It’s garden planning season, and in this video I share the first steps of my garden planning process including how I decide what & how much to plant, where to plant, mapping out the garden and the importance of keeping notes.
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Seedtime App: https://seedsforgenerations.com/seedtime-garden-planning-app/
Resources for Determining How Much to Plant:
Calculate How Many Vegetables to Plant | Garden Gate (gardengatemagazine.com)
https://www.gardengatemagazine.com/articles/vegetables/getting-started/calculate-how-many-vegetables-to-plant/
Vegetable Production Chart from MSU https://www.canr.msu.edu/uploads/files/Table%204.pdf
Garden Size Calculator from Morning Chores.com https://morningchores.com/vegetable-garden-size/
My video on vertical gardening: https://youtu.be/3C7e17bHxWY
00:00 Intro
01:00 The Wishlist
03:29 Seed Inventory
04:47 Space- What Do I Have Room For?
07:51 Garden Layout/Mapping Apps/Calendars
11:11 Taking Notes
13:34 Supply Inventory
#zone6gardening #gardenplanning
39 Comments
NE Ohio here! My online garden planner is from GrowVeg. I love that planner. I am so excited about the planning process again this year. I love researching my seeds and dreaming of my spring garden while I look out the window at the snow. I bought new seeds after thanksgiving from two seed companies and now am looking to buy more from another. Growing onions, leeks, and herb starts indoors. In a few weeks, I start my broccoli, Brussel sprouts and other things that require a long growing season. Good luck to all! and remember to have fun!
"The answer is strawberry" Lol!!
Clay? And kale distract vibe borders?
As a young man of 70..growing in Texas..I have started raising all I can on cattle panels. I don't like raised beds..the most important planning I do is plant rotation and seed starting and general planting dates..love your channel
Wonderful video. This year I'm going to mix Captan wp fungicide with Surround wp to try to control apple scab which mainly affects my pears. I have not had much success with copper or sulfur sprays in early spring as prevention. I do rake up all fruit tree leaf litter, but it doesn't seem to help. Captan is not organic. When I buy perfect apples/pears in the grocery store I know that these fruits have mad multiple sprays of some non-organic potions. Kind Regards. Craig
Iβve was binging your videos last night , great content! And you are here in Ohio which makes everything you talk about relevant for me! Keep it up! ππΌ
Hi Jenna! I've collected the majority of my seeds for this season including ones you recommended. I dated each pack with a start date and I've placed reminders on my smart phone calendar for start dates. Notebooks are a weak point for me as well, if they only had a GPS chip! π Great video!!!
Step 1, make a detailed plan
Step 2, inventory supplies and seeds and order more seeds than I can actually grow
Step 3, start way more seeds than I can actually grow
Step 4, transplant seedling disregarding the plan because Iβve determined in the spring that I had no idea what I was thinking back in January
Step 5, find good homes for remaining plants that Iβve started and run out of space for
π
My 2nd year gardening, first year starting seeds. Family of 2 so being realistic about what we will eat is a challenge. π I feel like I'll be planning and replanning where everything will go right up till I plant them.
Iβm in NE Ohio as well. Lots of space within Garden but I need to better optimize. Anyone have recommendations on optimal βwidthβ of beds and of walkways?? I think I can go a smaller. Currently about 3.4-4ft wide. I started smaller but they have expanded on me π
Do you map out your sunlight?
Mainly, because computers and I really do not like each other, most of my planning goes on between my ears and on paper. I do get a lot of benefit from reviewing the videos and pic's of the garden from previous years. I keep a journal, but that usually gets forgotten even before all the planting is done. Going to try and do better with that this year.
Really enjoy your videos.
And, have you named the various segments of your garden? π
To answer the question you've posed to us viewers, I'd say I'm a to-the-Nth planner (what I'll grow and where I'll place it in the garden), but too frequently a caution-to-the-wind executor. I often lose track of time, and of what I've done with my time which is how I wound up having purchased two of one variety of one crop, because I didn't recall having purchased one of that same crop the year before; sent some of the surplus off to a gardener out of state. Every year, by the way, is the year this "Who needs to take a seed inventory? Not I, certainly! I'm sure I'll *remember*" foolishness ends, and I continue to rely on memory although I have the best of intentions of keeping a written inventory with the seed stash, and I digital inventory on the pc.
