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Gardening is one of the most rewarding activities to experience. I mean, think about it. You plant this tiny seed with love and care, nurturing it until it reaches a full blown plant. Then it rewards you with either beauty, fruit, or both. If you are wanting to get started with gardening, but totally lost on how to plan things out, you’ve come to the right place! In this article, we are going to go over how to plan a garden from scratch. Whether its an apartment balcony or an acre of land, this guide will help reduce the overwhelm and give you a real blueprint to hit the ground running.
This gardening season poses a unique situation for me. Though it is certainly not my first year gardening, it is the first year in our new home and I am tasked with planning the new garden layout. There is already a wonderful spot in the yard that was an established garden bed years ago when the house was built. Over the years, it has grown over with raspberries and fireweed. We definitely have our work cut out for us.
Before we break ground, however, a proper plan is in order. You can’t just go throwing seeds in the ground willy-nilly and expect a full harvest. Trust me, been there, done that, and there was no T-shirt to be had afterwards. I’m going to break down this planning process exactly as I am planning my own garden this year. So let’s get into it.
Step 1: Plan a Garden that Fits Your Needs
The very first step to plan a garden is to determine what you are gardening for. You might think that assessing your space might be first. But I assure you that determining your needs first is best because you can grow a lot on little space or little on a lot of space.
If you follow my page then you’ll know that we are homesteading in Alaska. Food security and quality is of the upmost importance to me. Our garden will have to be beyond ornamental. It is going to be a Subsistence garden that feeds my family throughout the year. Because our growing season is so short and our soil runs cool in Alaska, that means I’ll have to consider these things when planning my garden.
Raised beds and prolific growing fruits and vegetables will be at the forefront of my garden planning. But let’s say you just want a butterfly garden, your needs will be far less. If you live in a more optimal climate, you will also have less needs. Figure out what your gardening needs are and write them down. This will help in the planning phase when you need to figure out what to grow and how to Layout your garden design.
Step 2: Assess Your Space
The next step to plan a garden is mostly just figuring things out now. You’ll have to figure out where the best placement will be for your garden bed layout. Things to consider are the amount of sunlight, soil quality (acidic, clay, etc), on a hill, and space limitations.
Sunlight Requirements
We were lucky to have rented our home before buying. Even though there was an established garden plot, I didn’t know how much sunlight reached that spot. So all of last growing season I spent the time mapping the sunlight hours. I did grow a few things in pots which helped me get a real feel. The spot that was chosen by the original builders of this home is spot on. It receives full daily sunlight all summer long.
You will have to do the same. To save you some time, I’m going to include a link to a website called Shadowmap. It’s a sunlight simulator that is specifically for mapping your garden. It shows you where sunlight and shade falls on your coordinates. You can find that page here. Make sure the spot you choose has an absolute minimum of 6 hours for shade tolerant plants but 8+ hours for plants that require full sun.
Soil Quality
You can almost always get around soil quality with raised beds. Our soil here is mostly clay. The garden plot is the only spot with good quality soil that has been built through time. So if I want to expand quickly, I’ll need to use raised beds.
There are several ways to check your soil quality.
The first way is to DIY test it at home for free using one of several different methods. Some of those methods are the mason jar test and the vinegar/baking soda test. Here’s a video that goes over how to test your soil at home for free.
The second method is to purchase a soil test kit. They are pretty cheap and reliable. You can find them on Amazon or even in your local garden center. To save you the trouble, I’ve included a link to one here.
The most reliable tests are performed by a lab analysis. It is unfortunately the most expensive and time consuming, but check your local Ag office. They sometimes check for free or at a discounted rate. This will give you a very detailed analysis of your soil quality so you can amend and plan as needed.
Placement of Garden Layout
This is in regards to the vertical terrain of your garden space. If you place an in-ground garden bed at the bottom of a hill, it will become water logged or even might wash away. If you live in a very dry climate and place it on top of a hill, it may require more watering. Just keep an eye on your water table and plan your location accordingly.
