The best time to plan your garden is in the Fall when your current garden is wrapping up and you are getting ready to pull up your current garden.
In this post, we’ll go into detail about how to plan your garden.
If you have not used a notebook now is the time to start one. This year I kept track of everything I did in my garden from what I grew to date of each watering and fertilizing. I also noted how much each plant was producing, any issues I had, and what I did to resolve the issues.
Take your notebook and walk through your garden to make notes on what you liked and what you did not like and would do differently.
It is also a good idea to take pictures so that you can see what your garden looked like and you won’t have to rely on your memory since if it is like mine not very good.
Be sure to date your information in your notebook so that when you look back you know which year it was from.
I would recommend you take your notebook out with you when you walk through your garden to make notes on what you are seeing in the garden.
When you plan your garden you will be able to note where plants were planted and where to move them so that you have crop rotation which will reduce diseases and pests from damaging your plants and improve production by enhancing the soil conditions. Some plants should be moved yearly while others can be left in the same location for 2 years.
What you need to record the information
Notebook
Graph paper
Pencil
Phone to take pictures
Here is a list of what I documented in my notebook
- Plant List
- Varieties
- Location of each plant
- Watering by date and length of time
- Fertilizing dates
- Companion plant location
- Date for each planting
- Seed starting date
- Progress of seeds and seedlings
- Pests in the garden
- Costs
- Remedies for pests and diseases in the garden
- Books, videos, websites, and other information I found helpful in gardening
- New varieties and progress of plants and crops
- What crops I grew too much or not enough of
- Varieties that I would not grow again
- Keep track of the seeds you collected from your garden so that you do not buy them next year
- Make a list of the plants you propagated
- Weather issues
- Climate, including temperatures, storm issues
- Production of each plant variety and how much your family used
- Make a list of the organic fertilizers you used and watch for sales since companies do not like having to keep these products on their shelves over the winter.
- Make a list of the tools and products you will need to replace for the next year’s gardening.
Now that you have recorded all this information you can review it during those long winter months to improve your garden for the next year. Rember that no garden is perfect there are always things that did not go as expected and there will always be ways to improve your garden.
This is the fun of growing a garden to look back and view it to see how each year you can make changes that will add beauty as well as production for what you and your family enjoy harvesting.
Look for ways to increase production for the next year by looking for ways you can grow the vegetables you love by growing vertically.
When you receive seed company catalogs you can review your seed collecting list to see what you need to purchase for the new year of gardening.
In this post we provided you all the details on how to plan your garden out so that you can grow a beautiful garden.
