MIgardener: Don’t Wait Until It Is Too Late to Do This
Garden planning is something that happens right after the planting is done. Here are some e garden planning tips that will make a huge difference in your garden the next season.
I spend all winter looking out the window at my beds. Today I ordered seeds from you, now I’m planning new beds and figuring out another seed order to fill them!
I use "The Victory Garden" books from WGBH (or PBS) as well. Plus, seed catalogs from several companies have all sorts of information, as long as you know how to lay out your garden and decide what to plant…
My son was making graphs this afternoon. He is seven. He was creating a game. Thanks for that tip! And thank you for showing me how to plan my garden this winter is already getting to me. Early snow in Michigan.
i have plan everything ahead time plus i use a free app Food Garden if put in your plants in it tell when time to harvest plus just order more seeds wife going kill me lol
Great idea to have resources like that in book form so you can just go to your bookshelf and look it up and not waste 20 minutes or more, trying to find a good answer on line!
I'd love to find references like that for DIY home maintenance problems. In fact I still use the old outdated hardcover yellow pages to call contractors DIRECTLY so I don't waste time giving out private info to referral services whose sites show up in results of searches where the websites of individual contractors should be showing up. I wish more contractors would keep a business phone number going so their listings would still show up in the printed yellow pages.
For seed organizing, I think a sturdy card board shoe box works just as well or better than plastic organizers…and doesn't cost anything. Cuter than shoe boxes are the wooden crates "Clementines" sometimes come in which are about the same size. I just use two of those "crates" and put everything in alphabetical order (somewhat). It is quick and easy to find what I am looking for. I can see right away from "Artichoke" seeds to "Zinnia" without having to open separate boxes, find what I need by scanning through the seeds all lying in the same direction with the label on the same side .
I use an Excel spreadsheet, tab for garden layout, tab for seed inventory (plus notes), tab for planting guide (when I start seeds), tab for companion planting and tab for plants that grow well in the shade. I use an ammo can for seeds in plastic bags by family. Just refilled my seed supply thanks for the 20% off sale 😄
Thanks to your seed sale in the fall, I restocked my seed inventory in time to do winter sowing. I'm in zone 3 and had planted several beds in the fall of 2024 with mixes of seed, taking advantage of it to clear out old seeds (which are now replenished. Thanks for your seed sales!)
2025 turned out to be a brutal year. First we had an odd May, with very hot days, but overnight lows keeping the soil too cold to risk direct sowing until June (June 2 is our last frost date. This year, we got hit with frost around June 10). Then we had drought, heat waves and months of dense smoke from wildfires. So things germinated and looked like they were doing well, only to stagnate as time went on. Same with the transplants. If I hadn't done the winter sowing, we would have had next to nothing.
This year, I planted and mulched several beds before the ground froze. It's looking like we might have another drought year in 2026, which will mean more heat waves and wildfires. My plans for next year increasingly include infrastructure to protect the garden from nature!
For a change I'm about 10 years ahead of you on that seed storage, Luke! I've been labelling the plastic boxes they used to sell for VCR tapes and using them for seed storage. I put those boxes into a file cabinet in my unheated back room where I store potatoes and onions and it works like a charm. It's a great idea that I'm glad you are sharing with a lot more people than I ever could.
For many years I did not do planning of my garden very well. I use to go to the garden and plant without any prior planning. And that did not go very well. So then I used graph paper for a few years, but that doesn't allow for easy real time changes. For the past 6 years I have been using Google Sheets for my garden planning. I scale the cells so that they are square. My cells are scaled to 18" square because my rows are 18" wide. Using Sheets allows me to do the major planning on my desktop computer and then I would have access to the plan on my cell phone. Changes can be easily done and no paper wasted!!! Now I just need to organize my seeds better. I also like those seed boxes. Thanks.
Darnit. I wish this vid had come out before I placed my seed order, I would have thrown Mrs MIgardener's planner in my cart too. :/ And I do LOVE those photo organizers for seeds. So handy.
