Garden Planning

January and February are arguably the hardest months for gardeners. We're stuck inside for much of the day, it's cold, and there's not much happening in the garden. So we think spring. We peruse seed catalogs, dream of our summer bounty, and we plan!

The week of Christmas, that's exactly what I did too. I've got my garden all planned out for the coming year, I think. Nature is hard to control and the best laid plans... so, anything can and probably will change. But this is my starting point.

For those of you who don't know me, I am very Type A. I plan and I love details. And this year's garden plan is perhaps a little much. I used Excel to basically map out our entire property. Not everything is exactly to scale and some of it is on the vague side, but it's a start for me! So I want to share that with you so you can see how I plan and what I've got in store.

I paid particular attention to succession planting, companion planting, and using space wisely! Remember, we're on just 1/10th of an acre in suburbia so every inch matters when you want to grow over 100 varieties.

So without further ado, here's my monstrous plan. Each square is about 1 square foot.

You'll notice that I've made some notes to myself as reminders. I've color coded a few things. And because the majority of flowers on my property are perennials and I care less about the flowers than the edible plants, I've paid less attention to exactly what flower are in each bed and where. I do plan to go back and hash that out, but it's not a priority.

Just to put the nail in the coffin that is my OCD, I have a second spreadsheet with each variety of plant on it that has all of the details for each - growing requirements, where I got it from, whether I can save seeds, whether it's native to my area, notes on pests, ETC. I'm a maniac, I know. But this is what works for me.

Are you planning your garden out? Or do you just wing it? Or are you somewhere in between?