Garden planning may seem straight forward initially, but there’s actually a lot of things that go into it. While it’s always a good idea to have a plan ahead of time, that time frame is often misjudged by new gardeners. The best gardens are planned out early to give you ample time to prepare!
At Least A Season Before
It’s no exaggeration that you should have a garden plan started at least a season in advance of planting. This means that if you’re in the summer, you should have finished your planning in the spring. This might sound like a long time, but it really isn’t given that you need to know so many things. In addition to needing to know what you’re going to grow, you likely also need to get your starters going indoors. This isn’t a quick process and many common plants need 6-8 weeks indoors before you plant them at the start of the season.
So you have the time for your starters, but you also need to be ready to start your starters, which will involve your indoor or greenhouse setup being complete. You will also need to have your outdoor areas prepared before you’re ready to transplant your starters and this means both preparing your beds soil as well as fertilizing properly. There’s no shortage of work to do when you have a garden to setup!
Larger Gardens Need More Lead Time
If you’re growing a very modest vegetable patch you can likely get away with some last minute planning, but if you’re planning to pull most of your calories off your garden you’re going to need a more robust plan. The plans aren’t just important for planting either. A lot of prep work needs to be carefully timed so that you can actually accomplish a full garden as early as possible in the season.
Never is this more apparent than when you’re setting up a brand new garden. The extra work you need to do has to be staged out in a carefully planned calendar or you’ll miss your early planting window. This might mean more trips to the grocery store before you start pulling food off your land, but it could be the difference between keeping food on the table or going hungry if your in a self sufficiency situation.
Some Things Need More Time
Some crops need more time. Many bulbs are planted the fall before they start in the spring. If you’re growing anything like that you need to not only know before the start of the previous season, but also have patience for the plants.
Things like asparagus can take two years before you can harvest them, and while a little late planning won’t kill you on these, you’re just adding more time the longer you take to get your plan together. If you miss your window to plant your asparagus, you’ll have to wait another year to harvest it!
A Good Plan Staggers Harvests
One of the largest benefits of having a garden plan early is that you can stagger your harvests. Failing to do so can mean too much of a crop at one time, or a lack of secondary harvests that you missed due to late planting or poor planning. The better your plan the more likely you are to avoid missing any planting dates.
If done properly, once a garden gets going you can harvest small amounts of food continually from mid spring through late fall. This is all the outcome of careful planning.
Plan Early Plan Often
If you’ve not made your plan early enough, don’t worry, most people don’t get their gardens right on the first go around. If you are still in a spot where you can plan for the next season, don’t hesitate! Get your plants picked, your garden space allocated, and your schedule locked in so you can maximize your harvest and minimize your extra work!