Spring is here and it is time to start a garden... right? Sure, but if you don't plan your garden you may make mistakes that make it harder for you to stay with it. And while I get wanting to dive into gardening, if you don't already have a garden it may be best to focus on planning the garden and wait to build the garden until late summer or early fall.
This week's blog post is all about planning your new garden and the steps that go into making a good plan including why spring is a great time to plan your garden.
The reason why spring is a great time to plan your garden is that this gives you time to prepare the land for the garden using methods that let you work with nature like sheet mulching. Methods like sheet mulching take time but result in great garden soil. If you plan your garden in spring, you can sheet mulch the garden area in summer/fall and then build your garden in late winter or early spring the following year.
But if you are in a rush then you can just do the work yourself instead of letting nature help you out.
So what are the steps to plan your garden? Here are my top 5:
- Determine when to start building the new garden (We already talked a bit about this one).
- Determine where to build the new garden.
- Determine what type of garden beds you want to build.
- Determine how big to make the garden.
- Determine how to protect the garden from critters.
The blog post covers all 5 but in this post I'm going to focus on the 2nd step since we already covered the 1st.
Step 2 - Where to Build the New Garden
At the time I'm writing this post my new kitchen garden is close to being finished. So where did I put it?
This garden is just out my backdoor (the above picture of my new garden was taken from my back steps). Often it seems people put gardens in some corner of their backyard out of the way. So why did I put it so close to my backdoor?
The biggest reason is that anytime I go outside into my backyard area I will have to walk by the garden. This makes it really easy to harvest and maintain. Plus the middle open area of the garden will be used as an outdoor kitchen/gathering area. This makes the garden a core part of the daily life for my family and I.
But this also means that I will focus on growing vegetables in this garden that can be harvested continually instead of just all at once. I likely won't be growing corn or potatoes in this garden. Eventually, I will build another garden (or 2, or 3!) out further away. These gardens will have crops that I harvest all at once. Since I don't need to visit them every day to harvest I don't need them right out my backdoor.
So understanding what you want to grow is also important. The blog post assumes that you are wanting to plan a traditional backyard garden that focuses on vegetables like lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, green beans, etc. Vegetables that you harvest all the time. But if you are wanting to grow things like corn then consider putting the garden out further away from your house.
For more on figuring out how to layout your homestead and where to put everything make sure you check out my blog post all about permaculture zones which goes into this topic in much more detail.
Where did you put your garden? Is it close or far away from your house?
Are You Planning a New Garden?
I'm curious--how many of you are planning a new garden? If so what are you taking into account while planning your garden?
Please leave a comment here with your thoughts on these questions. I would love to hear from you!
Don't forget to check out this week's blog post for more info on how to plan your new garden.
Thank you!
PS: This post was cross-posted on permies.com.
Weekly Blog Post
Related Blog Posts
- What You Need to Know About Permaculture Zones
- Hugelkultur Beds: The Best Raised Beds for Your Garden
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