Garden planning

[plantoneonme]

I have a good working plan down on paper for my gardens this coming spring. I have 2 established beds and am planning on adding a couple more.

The one bed is directly behind the garage and is 30"x16'. In the bed I plan on planting: 8 cauliflower, 12 broccoli, 6 cabbage, 2' of kohlrabi and 1' of rutabaga (not sure how many per sq ft yet). Against the garage on a trellis I will have a row consisting of peas and pole beans. Sprinkled between the larger crops there will be radish, chard, turnips, celery, beets, carrots, leeks, lettuce and spinach...these can be harvested before the larger crops need the room and later replanted in the fall.

In my already existing bed of 4'x24' I plan on planting: 16 peppers (4'x4'), 4'x4' of bush beans, 2 (2'x4') zucchini, 4'x4' of herbs and 2'x8' of potatoes with the same of sunflowers behind them.

A new 4'x24' bed will be added containing 20 tomato plants with a 2'x24' row of corn behind them.

Not sure where yet but I will be adding a narrow strip (probably along the other side of the garage) for vining crops of cucumbers and melons.

A 4'x4' box will be made in the middle of the yard for my granddaughter's giant pumpkin which will be allowed to sprawl across the lawn (sorry dh but you won't know what hit ya until it is too late lol).

I will be adding a trellis along one side of the fence for a grape vine and down the line further my 2 blueberries underplanted with lignon berries.

A new bed of 2'x50' will go along the back fence behind the existing 4'x24' bed. This will leave a walkway of 2' between them. The long, narrow box will be home to permanent plantings consisting of asparagus, herbs, rhubarb, strawberries and a few flowers to attract bees. I am also adding a box of 3'x8' in an out of the way spot for raspberries.

There is also a really ugly corner with an even uglier telephone pole right in plain view. I will plant some kind of climbing flower on the pole and then fill the corner with beneficial, bee attracting flowers.

In total, the planting area will take up a solid 1/3 of my back yard. I'll have to see how my husband reacts to this as he is "not a farmer" and doesn't understand my desire to become more self-sufficient and my love of gardening. I figure by next year, he will have time to accept this and I can squeeze out a few more feet for more beds :D

Kim

[rdsaltpower]

Wow, plantone sounds like you are planning some serious gardening this year!
I plan on doubling my sq. footage this year to about 250 sq. ft. I figure that will keep me and the wife hopping. lol:o

[Brewguy]

That sounds great.. I don't know your financial situation but come next year I think your husband will appreciate it when fresh produce is either not available or way over priced..

Is there a way to attach a spread sheet? I've been working on my garden plan as well, it will be 224 sq/ft with a traditional bed for corn. I'd like to show it to everyone and get some opinions on my crop locations.

This will be more than double of last year..

Dispite only having about a third acre my wife and I are hoping to be as self suficient as possible.
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[plantoneonme]

This is an early plan as I already see some areas I need to change. The area I allotted is too small for the number of tomato plants I wanted to do. I really only have space for 12 plants so will tweek a little. Tomatoes are such a staple in our house, I need to find an area for more which, unfortunately, will probably mean less space for corn (this is relatively cheap atnd very good at the farmer's market). The 4'x4' herb area will be moved to pots or the 2'x50' bed since the other plants will not be full established this year instead since I now have some edamame beans to grow out. I plan on using the herb space for the edamame, mung and adzuki beans I have. These will help with our winter needs for "fresh" foods.

I also saw on one of Patti's other blogs a video showing a woman growing potatoes in 1 gallon pots. I am going to give this a try this year planting 1 pot every month. If it works well, I will continue to grow out a few pots during the winter in the house. (I'm still having the potato bed just in case.) Since you harvest potatoes at approximately 90 days, I will start a pot in August to harvest for Thanksgiving, another in Sept for Christmas etc.

I'm not sure how to load an excel or spreadsheet as I am still pretty old fashion and use paper a lot. I make a grid out of ink and pencil in what I want to grow using the square foot method.

