The best advice for planning your first vegetable garden is to start small. Just be sure you locate your garden in a sunny spot where expansion is possible. As for actual size, it depends on what you want to grow. Here's what you can put in the following standard-size gardens: A 6 x 8 foot. Jixipix romantic photo 2 3 2020. Use these free garden plans and designs to turn your yard into a beautiful place to play, relax, and entertain. Whether you have a small space or expansive property, these plans will help you create gorgeous gardens you'll love spending time in. Design your SFG garden online SFG Planner is created specifically for Square Foot Gardening. Now you can plan your Square Foot Garden online, quickly and easily, and get maximum results. Step 1: Define the garden beds Click and drag on the design surface to define your garden beds. A typical SFG garden bed is 4X4.
After choosing a garden site, the next step is to plan the arrangement of crops in the garden. First consider each of the points listed below. Then sketch a map of your garden area showing the location of each vegetable, the spacing between rows, and the approximate dates for each planting. Two sample garden plans are shown on the following pages.
Size of garden. The size of your garden depends on the space available, the quantity of vegetables you will need, and the amount of work and time you desire to spend. Make the garden just large enough so that it will be interesting and fun for the whole family. Don't make it become a burden.
Kinds of vegetables. Choose vegetables that you and your family enjoy. Make sure, though, that they can be grown successfully in your area.
Some crops utilize space better than others. These vegetables can be produced efficiently in a small garden:
Snap beans | Leaf lettuce | Spinach |
Beets | Onions | Swiss chard |
Broccoli | Peas (followed by other crops) | Tomatoes |
Cabbage | Turnips | Carrots |
Radishes |
Another consideration in selecting crops is whether they taste noticeably better when they are fresh from the garden. Sweet corn is an outstanding example of this. Although it requires more space than the vegetables listed above, it is often chosen because of its high quality when fresh from the garden. Other highly perishable crops that taste best immediately after harvest are peas and asparagus.
Growing seasons and growth characteristics. Group the various vegetables according to their growing seasons and growth characteristics. Perennial crops, such as asparagus, rhubarb, and berries, which will be in one location for more than one season, should be planted along one side of your garden. Cisdem pdf to word converter 7 0 0 8. Arrange early plantings on one side, probably near the perennials. Iconfly 3 9. Group early- or quick-maturing vegetables together so that after harvesting the space may be used for later plantings. To avoid shading, plant tall crops to the north or west of shorter crops.
Spacing between rows. Proper spacing between rows is important to allow for growth of plants, ease of cultivation, and efficient use of space. Recommended spacings are given in Table 1. If you have farm equipment and plenty of space, make your rows long and wide enough apart so that you can use your farm tractor and cultivator, thus avoiding much hand-weeding.
Table 1 : Planting Chart - SpacingVegetable | Spacing in row | |||
Seed to sow per foot | Distance between plants when thinned or transplanted | Distance between rows | Planting depth | |
inches | inches | inches | ||
Asparagus | …. | 12-18 | 36-60 | 6-8 |
Bean, bush, lima | 3-4 | Do not thin | 18-30 | 1-2 |
Bean, bush, snap | 6 | Do not thin | 18-24 | 1-2 |
Beet | 10 | 2-4 | 12-18 | ½-1 |
Broccoli | ... | 18-24 | 30-36 | (d) |
Cabbage | …. | 9-18 | 18-30 | (d) |
Carrot | 15-20 | 1-3 | 12-18 | ½ |
Cauliflower | …. | 18-24 | 24-36 | (d) |
Chard | 8-10 | 4-8 | 18-24 | ½-1 |
Corn, sweet | 1-2 in row 4-6 per hill | 9-12, single plants 36, hills (3 plants per hill) | 24-48 | 1-2 |
Cucumber | 3 in row 4-5 per hill | 12, single plants 36, hills (3 plants per hill) | 48-72 | 1 |
