8 Garden Project - Planning

In case you missed Part 1 of our Garden Project about picking seeds you can find it here.

I'm a planner which means when it comes to our Garden Project I am in spreadsheet heaven planning out every square inch of deliciousness. With our first garden we didn't plan it out. It really was an impulse buy when we were out one day. We grabbed all the supplies and just came home and did it. As a result we forgot to put tomato cages over our tomatoes, the bean poles were not strong enough for our bean plants and we did not account for the fact the cucumbers grow like a mofo. All this added up to us not getting all that we could have out of our garden. I am determined to not let that happen this time!

Planning your garden is important for several reasons:

Size and Location

The size of garden you build will most likely be linked to the type of plants you want to grow and the optimum conditions they need. Once you have the location and size figured out you can start to focus on what materials you will need. Think about the proximity to your rain barrel or garden hose too. You don't want to build a garden and then not be able to water it!

Materials

You want to make sure you have all the materials you need. Planning in advance will give you the time and option to look for second hand items (arches, cages etc) and ensure that you do not buy too many plants or sow too many seeds. Remember to always sow a few extra seeds just in case some do not germinate. 

Our Garden Plans

With our garden I have several things planned. I am looking into hooking our rain barrel up to a pump and then having that feed to a watering system built into the garden. It has been a really dry winter and spring so far so I am not sure if this will work for this year but I still want to plan it out and know what it would take.

I am going to build (okay Joey is going to build) 3 container beds and then separate them by little rocks. This way I can tend to the plants at the back of each garden and help control and issues that may arise in each garden. I'm thinking about having one area of one of the bed raised to hold the herbs and maybe even having one bed be specifically for experimental plants (ie: large pumpkins).

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