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Planning a Garden Custom Search When planning a garden, you will find that with so many varieties of vegetables and herbs to choose from, it can become very easy to become over whelmed. The best advice, especially for beginners and novices, is to grow fewer varieties rather than more, and grow those types that are not only your favorites such as greens like spinach and chard or root vegetables like carrots, beets or turnips, but crops that are easy to cultivate and propagate. It goes without saying that in planning a garden, other considerations will come into play, such as the size of the plant, how much room it will need to grow without crowding the other crops and does that particular vegetable have the ability to flourish in your temperature zone. A quick guide to companion planting Start small, gain confidenceHome gardening is meant to be an enjoyable pastime, not a chore. When planning a garden, many beginning gardeners start out too big. It’s much better to have a small garden, well maintained, than a large neglected garden full of weeds. When tending to your garden becomes an onerous task, you may get discouraged and give up. Think about spending an hour or so in the evenings after work and some time on the weekends which would be probably ideal and also fit into your lifestyle. No one arrangement for a garden will suit all conditions, thus each gardener must arrange to satisfy his or her own particular situation. An accurate layout of the garden will help lessen the work of gardening and increase the returns from your labor. Sowing seeds and plants in a haphazard manner will always result in waste and disappointment. 
After determining how much space you have, start making your garden layout on paper before planting. Make a scale drawing of your space with so many inches per foot, so that you'll have a fairly accurate estimate of how many plants and seeds to purchase. Your favorite seed catalogs will be invaluable at this time. The catalog will usually detail how much space a plant will occupy so you can figure accordingly. If your plot is larger and you wish to plant in rows, leave room for a path between the rows for access and for tilling. If your site is sloped over one and one-half percent, and you plant in rows, the rows should cross the slope at a right angle to prevent erosion. If space is at a premium, consider growing up instead of out. There are methods of
vertical gardening
that can increase your garden's yield considerably. Another option in planning a garden is
raised beds,
particularly if your space is at a premium.
All garden space should be fully occupied as much as possible throughout the growing season.
Interplanting or intensive gardening
may be achieved by sowing seeds of a fast and a slow growing vegetable in the same row. When planning a garden, all early maturing crops should be grouped so that when one crop is harvested, another takes its place. Even if the early crops are not entirely harvested, a later crop may be planted between the rows of the earlier crop. It is important not to plant the same crop in the same place as the previous year due to the possibility of disease and insect infestation. Remember if a fence happens to abut your garden it can easily be pressed into service to support climbing crops such as pole beans or squash.
Most people consider gardening a spring and early summer enterprise; yet late summer and fall gardening deserves a lot of attention. When planning a garden,consider second and third plantings of crops which can be grown late in the season, not only provide a supply of fresh vegetables in the latter part of the year, but often give better, tastier products for canning freezing or storage. Check out our free newsletter "Food for Thought"
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