Space Limitations
This part is super important to plan a garden properly. You don’t want to mess this up and have too much in a small space. If you don’t have much space, focus on plants that don’t require much space. Think carrots, radishes, lettuce, and peas. You can grow a lot of those in a small space. Plants like zucchinis require plenty of space on their own. While you can grow them in a small space, you can’t plant 10 of them in a 4×4 raised bed.
Think about the layout design of your space. If you are working with a small space you can implement tactics such as vertical gardening and trellises, container gardening, and even growing towers. You can make it work!
Step 3: Plan a Garden With a Simple Design in the Beginning
With social media at our fingertips, we are able to see what everyone else is doing, at every level. Most of the “Pinterest perfect” gardens you see took years of cultivation and work to get to that level. If you judge your starting point based on those professional gardens, you’re not going to feel very satisfied.
When you plan a garden, it’s easy to get carried away with complex designs and features. But those come with time. In the beginning, just start small and simple. Work your way up through time and you’ll also beat overwhelm.
The most simple question to ask yourself is if you want to grow in traditional rows, in raised beds, or in containers. All three of these offer simple gardening solutions and will make your gardening space great.
This can be done on a simple piece of paper, drawn out to include the dimensions and what you’ll be growing and where. There is also a handy tool through Mother Earth News that helps you lay out your garden. It has cute graphics that represent what you’ll plant, and its on a grid to make it more accurate, space-wise. Here’s the link to that garden planner.
Step 4: Planning Your Garden Bed Layout
The next most important step is to figure out how to orient your garden beds in position with the sun. This can be varied depending on the bed and what you are growing. A general North to South orientation is the most common, whether we’re talking about traditional rows or raised beds. Either will work as long as your plants are meeting their sunlight requirements each day.
If you plan a garden using raised beds, you’ll want to keep their size in account. Too big and they’ll be difficult to access. Too small and they might not have enough growing space for roots. Two to four feet wide is the golden standard, depending on your mobility. The length doesn’t matter nearly as much. It’s really just dependent on your budget and garden size.
When you plan a garden, it is also important to consider the sunlight needs of each individual plant, as well as their relative mature size. You will want to plant your tallest plants on the North facing side of you garden where they do not block the sunlight for other plants. If you live in a climate with harsh summer heat, those lettuce plants will suffer in full sun all day if they are grown on the furthest South facing side.
For example, you can companion plant small, quick growing vegetables that might be susceptible to harsh sunlight around taller plants that cast shade. Lettuce can be grown alongside Basil. Basil grows tall enough to provide shade to the lettuce plants.
If you take the time to create a strategic garden plan, you’ll be rewarded with healthier plants and a more plentiful harvest.
Step 5: Creating Functional Paths When You Plan a Garden
One of the least thought of aspects of a garden is it’s foot paths. But these matter more than you think. A garden is pretty tough work during its growing season. The work could increase if you’re having to fight vines and plants and even weeds to get to your harvest.
A proper path between garden beds, whether its raised beds or rows, is essential. Again, the numbers for this are about the same as the raised beds size. About 2-4 feet is the standard, depending on the type of equipment you’ll be using. If it’s just you that needs to walk between rows, then smaller is fine. 2 feet between traditional rows prevents crowded conditions and nutrient depletion of your soil.
To keep your paths low maintenance, consider adding a material such as mulch or wood chips to prevent weeds from overgrowing in between. You could even consider laying down landscape fabric to prevent this from happening. It’s not a requirement, but it will make things easier in the growing season, and something to consider when you plan a garden.
Step 6: Designing Flower Beds with Purpose
One common design flaw that I usually find with gardens is a lack of flowers. Now you might ask me what the purpose of a flower would be for a highly productive vegetable garden. I’d tell you that the flower could be the reason that the vegetable garden is highly productive in the first place.
Flowers attract the beneficial pollinators that help your garden reproduce. There are many varieties of plants that require cross- pollination to grow and bear fruit. This process is mostly done by pollinators such as bees and butterflies.
Planting flowers along the borders of your garden also creates a natural border line, like a living hedge. There are even flowers that make great companion plants to grow inter mixed alongside your vegetables. Marigolds and tomatoes are a perfect example. The marigolds not only attract beneficial insects, they also repel pests like nematodes, white flies, and aphids that would destroy the tomatoes.
