Well here we are at the end of the season. The last crops have been harvested, the garlic is in the ground waiting to pop up next spring, and our gardens have been put to bed for the winter. For many of us the growing season has come to an end. But this does not mean it’s time for us to hang up our sun-hats and put our gardens out of mind until next spring. No, now is the best time to reflect on this year. What went well, what could be improved on, and what you want to incorporate into next year, and use this to help plan for next season. Here are some things that you will want to keep in mind and some techniques you might want to try when planning your garden for next season.
The first question to ask yourself when planning for next season, is whether you want to expand your growing space. If you are looking to expand your growing space, there are a couple things that you want to keep in mind. Do you want to build a raised bed, or do in-ground rows, and where do you want it to be? Both of these growing spaces have their advantages and disadvantages.
Raised bed.
Raised beds are a very popular type of growing space for home gardeners. There are multiple advantage and disadvantages that raised beds have.
Advantages
o Weed management is much easier with a raised bed
o The soil warms up faster in the spring
o They are easier to build added infrastructure like hoop houses and cold frames on
o They can be built up higher to limit bending down (this also helps limit pests)
Disadvantages
o They are more costly to install than in ground beds
o They can have problems with drainage if there not built properly
In ground beds.
In ground beds are what they sound like. They are a growing space consisting of a cleared out section of ground where crops can be planted. Like Raised beds these come with advantages and disadvantages
Advantages
o You don’t have to worry about drainage
o They are more cost effective
o They are more flexible with where they can be put.
o They can be easily expanded
Disadvantages
o Weed management is much harder
o It can be more labor intensive to create ground beds.
o The soil will take longer to warm up in the spring.
o It can be harder to keep pests away
The Right Location
Regardless of which growing space you go with, raised beds, or in ground beds, there are a couple things that you want to keep in mind for where you put them. For your new growing location you want to avoid windy spots. This wind can damage plants, chill your garden, and increase evaporation, drying out your garden. You also want to make sure and avoid shaded areas to ensure that your plants get enough sunlight. Most vegetable crop require between 6-8 hours of direct sunlight. Make sure you know how you are getting water to your garden. Avoid low areas or depressions in your property. Cold air will sink down into these depressions. creating a microclimate that is colder than the rest of your property. You also want to avoid locations where snow piles up. These piles of snow will take longer to melt, and will mean that you get an even later start to your growing season
What Garden to Plan For
Whether you are looking to expand your growing spaces, or just looking to improve your current growing spaces, creating a garden plan is extremely beneficial for improving yield. When making your garden plan, you really want to think about what kind of garden you want to have. You’ll want to ask yourself some questions to know what you want out of your garden. You’ll want to know how much money you want to spend on materials for your garden. How much time will you have to give to your garden? How much produce do you want to harvest from your garden? And what produce will you actually eat? Once you know the answer to these questions, it can be much easier to know what to plan for.
Basics for Planing Your to Planting
Regardless of what you want out of your garden, there are a couple basic things that you want to keep in mind. The first one of these is where is the sun coming from. You want to make sure that your tall plants are not shading your short plants. You also want to rotate where crops are growing in your garden . Growing the same vegetable season after season in the same spot can lead to nutrient depletion in the soil, and the buildup of species specific illnesses in one area of your garden. Another thing to keep in mind is that airflow is your friend. Whether you are doing bio-intensive, block style planting, or just winging it, make sure you have enough space between your plants. There is a spacing chart below. If there is not enough air flow, this can cause pests and fungi to move in and make your plants sick.
With these basics in mind, you need to decide what you are going to be planting and where it is going to go in your garden. Luckily like many things with your garden, this is up to you, and there are almost no wrong ways to do it. I’m going to give a brief overview of some different techniques that can help with improving yield in your garden, and understanding what to put where.
One basic technique is to group your veggies by similarity. This could be either days to harvest, or plant needs. Grouping plants by days to harvest, means that you will be harvesting from one location in your garden at a time. This will make it easy to keep track of what to harvest, and can be a good first step with succession planting.
