My (kind of) Organized Garden Plans

I spent a chunk of the day planning out my garden layout. It was a fun exercise, but I have decided not all my efforts were worthwhile.  I started by simply listing on a scrap of paper all the vegetables I plan to include in my garden.

Pretty messy, I know, but that’s how I operate.  My next step was to draw out a rough draft. I used squares to represent 1 square foot so I could have a somewhat accurate measurement of my space. Above is my rough draft of the two 6′ X 6′ raised beds, which currently only exist on paper.  Below is the space I actually have.

Again, it’s pretty messy and I drew it freehand — no rulers or fancy graph paper — I just wanted the general idea. Using the planting directions on the back of my seed packets I made my layout according to the space each plant will require when full grown. As you can see, I did some crossing out and moving around (I probably should have used pencil ). From this point I went to the online planners I included in a previous posting.

The above was made using the Gardener’s Supply Company planner. It was fun and relatively simple to use. It was basically drag and drop. Unfortunately not all the vegetables I planned for were available for drag and drop. I was especially surprised about the lack of cucumbers. One feature I especially liked on this site was the planting instructions and tips provided each time a new vegetable was placed on the garden plan. I decided to try out the free garden planner from Vegetable Gardening Online for the layout of my two boxes.

This was actually simpler to use, but as you can see, I had to write-in some of what I want and the layout size options were very limited.  It was a fun exercise, but I didn’t feel I could get exactly the layout I would have if I had re-done my draft with pen and paper. I probably will make more changes as planting time arrives, but I have my plan and I have begun my seedlings.

This week I’ll be organizing another closet. Dun, dun, dun. . .