Plan a garden for its function, yes, but also think about its beauty. There’s nothing wrong with adding a little beauty into your garden layout. I think it is highly underrated.
Step 7: Think Seasonally and Long Term When You Plan a Garden
Mother nature really knows what she is doing, and we can benefit from mimicking her systems of growth and regeneration. If you look at a forest, not everything grows all at once at the same time or the same season. Different plants require different nutrients and also contribute specific nutrients back into the soil.
When you plan a garden, you’re going to want to create systems and not just a one time garden. This is achieved with crop rotation and succession planting. If you plant the same crop year after year in the exact same spot, you are asking for serious nutrient depletion of your soil. Rotating what you plant throughout the garden every year will help you keep the nutrient profile in your soil high.
If you are brand new to crop rotation and wondering which vegetables are good to rotate with what, this guide here in the Old Farmer’s Almanac is a great source: Crop Rotation 101: Tips for Vegetable Gardens and a Handy Chart.
Succession planting is another method to not only increase your harvest yield, but also improve soil quality by not leaving the soil bare. Leaving your soil bare makes it susceptible to erosion among other issues. If you don’t know what succession planting is, it just means to plant different crops in succession.
An example would be to grow quick growing radishes or lettuce in a spot where you are going to grow tomatoes. But those tomatoes need to be started indoors weeks before transplanting outdoors. Your radishes will be ready to harvest by the time your tomatoes go outdoors and the soil will be nicely aerated and ready to accept the tomato plants.
Thinking of gardening in cycles will keep your garden beds healthy and productive.
A Practical Example: How I am Laying Out My Own Garden
My garden is a lovely 2500 sq foot space that will provide more than enough for my family for a year if I can plan it right. It will have a mixture of in-ground and raised beds. Because I live in a cold climate (Zone 2 Alaska) I will be utilizing a combination of high tunnel, low tunnel, and greenhouse gardening. I plan to save the space inside of these season extenders for the heat loving plants. Tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash, peppers, and hopefully melons are growing inside.
Most of my root vegetables like carrots and potatoes are being sown directly in the ground to save space in the raised beds. Any overflow of plants that don’t fit into the raised beds will be grown in ground. So far, I already have 4 raised beds that are quite small (10 sq ft), but I am making more from the logs harvested from our forest. We are creating a Silvopasture forest which is a whole other article. My eventual goal is to be mostly raised beds, but it will take time and money.
The tomatoes will mostly be grown in the high tunnel on the north facing side. I am squeezing in a few vertical growing cumbers as well. The greenhouse has hanging baskets of flowers to attract beneficial pollinators for the squash and melons that are being grown inside.
The South facing side is reserved for smaller plants like my lettuce, carrots, and onions.
Let’s Not Forget the Flowers
I have an abundance of flowers growing currently. A mixture of herbal/medicinal, oriental, and beneficial native flowers that will compliment my garden as well as adorn my home. I did not leave beauty out of my garden plans. It is something I want to feast my eyes on midsummer.
My garden will take a couple of years to establish because it is so big, but a simple patio garden could be done in as little as a day.
Closing Thoughts: Plan a Garden that Grows With You
A garden is the heart of a homestead. Even if you grow your own chickens for meat, or bees for honey, there is just something extra special about the garden. Because it’s the heart, it needs to be planned, cared for, and enjoyed.
It is also an area of your homestead that should be enjoyed. There’s something so simple and wholesome about planting a seed and watching it grow. It is highly rewarding.
I’ve talked a lot in this article about strategy, but at the end of the day, don’t over complicate it. A garden is trial and error and you should definitely focus on progress instead of perfection. Each season will make you a little wiser and more knowledgeable as a gardener in your climate. These skills and confidence will come in time.
I encourage you to get started today, even if it’s sketching a garden layout. Or even if it’s just planning what you want to grow. It’s fun, it’s rewarding, and you’ll be one step closer to the garden of your dreams.
P.S. If you are interested in saving money and extending your growing season, I’ve written a guide on How to Start Your Seeds Indoors. It’s a great resource to get you started!
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