Right now, I'm taking a harder look at what we most enjoy eating and what we use in cooking, and at how to expand the garden space we have enclosed (just under one-thousand square feet which isn't as much as it might sound, but used correctly and shrewdly a few hundred square feet can produce a lot of food for four or five people, and we are only two.) A little while ago the realization came to me that while it doesn't seem a great deal, a one-foot "border" inside the enclosure mesh, all the way around except for at the gate, would give us, well, that many more square feet of productivity before we move the enclosure boundaries outward just a bit. And, a border of garden bed/s outside as well as inside the enclosure will prevent snagging the welded wire mesh with a knob on the handle of the lawn mower. The outside border will be low-mounding flowers like signet marigolds.
You didn't ask, but I do believe we'll have little name signs for the four quadrants of this garden. If the garden's robust you won't be able to see them, but we'll know they're there.
Actually, I am planning an old-school pen and paper. I find it easier to reference what I need in a written journal when planting. However, if I had a larger garden space, I would definitely be interested in the online tools. I just find water & paper vs. electronic method better. Bonus, I can take my journal in the garden and add dates when the photo is taken, then go back and look. Great video on planning.
I have a similar process to yours, but I haven't been as on the ball with tracking once plants go into the ground. I have my Google spreadsheet and then I have a Goodnotes "notebook" where I write out what I need to do monthly, as well as what I actually get done. And I take pictures of each bed as I plant it and label them in the notebook as well, which is helpful for when I forgot what I direct seeded or when volunteers come up. You've given me a lot of ideas of things to track, especially when it comes to usage of what I grow.
Great suggestions! I just wanted to mention that you can copy/paste images into an Excel cell! Iβm on a Mac, and I use the screen shot app. I open the picture I want to put into my spreadsheet, take a screenshot and save it to my Clipboard (one of the options in the app), then click on the cell I want it in and Paste. You can drag the corner to resize the cell, so you can see it as a large photo when you need to and then shrink it back down when you donβt!
Your seed filing system is EXACTLY. how I've kept mine for years!
Planning for this little moneyβs garden is a blend of long term planning and wing-it; decide in advance very specific when, where, and how much of certain veggies and flowers, and wing it on other cool plants that I find at the last minute. Gotta shoe horn that pretty bugger in the yard somewhere. π Currently trying to find space for various sunflowers since Iβve just recently learned that honey bees use the pollen for medicinal purposes in the hive. Also preparing to move a small patch of garden to a sunnier spot since trees have grown substantially, and trying to find what will do just fine in the original space. Iβd LOVE to get your input on that sort of thing: veggies that donβt need as much sun. By the way, do you have a vid on making your own seed starting mix?
Thanks for your videos. Awesome stuff.
That Zip-Lock bag idea is great! I had never thought of that and I'm going to organize my seeds in a few minutes. Zone 7B
I use a simple technique. I have a template layout of my garden and pencil things in every year beginning in August on where I want them for the following season. I usually go through at least 3 iterations to get it where I want it. I also have a journal in excel where I record a lot of the same things you do but not quite as much. I have an inside sheet and an outside sheet and record date started, variety, days until maturity, transplanted outside, and I try to record date harvested but I sometimes forget that. I also record notes in the spreadsheet of course.
I didn't realize surround works for cucumber beetles. Do you have a lot of luck with that?
Jenna I canβt find part 2 of your garden planning. Did you make one yet?
My seed saving is a lot like yours, but sloppier π
Jenna, I wanted to say that I think you great quality content and have learned quite a bit from your channel. So thanks for that π. And Iβm surprised that you only have 93k subscribers! Keep at it, and I think you will grow to a 1M+ garden youtube channel. Keep up the great work ππΌ
Actually planning some of my garden stuff this year! I am not very good at planning it out but I am already working on what I actually want to plant based on what we need and eat. I stocked up on 20 gallon grow bags at the end of the season last year because I donβt have space to put a large in ground garden but bags I can manage.
