Vegetable Garden with Four Season Planning

I know you are dreaming and planning your garden whether just in your head, on paper, or on the computer with the Plan Garden site. (click on the photo of the woman gardener to learn more about Plangarden.)

A garden needs to be organized. Here are a few things to remember during your planning stage.

1. Determine the size and location, preferably with 6-8 hours of sun a day with water nearby for watering the plants. The Plangarden helps you determine how much space you have for each vegetable crop. It is so easy to buy too many seeds or plants for the space you have available. Planning helps you in this category.

2. Decide which way to plant the rows in your garden.

3. Remember to save room for a path or paths through the garden in order to water, fertilize, weed, etc.

4. Select areas for planting for the seasons. It is best to plant those veggies you will harvest in spring in a group. For example, plant lettuce, peas, green onions, radishes together for spring harvesting. In another section plant beans, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, squash, and tomatoes for summer harvest, and broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, spinach, lettuce or cool weather crops for fall gathering.

5. To efficiently use the garden area, it is possible to "double-crop" the section. When the spring plants are depleted, re-plant the section with another group of plants for late summer or fall harvest time. See how grouping the seasonal plants together allows this extra perk?

6. Another advantage of planting with the season of harvest in mind helps you clear out a section to re-plant or to clean up for the winter. So instead of planting the cole crops like cabbage and broccoli which like the cold weather on the opposite ends of the garden, plant them with the fall harvest crops like pumpkins and winter squash.

7. You may live in an area where it is possible to keep root crops such as parsnips and turnips in the ground longer for a winter crop. Be sure to keep these vegetables planted in the same area so you can clean up and prepare the rest of the garden for winter.

Think first about the harvest times for your vegetables and group them accordingly in your garden. With some pre-planning, you can eat fresh all year.

Plangarden--a Tool for Vegetable Gardeners

This is the time of year to get your vegetable garden planned out. You have time to think about it and play with ideas. I know you have been drooling over seed catalogs and ordering seeds..LOL..With Plan Garden you can play with how you want to set up your garden. Instead of graph paper and pencil, you can use beautiful graphics and measurements to design the exact garden you want.  Perhaps you are wondering how much more room you need if you add more pumpkins or tomato plants this year. It's easy to figure it out with this tool before you have to start preparing your extra plot.

Not only does Plangarden help design your garden, it provides a journal/blog to keep track of your progress and the ability share your garden online for others to see. My DH is having a blast, once he learned the program through the tutorials. He is designing all kinds of gardens with so many possibilities.

If you are interested in this fun program available on the web, no need to download to your computer, click on the picture below or at the right side of the screen. Let me know how it works for you.

Dare We Think About Spring?

I know you folks in the North country are not seeing signs of spring buried under all the snow...What a tough winter. (Of course my son-in-law loves it since he picks up extra cash with his snow plowing service.)

In Florida we have had a ton of rain, but the yards are beginning to green up....the weeds are loving it. We still are not reaching the normal average high temps, but low 60's are acceptable. Still cool nights in the 30' and 40's.

My DH started white, red and yellow onions. He planted them in the garden and will dig them up to take north with us for our Michigan garden. He also started green, red, purple, yellow and chocolate pepper plants in packs. (If only we could grow chocolate in our garden!!)

Although the weather may not look like spring will come, it will! Have you been looking at seed catalogues and drawing out your new and improved garden for the winter?? Time to plan and dream.

Time to Plan Your Garden

These long winter days are the perfect time to plan your garden. Time to dream about the possibilities of your spring plantings and summer and fall harvests. You will leaf through all kinds of seed catalogs, check out vegetable gardening books, and click on gardening websites to get new and fresh ideas and crop information. Dave's Garden has helpful information in a guide to gardening by mail, mail order gardening, garden books, and catalogs.

Dream on. Gardener's know that the next garden will be the best garden they ever planted!