I also need to work on a small bed to grow out plants just for the purpose of saving seeds for next year. I let some plants go to seed in my regular beds but would like to use the space more efficiently by rotating out older plants and replanting...more along the way Mel does his. My seed saving bed will have just a few things I will let go to seed such as lettuce, broccoli, carrots etc. The other foods that give seeds easily such as tomatoes, melons etc will just be harvested as before and the seeds saved.

Through online seed swaps and a few well priced purchases, I have a very large variety of seeds to plant. Many I have never eaten before so will only plant a few of each. If we like them well enough, they will be added in larger quantities the following year. Each year I plan on expanding as money, space and dh allow. To be honest, he grumbles a LOT, but he usually lets me do what I want. Why else would I put up with him for over 27 years ;)

Kim

[Brewguy]

Vegetable Variety Plt/sq Squares Vine
1 Cucumber Slice 2 2 Y
2 Cucumber Pickle 2 2 Y
3 Pea 8 4 Y
4 Snap Pea 8 4 Y
5 Squash butternut 1 4 Y
6 Squash Spaghetti 1 4 Y
7 Squash Sweet Potato 1 4 Y
8 Tomato Red Brandywine 1 2 Y
9 Tomato Black Brandywine 1 2 Y
10 Tomato Paste 1 6 Y
11 Tomato Green 1 2 Y
12 Tomato pinapple 1 2 Y
13 Tomato Cherry 1 2 Y
14 Basil 1 6
15 Beet 9 6
16 Broccoli 1 16
17 Bush Bean Kidney 8 8
18 Bush Bean Navy 8 8
19 Bush Bean Black 8 8
20 Bush Bean Cattle 8 8
21 Cabbage 1 14
22 Carot 16 4
23 Carrot 16 4
24 Cauliflower 1 16
25 Celery 4 4
26 Cilantro 1 2
27 Dill 4 2
28 Garlic 4 4
29 Leek 9 4
30 mache 16 4
31 Onion 16 4
32 Pepper Orange 1 4
33 Pepper Red 1 4
34 Pepper Ancho 1 4
35 Potato white 4 12
36 Radish 16 2
37 Rosemary 4 1
38 Sage 4 1
39 Salad Mix pack 16
40 Spinach 9 4
41 Strawberry 4 12
42 Thyme 4 2
43 Zucchini 0.125 planted outside of boxes
44 Water Melon type 1 1 Y planted outside of boxes
45 Water Melon type 2 1 Y planted outside of boxes
46 Pole Bean Lima 9 Y planted outside of boxes
47 Pole Bean Green 9 Y planted outside of boxes
48 Corn Sweet 4 planted outside of boxes
49 Corn Blue/dry 4 planted outside of boxes

Planned Sq 224

Available Sq 224

Open Sq 0
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[plantoneonme]

Nice plan brewguy. Now you gave me another problem though...I forgot about my dried beans :o Looks like I may just stick a few in my seed garden.

Kim

[Brewguy]

Nice plan brewguy. Now you gave me another problem though...I forgot about my dried beans :o Looks like I may just stick a few in my seed garden.

Kim

Thanks, I have a grid layed out in excel and the numbers on the left are used to fill it in. I can't seem to post that..

Last year my soil was not great, I planted 8 squares of dry beans. I only got about a half gallon or less. This year I am doing 32 squares, I'm hoping to get enough to actually be useful. It seems like the return per square is pretty low on beans, if the crop is not large this year I might call it quits on those and grow something more productive.

I like your idea of lining the fence with narrow beds. I think I can do the same thing in my garden area. I was thinking 2 foot wide would be perfect for corn.
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[Brewguy]

In your 4x24 bed you can have 2 rows of corn and 24 tomato plants plus another 24' row of something else. Why did you say you only have room for 12 tomato plants?



