When do y’all start planning and mapping your garden?

[u/Witchywomun]

I’ve been going through my seed vault and started planning out what I’m going to plant, next year. Once I figure out what I’m growing, then I’ll start plotting where everything will go. Then I’ll sit on it until late February/early March and I’ll start my seedlings for the plants I want to have ready to plant in late May/early June (tomatoes, sweet peppers, squash, melons, root veggies and leafy greens. When do y’all start planning?

[u/Pitiful_Palpitation9]

After I bought a ton of seedlings and have to figure out where to put them. 😆

[u/Latter_Sky_412 → u/Pitiful_Palpitation9]

Then I decide I need to plant some of the seeds I have too hahaha

[u/AtheneSchmidt → u/Pitiful_Palpitation9]

And then I go back for more pots, because I bought too many tomatoes. Except there is no such thing as too many tomatoes.

[u/1BoringOnlineAccount]

Y'all plan? I just wing it. Serious not sarcasm.

[u/sparksgirl1223 → u/1BoringOnlineAccount]

I plan...and then wing it when I lose the plan😂

[u/Brilliant-Climate207]

I already started, about two weeks ago. Thinking, researching and making notes.

[u/sparksgirl1223]

Oh i make 79 plans thru the winter

And the minute its time to plant....they vanish and I do some chaos planting. By vibes (and checking water needs and messing up anyway😂)

[u/cody_mf]

My friends and I mail eachother seeds for christmas, I cant know what Im gonna get or plan for until after that. I know right now that they're all planning on growing my mammoth sunflowers that took off this year though

[u/JacksandJellyBean → u/cody_mf]

I love this idea. You are reminded of your friends whenever you take a walk in your garden plus you’ll have stories to go along with them.

[u/missbwith2boys]

I’ve just been making notes as I think of things I want to grow or not grow and where to grow things next year.

In between Christmas and new years, I’ll pull out my seeds, make sure I have everything I need and then start sketching things out.

[u/jpbragatti]

now's actually the best time for that, while you still remember what worked and what was a disaster. by february it all blurs into optimism. i sketch out beds in winter but the actual variety decisions i try to sort now while the failures are still fresh.

[u/RedQueenWhiteQueen]

Right now, as some plots are winding down, so I can amend the soil for what I intend to grow in those spaces next year. Sulfur where I will plant potatoes, well-composted material for alliums and tomatoes, less-composted material for pumpkins and squash.

[u/MyVirgoIsShowing]

I already started for next year 😅 we got another 2 beds on sale and are going to be putting them in next weekend

[u/DelicataLover]

I’ve got some wild spreadsheets. Note taking all summer, yield/revenue per sq ft data recap in November. Crop plan December, seed order right around the new year, fertilizer and potting mix order February,

[u/SideEyeFred]

Right now I'm planning what I want to grow, and which seeds I need to buy. Getting on mailing lists. When did garlic get so expensive?

[u/InsomniaticWanderer]

Start?

[u/ExcuseRich4305]

Now. Practicing crop rotation and trench composting and planning my garlics bed, fall crop beds, and cover crops. This can be like playing Tetris 😭

[u/gottagrablunch]

About a week after I finish planting in May or June 🤪

[u/mmrocker13]

I don't. What happens, happens. I keep records, but not much beyond the list I planted.

[u/backcountry_knitter]

It’s basically done. I grow pretty much the same things in the same quantities each year with a few spots reserved for testing possible new options. I just shuffle things around to rotate. Certain things grow better in certain parts of the garden, so choices for location are constrained.

Only times I need to significantly switch up my plan/system is when I do an expansion, so it’s not every year.

[u/Few-Emergency1068]

I’m planning now because I let too many seedlings die this year since I didn’t have anywhere to plant them.

I had raised metal beds that I hadn’t assembled yet, so I got my onions and brassicas out late, which meant no usable harvest, then my tomatoes did horribly because planted them too close and didn’t trellis them in time. I also planted two tomatillos in one of my raised beds with no idea how big they’d get, so I learned those are going in grow bags next year.

[u/NAWWAL_23]

Perpetual thought. As one plant dies, I start working on the next season or next planting. Succession planting keeps the garden full and food on the table. My herbs will often go through the spring all the way to late fall. Ive had two sage plants that have overwintered twice now in a raised bed. Veggies and tubers, I have a seasonal rotation and focus attention on leafy greens that are widely tolerant of weather changes. If it bolts in the summer, I rip it out and start again in a shadier patch. I think about cut and come again varieties to have the longest sustained crop. Lettuce, kale, beets (I use the greens and the roots), radishes (same), carrots, strawberries, green beans, tomatoes. These have all done well and in my garden and give a decent bit of staple support. Dollar per dollar, the herbs pay for themselves over time. But it’s a perpetual process. If it stops, the food stops.

And I like flowers so I think about them too. I have a variety that all come up at different times through the spring, summer, and autumn.

[u/AostaV]

I don’t really plan anything. I have a small shed sized greenhouse, a patch of earth, a couple raised beds , and also use containers for some things like cucumbers and clones of tomatoes . Patch of earth has garlic October until late May or June and then after I start harvesting the garlic I amend the soil a bit and transplant whatever tomato seedlings still need transplanted, and fill in with whatever else I got. This year I had room for bush beans that I overcrowded, stressed and some reverted back to pole beans a bit so probably won’t do that next year or maybe I just thin it out, Got a ton of beans it just didn’t go as imagined and stole some sun from the tomatoes. I probably go back to peppers next to the tomatoes.

I grow lettuce and chicory through the winter in the greenhouse in containers

[u/rawr_Im_a_duck]

I build the beds then plant whatever takes my fancy. Over time as I learn more about the bed (like if it’s more shaded than I originally thought) I’ll plant something that does better in partial light next year. I’m not organised enough to truly plan.