You don't need to remember the scale of your drawings on graph papper. Just mark a corner (out of the way) with "1 square = 1 foot" or whatever. Then you can look at it whenever you need to … even if it's 5 yrs later.
I’ve got to ask: what does your personal seed stash look like? What are your favorite varieties of each type that you’re growing? It’d probably be a long video, but I’d be happy to watch it ☺️
I use Google sheets. I set up my basic garden shape. And then I make a tab for each year. So that I know what I grew the previous year. And where I grew it. You just set up the cells to be squares. Then I highlight my garden beds in different colors and type the veggies I put in each bed. It took a little time to set up. But once I set it up I can keep copying it to another tab, year after year. It's also easy to change or add to. I can also print it out and take it out to the garden.
I have a series of coffee cans that are marked "Feb Starts", "March Direct", "April", "May", and I need to add a late summer/early fall. So I can get my Mangel Wurtzels planted on time. (MW is a fodder beat that can weigh up to 20lbs!)
I didn't know it until I tried it, but your heating mat is a must have. I bought one this spring, and ordered three more last month. Also, seed buying isn't "around the corner", but something I just got around to. Sadly, I missed your sale for mats and seeds, but the prices are still good even without a sale.
After years of apartment living i got a house last January. Didnt get much planted this year im far more ready. And just ordered during your sale. Anxious for spring
I would be SPECATCULAR if you could consider one more crop to get a section of land or bed ready for, Dahlias! There are so many ways to propagate them, and you can also harvest seeds before you dig them up in fall.
35 Comments
Thanks for all you do!!
Thanks!
I'm not good at planning, but I do always prepare a space for next year's experiment.
I spend all winter looking out the window at my beds. Today I ordered seeds from you, now I’m planning new beds and figuring out another seed order to fill them!
My seeds are in two of them! Love then.
Thank you Luke ! I love those seed boxes !!
I use "The Victory Garden" books from WGBH (or PBS) as well. Plus, seed catalogs from several companies have all sorts of information, as long as you know how to lay out your garden and decide what to plant…
My son was making graphs this afternoon. He is seven. He was creating a game. Thanks for that tip! And thank you for showing me how to plan my garden this winter is already getting to me. Early snow in Michigan.
The 10000 gardening questions book, I see it is 2 volume books. Is Volume 1 what you would suggest or should we get both?
Please pin the names of the books you use. Thank you! Great content!😊
Very useful thank you for the reminders.
5:12–5:18, black screen. Too much to say for the video shot?
i have plan everything ahead time plus i use a free app Food Garden if put in your plants in it tell when time to harvest plus just order more seeds wife going kill me lol
Great idea to have resources like that in book form so you can just go to your bookshelf and look it up and not waste 20 minutes or more, trying to find a good answer on line!
I'd love to find references like that for DIY home maintenance problems. In fact I still use the old outdated hardcover yellow pages to call contractors DIRECTLY so I don't waste time giving out private info to referral services whose sites show up in results of searches where the websites of individual contractors should be showing up. I wish more contractors would keep a business phone number going so their listings would still show up in the printed yellow pages.
Thank you. Great video.
For seed organizing, I think a sturdy card board shoe box works just as well or better than plastic organizers…and doesn't cost anything. Cuter than shoe boxes are the wooden crates "Clementines" sometimes come in which are about the same size. I just use two of those "crates" and put everything in alphabetical order (somewhat). It is quick and easy to find what I am looking for. I can see right away from "Artichoke" seeds to "Zinnia" without having to open separate boxes, find what I need by scanning through the seeds all lying in the same direction with the label on the same side .
Do you do infomercials for electric gadgets? I just heard one and it sounded like your voice.
I use an Excel spreadsheet, tab for garden layout, tab for seed inventory (plus notes), tab for planting guide (when I start seeds), tab for companion planting and tab for plants that grow well in the shade. I use an ammo can for seeds in plastic bags by family. Just refilled my seed supply thanks for the 20% off sale 😄
Thanks to your seed sale in the fall, I restocked my seed inventory in time to do winter sowing. I'm in zone 3 and had planted several beds in the fall of 2024 with mixes of seed, taking advantage of it to clear out old seeds (which are now replenished. Thanks for your seed sales!)