This is an early plan as I already see some areas I need to change. The area I allotted is too small for the number of tomato plants I wanted to do. I really only have space for 12 plants so will tweek a little. Tomatoes are such a staple in our house, I need to find an area for more which, unfortunately, will probably mean less space for corn (this is relatively cheap atnd very good at the farmer's market). The 4'x4' herb area will be moved to pots or the 2'x50' bed since the other plants will not be full established this year instead since I now have some edamame beans to grow out. I plan on using the herb space for the edamame, mung and adzuki beans I have. These will help with our winter needs for "fresh" foods.

I also saw on one of Patti's other blogs a video showing a woman growing potatoes in 1 gallon pots. I am going to give this a try this year planting 1 pot every month. If it works well, I will continue to grow out a few pots during the winter in the house. (I'm still having the potato bed just in case.) Since you harvest potatoes at approximately 90 days, I will start a pot in August to harvest for Thanksgiving, another in Sept for Christmas etc.

I'm not sure how to load an excel or spreadsheet as I am still pretty old fashion and use paper a lot. I make a grid out of ink and pencil in what I want to grow using the square foot method.

I also need to work on a small bed to grow out plants just for the purpose of saving seeds for next year. I let some plants go to seed in my regular beds but would like to use the space more efficiently by rotating out older plants and replanting...more along the way Mel does his. My seed saving bed will have just a few things I will let go to seed such as lettuce, broccoli, carrots etc. The other foods that give seeds easily such as tomatoes, melons etc will just be harvested as before and the seeds saved.

Through online seed swaps and a few well priced purchases, I have a very large variety of seeds to plant. Many I have never eaten before so will only plant a few of each. If we like them well enough, they will be added in larger quantities the following year. Each year I plan on expanding as money, space and dh allow. To be honest, he grumbles a LOT, but he usually lets me do what I want. Why else would I put up with him for over 27 years ;)

Kim
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[plantoneonme]

I found out that 2 ft apart for my indeterminate tomatoes was as close as I could plant and still get a good harvest. I know Mel says 1 ft but I found that too close. I did pinch off some of the suckers but left many on the plant. So what this means is that I will allow 2'x24' for 12 tomato plants. I am not as dedicated as Mel is...there is no engineer in me :o

I am only planning on growing a few dried beans but if the yields are low will probably purchase them in the future. I had really good luck with a pole type, multi-purpose bean I swapped for last year that I will grow again this year. It is a scarlet runner bean that can be eaten when young as you would a bush bean or left to dry. The seeds are HUGE and the plant was pretty productive. On top of that, the flowers attracted lots of bees.

Kim

[gardengirl72]

Don't forget to leave room to plant marigolds in your beds and don't forget to plant herbs like basil as well. They are great companion plants. Also, I'll look it up, but make sure that you can plant the things you are planting together. Sometimes you can't plant things that are not the same family next to each other. Can't wait to see the pictures!

[gardengirl72]

Here's a great chart on companion planting. Check it out.
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/companion.htm (http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/companion.htm)

[plantoneonme]

Thanks Patti for the companion growing guide...now you went and made more work for me...looks like some things need to be moved ;) Kim

[HomesteadBaker]

Nice plan brewguy. Now you gave me another problem though...I forgot about my dried beans :o Looks like I may just stick a few in my seed garden.

Kim

Not sure if anyone else suggested this, but let them grow up around that "ugly telephone pole" on the corner of your yard. Some twine from anchors in the ground in a semi circle out from the tele pole, stretched to a height of 6 -8 feet up and attached (temporarily) to the pole...... and you're good to go! Productive and decorative.

[plantoneonme]

Not sure if anyone else suggested this, but let them grow up around that "ugly telephone pole" on the corner of your yard. Some twine from anchors in the ground in a semi circle out from the tele pole, stretched to a height of 6 -8 feet up and attached (temporarily) to the pole...... and you're good to go! Productive and decorative.


Dried beans are always bush beans but this is a good suggestion for my scarlet runners. Thanks Kim