

When planning my perfect vegetable garden layout for 2020, I put the plants that I know I’m going to harvest every day close to our back door, so that I don’t forget to check them. It’s time to consider all the factors that will contribute to the ultimate success or failure of your planted crops. More on how we’re addressing that this year, below. This layout is from last year - the crops were way too organized, and disease spread quickly. This is also why it was so important to draw your map to scale in step 3. I utilized the square-foot gardening method to determine how many of each plant I can fit in any given space. (More on that in a bit.) For now, let’s focus on narrowing down your “dream seed list” to more of a “realistic seed list”.

Here is where you need to take many factors into consideration for you perfect vegetable garden layout. Now you can start assigning your selected seeds to various grow areas on your property. Now is the fun - well, fun and come-back-to-reality part. Assign Plants from Wish List to Grow Areas For example, I outlined our untreated raised pine garden beds in red so that I can tell them apart from in-ground crops. By adding colored grow areas to my garden map, I can much more quickly assign seeds to appropriate locations. (Yet another reason to map your land digitally.) I used the colors red, blue, and green to depict different vegetable patches and growing mediums for my perfect vegetable garden layout. Choose Your Growing Areas & Highlight On The Map Zooming in reveals specific crops planned for each area. It’s not completely done yet, but here is a sample of our perfect vegetable garden layout map to scale. Utilize Google Earth and Google Maps to help remind yourself of landmarks, sun exposure, etc.This will make it easier to correct mistakes, which I promise you will make along the way.

These will already be drawn to scale, which will save you a ton of legwork. If you don’t have one already, now might be a good time to get one. If you have one, use a property survey as a starting point.Here are some tips for drawing a scaled map of your property for your vegetable patch. But technology is here to make our lives easier (usually), and I found it plenty manageable with Photoshop. I know, it’s daunting - especially if you’ve never drawn a map to scale before. Perhaps the most important step in planning the perfect vegetable garden layout is drawing a scaled map of your land. I put everything on my “dream wish list” into an excel spreadsheet, which will help me narrow it down later on. I’m buying the majority of my seeds this year from Johnny’s Seeds and Floret. We’ll strategically cull it down later on. But don’t be afraid to get inspired and dream big during this step. Sure, there’s probably no way your suburban lot will be able to accommodate it all, even with the most perfect vegetable garden layout. Fill your online shopping cart with every seed your heart desires. If you’ve already been home for a while, don’t forget to walk the property to get a good feel for how everything feels in person. Be gentle on yourself, and know that you will have more insight in future years regarding the best places to grow certain plants. If you’ve just moved into your current property, you may struggle to plan the perfect vegetable garden layout. Getting a feel for sun exposure, soil quality, wind and more is a knowledge base that is acquired over time. Know Your PropertyĪs much as it stinks to have to admit, the longer you live at your residence, the better of a garden you will be able to grow. Now that you have an idea of the process I use, let’s delve into the details. Assign Plants from Wish List to Grow Areas.Here are the steps to planning your perfect vegetable garden layout.

Here is a list of the steps I use in short, but let’s break it down more below. However, by breaking up the steps to laying out your garden plan, we can make the process much more manageable. Planning your perfect vegetable garden layout can seem like a daunting task. The Quest for a Perfect Vegetable Garden Layout Now that we’re into the calendar year of the next growing season, my garden dreams can finally come out of hiding. Never mind the fact that I’ve secretly been planning our perfect vegetable garden layout since last November. It’s finally January, which means I can officially start to plan our 2020 garden map without sounding completely insane.