2025 turned out to be a brutal year. First we had an odd May, with very hot days, but overnight lows keeping the soil too cold to risk direct sowing until June (June 2 is our last frost date. This year, we got hit with frost around June 10). Then we had drought, heat waves and months of dense smoke from wildfires. So things germinated and looked like they were doing well, only to stagnate as time went on. Same with the transplants. If I hadn't done the winter sowing, we would have had next to nothing.
This year, I planted and mulched several beds before the ground froze. It's looking like we might have another drought year in 2026, which will mean more heat waves and wildfires. My plans for next year increasingly include infrastructure to protect the garden from nature!
I bought those seed organizers in the spring
For a change I'm about 10 years ahead of you on that seed storage, Luke! I've been labelling the plastic boxes they used to sell for VCR tapes and using them for seed storage. I put those boxes into a file cabinet in my unheated back room where I store potatoes and onions and it works like a charm. It's a great idea that I'm glad you are sharing with a lot more people than I ever could.
For many years I did not do planning of my garden very well. I use to go to the garden and plant without any prior planning. And that did not go very well. So then I used graph paper for a few years, but that doesn't allow for easy real time changes. For the past 6 years I have been using Google Sheets for my garden planning. I scale the cells so that they are square. My cells are scaled to 18" square because my rows are 18" wide. Using Sheets allows me to do the major planning on my desktop computer and then I would have access to the plan on my cell phone. Changes can be easily done and no paper wasted!!! Now I just need to organize my seeds better. I also like those seed boxes. Thanks.
Darnit. I wish this vid had come out before I placed my seed order, I would have thrown Mrs MIgardener's planner in my cart too. :/
And I do LOVE those photo organizers for seeds. So handy.
You don't need to remember the scale of your drawings on graph papper. Just mark a corner (out of the way) with "1 square = 1 foot" or whatever. Then you can look at it whenever you need to … even if it's 5 yrs later.
I’ve got to ask: what does your personal seed stash look like? What are your favorite varieties of each type that you’re growing? It’d probably be a long video, but I’d be happy to watch it ☺️
Algo boost 🌱💚
I use Google sheets. I set up my basic garden shape. And then I make a tab for each year. So that I know what I grew the previous year. And where I grew it. You just set up the cells to be squares. Then I highlight my garden beds in different colors and type the veggies I put in each bed. It took a little time to set up. But once I set it up I can keep copying it to another tab, year after year. It's also easy to change or add to. I can also print it out and take it out to the garden.
I asked Google Gemini to "create a vegetable seed planting chart for indoors and outdoors using may 15 as the last frost date."
You can customize the chart after it's made. I just told it to change the frost date and it redid the chart. Pretty cool
I have a series of coffee cans that are marked "Feb Starts", "March Direct", "April", "May", and I need to add a late summer/early fall. So I can get my Mangel Wurtzels planted on time. (MW is a fodder beat that can weigh up to 20lbs!)
Good video. Printing graph paper is not free. Ink prices for printers are more expensive than buying a book of graph paper from Amazon.
'How to Grow More Vegetables', by John Jevons, has been my go to book for decades.
I didn't know it until I tried it, but your heating mat is a must have. I bought one this spring, and ordered three more last month. Also, seed buying isn't "around the corner", but something I just got around to. Sadly, I missed your sale for mats and seeds, but the prices are still good even without a sale.
Oh wow love that garden planner. do you ship to South africa.
After years of apartment living i got a house last January. Didnt get much planted this year im far more ready. And just ordered during your sale. Anxious for spring
I would be SPECATCULAR if you could consider one more crop to get a section of land or bed ready for, Dahlias! There are so many ways to propagate them, and you can also harvest seeds before you dig them up in fall.