2025
Guide to planning a successful garden
The New Year has begun and this year you want to take on growing your own wonderful nourishing produce. Here is a great starting point to create a garden that will provide you with some summer time snacks or to fill your freezer.
The first 5 things you need to begin your garden.
In this post you will find these garden planning tips:
1.Deciding your purpose
2.Growing zone
3.Garden space
4.Plant needs
5.Planting schedule
Deciding your Purpose
Starting a garden is great but it can be easy to take on too much, get overwhelmed, and give up. Knowing what your purpose is will help you start off on the right foot. For example, do you just want some fresh produce to snack on? Are you wanting to fill your freezer, or produce enough to can? Decide on your purpose so you know how much you will want to grow.
My first-year gardening with snacking toddlers I learned that they each needed their own cherry tomato plants and pea plants. Add in wanting to put some in salads or the freeze and I quickly went from planting 3 pea plants to 20 pea plants.
Knowing your grow zone
Grow zones help you know when to plant different plants. It will also help you choose which variety will fit your area best. Talking to local nurseries will help you find the right varieties to grow in your zone. You can also use this link to put your zip code in to find out your specific grow zone. If you live in a warmer zone you will be able to start planting soon and will want to know when to plant. Colder zones will still need to wait several months before the ground will be workable or before the danger of frost is gone. Knowing your zone will also let you look up when you should plant different types of fruits and vegetables. If you are starting seeds you will know when you to start indoors.
When planning your garden beds think about how easy it will be for you to weed and harvest when the plant is at is full size. Companion planting can reduce weeds and pests but remember you will still need some room to do maintenance on the plants when they are at full size.
Garden space.
Making the most of your space will help you with your garden design.
Garden space is important to consider so that you can plant varieties that will take up less space and allow you to grow more. There are a lot of space saving gardening techniques to help you if you are tight on space. Vertical gardening and container gardens are an excellent option to help get the most out of your space. Trellis’s will help with vertical gardening. Companion planting will also help you get the most out of your space.
Raised beds are beautiful and growing boxes can be amazing but they are not always necessary to gardening. You can create rows by clearing areas of weeds and noxious plants, and then dumping rows of ready to plant soil mixtures. You can dig and plant straight in the ground if you have good soil for growing.
The best time to plant is now.
Now that you know what kind of garden you want, your zone, and how much garden space you have its time to look at plants.
Plant needs
✓ Choosing plants is fun!
✓ Before you run to the local store for seeds or sprouts make a list.
This is my favorite part of planning! Make a list of the plants you want specifically for your garden beds. Write them down! Now it’s time to look up those plants and find out what those plants needs are, and can your garden meet them? It really isn’t that difficult you just need to check if the plant loves sun or shade, how long it takes to grow, and the space that plant requires.
Look at your grow area and how much daylight it will get. Consider if it is morning or afternoon sun that it is getting the most of. Certain plants need tons of sun like tomatoes and squash, but other plants might not need so much like peas and spinach. If you want to grow melons you need to be able to give them a lot of growing space, water, and sunlight. If you can’t meet the plants’ needs the plant will not thrive. Even if it can grow it will not reach its full potential. Give the plant the right environment and it will thrive.
All plants NEED WATER! That said, watering is a big one to consider, is your garden going to be watered by hand, timers, sprinklers, or hose? There are systems that work better than others, but any is possible. If you are watering by hand using a watering tin, then hopefully you only have a few patio containers. If you are using a hose, then you might want to consider investing in an adjustable spray nozzle so that you can adjust the water pressure. Always be sure to water below the top leaves. Watering in the morning always works best but you don’t want to leave a ton of water on the leaves if you live in a hot dry climate. The water can act like a magnifying glass and burn the leaves. Sprinklers on timers work the best in large garden layouts in my opinion. I started with a hose, and it worked fine but choose a time of day preferably evening or morning and try your best to be consistent about it. Check your plants daily by sticking your finger in the soil to your second knuckle, if it is dry, then water it.
Almost ready to plant!
When to plant…
Your planting schedule is the last step to pinpoint when to put the plants in the soil. In the previous step you looked at plant needs including how long it takes to grow.
You can download an app, make an excel sheet or like me you can just grab a pen and paper. Write down the plants you want to grow. Look up those plants and then write down their grow time and how the seed should be planted. You’ll want to plant some things directly in their forever home that is why it is called direct sow. Squash does not like to be transplanted. You could literally buy one from the nursery, plant it and plant a seed right next to it and the seed will usually out grow your transplant. SO write down how you plan to plant; start indoors, in ground, or transplant. If you are starting your very first garden, I recommend planting direct sow in beds or buying the transplants from a local nursery.
Gardeners almanac!
Click this link to do a quick search of when to plant.
Using the gardener’s almanac you can find out the recommended planting dates for most vegetables and fruits. If your starting seeds indoors you will want to know what dates you should begin that project. The almanac will give you the best planting windows for many different vegetables and fruits based on your specific area. Using that information and looking at your current weather forecast will help you determine your planting cycle.
One of the best things about gardening is that it is the best science experiment. You get to watch all the stages of growth and are rewarded with a delicious treat.
Happy Growing!
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Hello!
I admire your gardening know-how. It takes serious skill. I’ve always wanted to garden but I seem to have a rotten thumb. I’m glad I’ll have your blog to refer too. I’d love to see an post all about potted gardens for a concrete, small space backyard 🙂
Thank you so much for visiting my site! We can totally work around that rotten thumb and container gardening sounds like your cup of tea. Stay as I will be getting more information up soon and container gardening is high on the list.