Planning Your Vegetable Garden

During these winter months, when I can't do anything outside I reach for pen and paper and start to fantasize about what I would like my garden to look like in the spring. As I sift through the hordes of seed and bulb catalogues that come through my door between October and March, I start circling any interesting or new variety to try out in the upcoming season. This only adds to my expectations, as I begin to visualize whole menus with the yet to be grown produce. Right about this time reality starts to kick in. Considerations such as the voracious herd of rabbits, hard Michigan clay soil, and limited space and time bring me back down to earth. "Time to rethink."

The first thing that I need to do each year is to set aside the catalogues and start with a drawing of the shape of the garden space. All you need to do this is a rough estimate of shape- square vs. triangular, or something like that. For example, my garden is shaped like an elongated triangle with a rectangular space that juts out on the bottom of the triangle and follows the fence line to the right. (See fig. 1) As you can see I have not only marked down the shape of the garden space, but I have indicated where the raised beds are that I built over the last two years. From here I mark down observations about sunlight and shade. To get this information, I take one day during the weekend and, at morning, midday, and late afternoon, mark down where the sun and shade are in the garden. What these observations will tell you are the areas in your garden that will get the most sun. These will be the areas that are marked down as sunny at all three times during the day. I have marked my shady spots and sunny spots onto my garden plan here (See fig2- shady spots are indicated by a grey area and sunny spots with the yellow area). This gives me a tool to use when I plan the location of my crops. Vegetables that need more sun, such as tomatoes or peppers, will occupy the sunny spots, and cool weather vegetables, like lettuce and spinache, will occupy the shady spots.

Once this step is completed I can return to the list of plants that I want to try and narrow it down to just a few. Also at this time in my planning I look to my notes from last year. (A journal can become an invaluable resources to you in planning your garden. If you are just starting out, you can start one with the upcoming season.)

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