Eggplant | …. | 18-24 | 30-36 | (d) |
Endive | 4-6 | 9-12 | 18-24 | ½ |
Garlic, from cloves | …. | 3 | 12-18 | 1½ |
Kale | 4-6 | 8-12 | 18-24 | ½ |
Kohlrabi | 6-8 | 3-6 | 18-24 | ½ |
Lettuce, leaf | 10 | 2-4 | 12-18 | ½ |
Muskmelon | 3 in row 4-5 per hill | 12,single plants 36, hills (3 plants per hill) | 48-72 | 1 |
Mustard | 20 | 1-2 | 12-18 | ½ |
New Zealand spinach | 4-6 | 12 | 24-30 | 1 |
Okra | 3 | 12-15 | 36 | 1 |
Onion, from seed | 10-15 | 2-4 | 12-18 | ½-1 |
Onion, from plants or sets | …. | 1-4 | 12-18 | 1-4 |
Parsley | 10-15 | 4-6 | 12-18 | ½ |
Peas | 10-12 | Do not thin | 18-24 | 2 |
Pepper | …. | 18-24 | 18-24 | (d) |
Potato | 1 | 10-12 | 24-36 | 4 |
Pumpkin | 1-2 in row 4-5 per hill | 24-36, single plants 72, hills (3 plants per hill) | 84-120 | 1 |
Radish, spring | 10-15 | 1 | 12-18 | ½ |
Radish, winter | 10-15 | 2-4 | 12-18 | ½ |
Rhubarb | …. | 24-36 | 36-48 | (d) |
Rutabaga | 4-6 | 6-8 | 18-24 | ½ |
Spinach | 12-15 | 2-4 | 12-18 | ½ |
Squash, summer | 2-3 in row 4-5 per hill | 18-24, single plants 48, hills (3 plants per hill) | 36-48 | 1 |
Squash, winter | 1-2 in row 4-5 per hill | 24-36, single plants 72, hills (3 plants per hill) | 84-120 | 1 |
Sweet potato | …. | 12-18 | 36-48 | (d) |
Tomato | …. | 18-36 | 36-60 | (d) |
Turnips | 6-8 15-20 (greens) | 2-4 | 12-18 | ½ |
Watermelons | 1-2 in row 4-5 per hill | 24-36, single plants 72, hills (3 plants per hill) | 84-120 | 1 |
Successive plantings are desirable if you wish to have a continuous fresh supply of certain vegetables. Don't plant too much of a crop at anyone time. Two or three small plantings of leaf lettuce and radishes may be made a week to 10 days apart in early spring, with an additional one made in the fall. Onion sets for green onions may be planted every two weeks until you have used up all your sets. At least two plantings of carrots, beets, and cabbage should be made - one early in the spring for summer use, another later on for fall storage. Several plantings of sweet corn and snap beans should be made throughout the season.
Certain later crops can be planted in the same spot in the garden from which earlier ones have been harvested. Any of the early-harvested crops, such as leaf lettuce, spinach, radishes, green onions, and peas, can be followed by beans, beets, carrots, cabbage, sweet corn, late spinach, late leaf lettuce, and turnips.
Successive plantings are desirable if you wish to have a continuous fresh supply of certain vegetables. Don't plant too much of a crop at anyone time. Two or three small plantings of leaf lettuce and radishes may be made a week to 10 days apart in early spring, with an additional one made in the fall. Onion sets for green onions may be planted every two weeks until you have used up all your sets. At least two plantings of carrots, beets, and cabbage should be made - one early in the spring for summer use, another later on for fall storage. Several plantings of sweet corn and snap beans should be made throughout the season.
Certain later crops can be planted in the same spot in the garden from which earlier ones have been harvested. Any of the early-harvested crops, such as leaf lettuce, spinach, radishes, green onions, and peas, can be followed by beans, beets, carrots, cabbage, sweet corn, late spinach, late leaf lettuce, and turnips.
Interplanting. To intensify production in a small garden, early maturing crops can be planted between rows of later or long-season crops Peas, radishes, green onions, spinach, or lettuce may be planted between rows where tomatoes, peppers, cabbage, or corn is to be grown.
Garden Planner 3 6 36 – Plan Out Your Garden Soil
Rotating crops from year to year is necessary to prevent diseases that overwinter in the soil. Do not grow the same vegetable or related vegetables in or near the same location more often than once in three years. Rotate crops from one side of the garden to the other.
Erosion. If your garden is on a hill, plant the rows across the slope rather than up and down.
Choose a Step
Garden Planner 3 6 36 – Plan Out Your Garden Shed
- Step 2 - Plan Your Garden Layout