One thing I failed to mention.
My main crops are pretty much set where they will be going before planting, the one thing I really enjoy is putting in the herbs and flowers.
Last year, it took me almost 10 days to place everything. I was like an artist with a pallet waiting to splash paint on the canvas, or a conductor of an orchestra tapping his baton on the podium for quiet. Mixing marigold, dill, lavender cilantro, petunias, 4'Oclocks, comfrey, borage, chamomile and a bunch I do not remember is my favorite thyme of planting. The planning comes in, what is new for this year? Gotta love gardening.
I have decided to start a orchard this year. Any tips?
It's my 3rd year growing vegetables, in containers. The 1st year, I planted everything that was supposed to grow in my zone. The 2nd year I planted what did well. This year I planted what I actually eat!
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You make a lot of good points! It would be very good for a new gardener to listen to what you are saying. This is really a great tutorial! Three years ago I made a scale map of all 14 of our raised beds. Then scaled out where everything was to be planted. My first time companion planting. Well, lol, once I changed my winter idea, it slowly went down hill after that. So I just get on line with catalogs next to me and make a list of wants. Let it sit for a couple of days and then I start the whittling down process. I grown really nice eggplant, but this year I decided not to. I'm trying a different type of sweet pepper instead. Our bed sare all different sizes…a couple only 2'x2' with trellises all the way to 2'x26', 4'x20', etc. What ever I could find at the time laying around to make them out of. Last year I put in two 3' diameter fire rings for annuals. No more maps lol! I went back to my old school ways to make it less confusing for me lol. I just wing it. I had overwhelmed myself with all the notebooks and maps lol. But, I do do some of the things you talked about naturally. Enjoyed your take on preparing! Take care!
I map out the big plants. Smaller and/or quicker things like greens I sneak in where there is a gap. I have to have a plan, but it can't be rigid. I do it all on paper, and this year's goal is to actually keep up with it all season long!
i think i saw some Fruition seed packs in your inventory there, always makes me excited to see a local seed brand i love extending to other gardener videos i come across
i have just a hight water table, it is taking a while to prevent my garden from flooding and plants just drowing -Spent all of last season building raised beds and adding mulch/woodchips. Now it is a waiting game for the woodchips to settle. I do have some containers on the porch so at least I get to plant a few things just to see them grow and make notes on what works. Maybe next year the in the yard garden will be apply to apply what i learn growing on the porch.
I am absolutely loving the new Johnny's Selected Seeds catalog for 2023. Every category has vegies displayed by harvest size. This is so helpful to me as a new gardener, so I know exactly the size of the fruit I'll get and not spend the entire season on a plant that disappoints. They also include tips for growing, taking care of pests, harvest and storage. I really enjoy your videos and the inspiration you give. Thanks so much!
Help!!! How do you handle nutsedge in the garden?
All the tips were very good. For me, as a journalist, keeping a written account of your gardening life and adventures is key. A written history, as it were, to tell the story of your journey with nature, both the good and the not so good. To both inspire and teach those who will come. One day, a child or grandchild, will open up those pages and be able to walk through the garden with you even though you have long passed away. The written word is so necessary, and yet so dismissed these days. Carry on!
I tried to sign up for Seedtime and apparently you have to be invited? Do you know how to get an invitation as an ordinary gardener? Thank you for sharing all of this great information. I always love your videos. They are always packed full of helpful information.
Thank you for this recommendation! I set up an account yesterday & got all three of my vegetable gardens planned out.
My husband just finished 20 years in the Navy and we're settling into a small farm in Eastern Tennessee. My rolling clay hills are a blank slate!
We excavated an 8'x20' strip to set up three 32" raised planter beds. Put some hugelkultur to work.
We also filled three Greenstalk planters on the patio.
Waiting for fruits to arrive! Saved dish-paks to mulch around them.
Step 1 prepare soil!!!