How to start planning a vegetable garden - Detailed garden planning considerations - How to sketch a garden plan - How to set up irrigation in garden — Monarch feasting on tomato and zinnia nectar in our edible gardens.

Updated February 2, 2024

Whether you’re starting a new edible and/or flower garden this year, or if you’re an experienced gardener with years of growing under your belt, Wintertime is the perfect time to start coming up with your garden plans.

Something else to help get you through: Our Healthy Winter Solstice Hot Cocoa Recipe!

Below are 7 Steps for planning your garden for the upcoming season. Hopefully it will help get your gears moving and will give you something to look forward to!

7 Considerations for Garden Planning in Wintertime

Are You Starting a new garden from Scratch? or are you Continuing to grow an existing garden?

Are you starting from scratch or expanding your existing garden? If you’re starting a new garden, consider sheet mulching… the easiest way to start!

Or, are you continuing to grow in the same plot from previous years? In this case, your main focus should be improving your soil (step 2!)

how to improve your garden soil? Create a Soil Improvement Plan.

The key to healthy, nutrient dense food is healthy, nutrient dense soil.

Learn the reasons Why Tilling is Bad and learn WHAT Compost Is and why it’s so great for your garden.

Learn Why Miracle-Gro and Synthetic Fertilizers are Bad (this article has gone viral!) and then learn How to Fix Your Soil AFTER Using Chemicals … This is also a great article to learn all about how to prep your soil and what organic fertilizers to use in your garden.

My 3-Step Backyard Garden Soil Prep Plan goes as follows:

Sprinkle soil with Alfalfa Meal and Bat Guano Fertilizer (follow package instructions)
Cover soil with 2 inches of fresh Compost
Use a compost fork with large tines to aerate the soil. You will aerate by stepping on the fork and sticking it down into the bed, vertically, every 12 inches or so — do not flip the soil over. Try not to step on the soil with your feet.
This is the simplest way to improve your soil over time, without causing any damage to the structure or microbes.

how to decide what to grow in your garden?

Grow what you love and eat the most of! For us, its heirloom tomatoes, hot peppers, tomatillos, cucumbers, eggplant, winter squash, swiss chard, kale, and a unique variety of culinary herbs. Read: The Ultimate Herb Garden for Zone 6.

We always interplant flowers into our veggie garden to attract more pollinators. Our favorite easy-to-grow flowers for this are: dahlias, zinnias, cosmos and marigolds!

Will you start your plants from seed or buy transplants?

Starting your own seeds is definitely more advanced than buying transplants from a garden center…. But you are no less of a gardener if you decide to outsource your transplants from a local nursery. Never allow anyone to shame you into growing your own seedlings if it’s something you don’t want to do. If you do decide to start your own seeds, consider reading this post for help: How to DIY a Seed Starting Setup. I also have this helpful hindsight article for seed starting: Seed Starting Mistakes to Avoid.

A great source for organic veggie, herb and flower seeds is Fruition Seeds in Naples, NY.

My favorite source for unique culinary and medicinal herb plants is Richter’s Herbs right across the border in Canada. Their plant quality and variety is unmatched and their shipping rates are reasonable.

Richter’s Herbs: Our favorite source for unique herb plants!

how to decide when and how to plant vegetables? reference a good planting chart.

This Planting Chart created by High Mowing Organic Seeds is an incredible resource. You’ll want to focus mostly on “Plant Spacing” (which will help you formulate your garden plan) and “When To Plant Out” (which will help you determine your planting dates).

In Western New York 6B, I recognize our “Last Frost Date” as May 8th, but sometimes it does freeze after that so you must keep tabs on the weather report before planting crops indicating “After last frost” such as tomatoes, peppers, and squash.

how to record your garden plan? sketch one!

For sketching my backyard garden layout, I use good old fashioned graph paper & color it all up with colored pencils and highlighters. Using graph paper makes it easy to lay out correct plant spacing (1 square = 1 foot).

For the flower farm, I use a Google Spreadsheet to lay out the plantings.

Other garden-related topics to start thinking about

Equip yourself with Good Tools: My favorite tools for gardening are all listed here.

Irrigation: How will you water your garden? The easiest way would be to set up a sprinkler or soaker hosing on a Timer. Or, you could get fancy and install an irrigation system complete with micro drip emitters. Just a warning, if you think you’ll have time to hand water your garden, just wait until a mid-summer drought hits and you’ll be cursing that decision.

Incorporate Native Perennials: If you have space and want to beautify your landscape while providing food and habitat for local wildlife (and berries for your family!), consider planting Elderberries, Raspberries, Currants, Serviceberries, or Chokeberries into your yard.

An excellent winter read to inspire all of this is Nature’s Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation That Starts In Your Yard by Doug Tallamy.

Keep these other gardening and regenerative agriculture resources in mind, too! — Our Favorite Resources for Vegetable Gardening: Books, Tools, Soil Amendments & Sourcing + Regenerative Agriculture Books & Podcasts

I hope you’ll Pin or save this page and reference it when you’re ready to start garden planning!

peace, love, and appreciating winter for what it is,

Fran Parrish