Garden Planner December 6, 2018 @goldenoakfarm
Yesterday my young intern was here. It had been a toss up on what we were going to do. But that was decided for us when the truck was still not running…
So the alternative I had planned was laying out a garden for 2019 on the garden planner. I’d thought to let her chose which of the gardens to do and then let her chose how to fill it. I am not doing much veg gardening next year, so this was a teaching exercise.
She selected the big garden. We updated the garlic, put the Walla onions in, and it occurred to me, that she was not learning how to build a garden from scratch. I get more garden plans than I use each year, so I let her have one.
We guesstimated the size of the garden she wants at her house next year and set to laying it out. We determined where the sun set and set the compass.
Then we discussed the land layout. It seems it slopes a bit from the house to the river behind. This will give her a nice micro climate, a Zone or 2 above mine. So we had to keep that in mind too.
Her soil, she said, is not as fine as mine, but not heavy clay stuff either. But it is drier higher on the slope and wetter at the bottom, so we had to bear this in mind also.
We also thought about where trees were, and the house and the shade they would cast in summer. The house would be at the bottom of the plan, and the river at the top. It would be cooler, drier, and more shade in the lower left corner. Best sun was upper right corner.
So we thought about what she wanted to try growing in this first experimental garden, what her family liked to eat, and what might do best in this spot.
We worked on this plan for about 4½ hours and finished it. I printed it out and she took it home to show her dad, who would be her gardening partner. I also e-mailed her the link as we published it to the web. Here’s the finished plan:
Anyone wanting to mess around and create a free plan, here’s the link:
Oh thank you for the link. This is right up my alley to plan and see a floor plan of how I want to place items in the future. Great for visualizing it
I really like this planner. It keeps me from planting the same family members in the same spot from year to year. It also has a companion plant function, but we couldn't find it yesterday. I've used it for 5+ years now.
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I hope it helps someone else plan their garden for next year. :))
👍
You seem very organized and a great planner, skills I am often lacking.
Nice that you are helping someone out with planning their garden, this is something I really should pay attention to.
Lovely that you could do that with a young intern.
How did you make that connection for having an intern come out to your place?
I've seen those garden planners but always go back to my pen and paper. I work better with that.
I like the square foot garden layouts for deciding how much you can plant in a certain area.
Nice plan! thanks for sharing!
She is from the family that helps us with the milk club. She's a homeschooled kid and this is where her interest lays right now.
I use the planner because it helps with memory things. Once it is laid out on the planner, I then draw it out on graph paper, and that's what I use during the year. it's done in pencil so I can make changes as I go. I have my plans back to 1993, the first garden.
I have room, and prefer to give the plants their preferred spacing as they are much healthier and productive that way. But I do understand not everyone has the luxury of space....
My intern doesn't have as much space as I do, but she wanted to try giving them what they needed. That plan will change, as it is a VERY rough idea of what her garden might be.
Nice that you could help her and give her something to work with.
That's cool that you have your plans back from 1993!
I imagine there has been many changes.
I agree that the plans need to be flexible as the changing circumstances in the garden.
Hope she has a good gardening year! At least you got her off to a good start!
I actually showed her a photo of the first garden, so she could see size/shape/what was planted. I didn't drag out the plan though... :))