Grouping plants based off of similar need will make it easy to care for your plants in the way that they need to be cared for. Unfortunately, your plants will most likely be competing for these resources, but this can be a good technique for new gardeners because it is easier then juggling all of your plant’s needs across your whole garden.
If you are looking to get a little more advanced with your gardening, you could try implementing block planting, succession planting, or partner planting. Or you could attempt some combination of all of these techniques.
Block Style planting.
Block style planting is a form of bio-intensive planting that bases plant spacing off of blocks instead of rows. This style of planting works very well for home gardens growing in raised beds, because it is based off of 3-4 food wide blocks that have walk ways on either side of them. These blocks can be place one next to each other to fill up an entire raised bed. The bio-intensive nature of block style planting is beneficial for both increased yield out of a small space, as well as decreasing the amount of weeds in the garden. When doing block style planting, it is important to still follow spacing guides. Here is a more detailed explanation of block style planting from the CSU grow and give website
Suggested spacing for kitchen garden vegetables: with diagram of block planting (Start with the wider spacings, reducing spacing with experience and as soil improves in fertility and tilth.)
Beets: 4-6” by 4-6"
Carrots: 2-3" by 2-3"
Celery: 7-9" by 7-9"
Garlic: 4-6” by 4-6"
Kohlrabi: 7-9" by 7-9"
Leeks: 4-6” by 4-6"
Lettuce, head: l0-l2” by 10-12"
Lettuce, leaf: 7-9" by 7-9"
Onions, bunching” 2-3" by 2-3"
Onions, dry: 4-6" by 4-6”
Parsnips: 5-6” by 5-6"
Radishes: 2-3" by 2-3"
Spinach: 4-6” by 4-6”
Swiss chard: 7-9” by 7-9”
Turnips: 4-6”by 4-6"
Brassicas (broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower) 18”-18”
Potatoes: 12-15”-12-15”
Succession planting
Succession planting is the technique of staggering your planting based on days to maturity in order to maximize your harvest, and ensure that you are always harvesting something. The key to succession planting is looking at days to maturity of all of your crops and fitting them together like a puzzle to ensure that you get the most yield out of your garden. An example of this could be planting radishes all around your broccoli. By the time that your broccoli is big, you will have already harvested your radishes. An easy way to plan your succession planting is to create multiple garden diagrams on a time scale. Create a garden map for each month of the growing season, and track the days to maturity to see when things will be growing, and when things will be done growing.
Note in the diagram below how in the first month radishes are at the top of the middle bed, but a month later this has been switched to carrots. That is because by the second month the radishes have been harvested, and this is now an open part of the garden. This timeframe planning can help piece together the puzzle of succession planting. If you are looking for more information of this planting technique you can check out Mountain Roots blog about succession planting here.
companion planting
Companion planting is another popular technique for planning a garden. Companion planting is the concept that there are certain plants that benefit each other when planted together. Probably the most famous example of this is the Three Sisters utilized by many Native American Tribes. The beans, squash, and corn, all provide something for the other plants, and together they all grow healthier.
There are countless examples of companion planting, and ways that companion planting can benefit your garden. Companion planting can be beneficial by deterring pests, attracting beneficial insects, fixing nutrients in the soil, providing a beneficial environment for your plants, and can help with weed suppression to name a few. Like many things in your garden, it is not an exact science. There is a lot of trial and error that comes with succession planting, but there are some do's and don’ts that you can follow. Plants that have similar needs as far as nutrients, sunlight, space above and below ground are a no no for companion planting. As well as planting anything in the allium family (onions, garlic, leeks) next to legumes. the alliums. Click on the button below to find a helpful chart with some information on what plants make good neighbors, and what plants don’t. If you are interested in learning more about partner planting you can read up more on the farmer’s almanac here.
Planning a garden for the next season is an exciting thing. It is a creative process that is full of potential. So let your creative side out. Keep a couple of the guidelines above in mind, but go at it. This is your garden. Grow what you want to grow. Experiment a little with it. Create the sanctuary that you want to, and above all, just have fun with it.