Stephen Albert
Plan your vegetable garden on sticky-backed plant photos or plant sketches on Post-It Notes set on grid paper. This easy method will allow you to plan both initial vegetable crop sowings and plantings and succession crops before the weather warms and you get busy preparing and planting garden beds.
Here’s what to do:
1. Determine how large your planting beds will be and choose a grid paper to represent square inches or square feet in the garden. A grid of 4 x 4 to the inch cross-section will give you plenty of room to plot both large and small crops. Use a separate sheet of grid paper for each planting bed.
2. Cut photos of each crop from old seed catalogs or garden magazines or sketch each crop and tape or glue the photo or sketch on sticky notes so that they can be arranged and moved around the grid paper. On each sticky note, jot the size of the crop at maturity and note the days to harvest from sowing or transplanting into the garden. Be sure each sticky note fills the appropriate number of squares on the grid paper so that you have a clear vision of your planting bed.
3. Arrange sticky notes on your grid paper taking into consideration the space required for each crop at maturity. Also consider the number of days to harvest for each crop. Group crops so that they will be easy to maintain and harvest. Consider inter-cropping tall crops next to shade loving short crops or place quick growing crops between slower growing crops so that they come to harvest before the larger crops gain full size.
4. To plan succession crops and crop rotations consider the days to harvest for the first crop and the number of days to harvest for the succession crop; make sure there are enough days in the growing season for the succession crop. Keep in mind the importance of crop rotation to stem pests and diseases; avoid planting crops from the same plant family in the same bed successively.
5. Sticky notes can be used again and again to plan new planting beds and future seasons. Make a copy of each planting bed you design; leave room to note the date you planted and the date you harvested and any growing notes for future plantings of the same crops. Well-designed and successful plantings can be filed away to use again in future growing seasons.
