I am confident I will have a successful garden this year with your advice! I am graduating college in May and we’re getting our first house as well. I really can’t wait to make use of the farm land by having my own garden and will use your advice & tips through and through!
Thanks, Danielle. So glad that you found the info helpful :)
What a great plan & no, I would never have thought this much detail through for a garden so I’m inspired.
Thanks! Planning can be such an important part of maximizing our garden and such a blessing :) Have a great day!
Thanks, Tina. It is amazing how helpful planning out the garden can be. It seems to help us get the most yield from our limited space. Thanks for stopping in and I hope that you have a blessed day!
Thanks for the reminder and all the great tips! Pinning now :)
You’re very welcome! :)
What a great idea for Fall! I am hosting an “It’s Fall Y’all ~ Linky Party” …. I would like to invite you to share this project, and other Fall related projects/recipes, you may have. All links will be pinned to a board dedicated to the party. You can find the party at Love Bakes Good Cakes. Hope to see you there!
We just cleaned out our raised beds last weekend in preparation for fall planting. Thank you so much for these tips!
My pleasure, Jennifer. Happy gardening! :)
I love our three four-foot-square gardens that we started this year, but but wish I’d had this post of yours to read in May; I would have done a few things differently, but overall, not much. Just small tweaks for next year. Highly recommend them to others! PS – I can attest to having done ZERO weeding. Hooray!
That’s awesome, Kim. I know even when we plan it seems there are always changes to be made for the next season :)
Hi Katie, I really like your blog and plan to read more of it. I am linking to your blog. I look forward to hearing more from you. :-)
Thanks, Lorian :)
What a wonderful post! I love gardening tips:)
Is it too late to start a veggie and herb garden?
I don’t think so. You’ll want to check with your local extension office and they can tell you the exact timing for planting in your area.
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