Planning your garden

   Whether you're starting your first garden or planning for next years, thinking about spring planting can be a great way to get over those mid winter blues.  Browsing through seed catalogs has been a favorite winter pastime of mine for years, and I always enjoy trying to pick something out of the catalog that I've never grown before.  However, there are several things to consider before you decide what type of vegetables to grow. Among these are the climate in your area, the size of your garden, and, of course, what vegetables you enjoy.  

   It's a good idea to put down on paper a plan for your garden.  Using graph paper will help you keep it to scale.  If you are unsure how much space to leave individual plants, check a planting guide.  It will tell you how much space to leave between plants and rows.  I've included a planting guide in the "Garden Size" section of this site. 

   Another thing to consider when planning a garden is where to place the different plants. Taller plants should be placed to the north or northeast area of your garden to make sure they don't shade the other plants.  If this isn't your first garden, it's important to rotate your plants. Repeating a crop in the same place in the garden gives diseases time to build up strength. Generally, try to design your plan to rotate each of the three major families of vegetables--the Cole crops (cabbage family) : broccoli, brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, kohlrabi, rutabaga, turnip; Cucurbits (cucumber family): cucumber, gourd, muskmelon, pumpkin, summer and winter squash, watermelon; and Solanaceous plants (tomato and pepper family): eggplant, Irish potato, pepper, tomato; --that is, after growing a crop from one family this year, choose a member from a different family to grow in the same spot the following year.

This well-designed book offers a series of detailed plans for a variety of kitchen garden types, including an "exuberant" potager, a salad and herb garden, a formal fruit garden, a vegetable patchwork, a cottage garden, and more. Alphabetically arranged sections on planting and cultivating a wide variety of vegetables and fruits are also included, along with chapters on propagation, crop rotation, and other practical topics. Color photographs and clear drawings appear throughout.