Planning Your Garden - 5 Things to Consider When Planning Your Garden

By Cindy Cloninger

Photo by Zoe Schaeffer

​Wrapped up in your blanket, wool socks on, and hot cocoa at the ready….Winter is the perfect time to plan your vegetable and flower garden.  

I can’t help but get excited thinking of the digging in the dirt, watching seeds germinate and push through the soil and grow at each stage of their development. How lucky we are  to be a part of the beautiful growing process. ​​

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If like me, you love looking through the seed catalogs and garden magazines and plan acres of blooms and bountiful harvests in the fields of your mind, then this exercise will be a joy for you. Before even a shovel full of soil can be turned, however,  I need to narrow down what I want to plant and what I actually can plant. {smirk here} I readily admit to leaving more of them planted and blooming in my mind the last few seasons. ​

Like my husband’s army drill sergeant used to say, “Prior planning prevents poor performance.”   These 5 P’s pertaining to planning your garden fulfill a couple of great purposes.

• Dream about spring and summer while huddled up in the winter
• Allow you to pause and take a look at your existing area, taking stock of the property characteristics: Existing and mature trees, rock outcroppings, good soil, interesting variation in terrain
• List your desired plants and match up the needs: when to plant, height, sunlight and water needs, and harvest time, and ones that grow well together
• Determine and work within you budget
• Stage growing and work effort to get the most out of your growing season
• Research some new ideas you can add to your garden
• Plan levels and staged growing to have continued growth
  
  

Here are a few major considerations to take note of in planning your garden.

START WITH THE END IN MIND

In Medieval times, gardens were traditionally used for herbs for medicinal uses and kitchen gardens. Over the years cultivation of gardens has changed to include architectural and water features to the blooming flowers and shrubs of English gardens, to more urban container and vertical gardening, and raised beds for ease of use and containment.

Are you dreaming of walking through the flowering landscapes of a butterfly garden, walking a flagstone path under an arched walkway headed toward your favorite bench, or biting into a freshly harvested salad?  ​

Determining what you want your end harvest to be can help you best plan and execute with great results.  Think about the types of vegetables you like to eat. Do you love a fresh salad? Tomatoes, greens, and lettuce are your choices. If eating jars of salsa is your thing? Tomatoes, peppers, onions, and cilantro are your go tos. Planting a pizza garden with all the garlic, basil, oregano, and tomatoes can be a fun endeavor for kids.
Wherever your preference lies, some planning can help you get the most out of the growing season in your area.

HARDINESS ZONES

Sing it with me! Zones, the zones, let’s name the zones, let’s name the zones of the ocean….oh wait! Clearly I have a little too much Finding Nemo and Disney movies permanently etched in my brain if that’s the first thing that comes to my mind when the word zones are mentioned.

But that right there, is a great place to start, YOUR growing area, or zone.  Climates vary not only from region and state, but can also vary greatly within your state.  If you live in a mountainous region like me, what may grow well even 20 miles from you could do poorly in your yard.

The United States Department of Agriculture has an interactive map that was updated in 2012 to take into consideration just those things. They are defined by color, and numbered 1 through 11 with one being the coldest and harshest and moving up from there. A letter is also listed in conjunction with the zone numbers to further classify similar areas.

This great little tool will help you determine what zone you are in. In addition to the map, talk to locals and take note of plants that grow well and in abundance in your town.  The Hardiness Zone Map is designed to tell you the most extremes in your area, those extremes that plants will have to be tough enough to survive through. Knowing your zone, helps you to determine with better clarity which plants will most assuredly survive and thrive. You may be lucky to have some that are on the higher border of your zone that can do well in your garden too. 

EVERYTHING YOUR PLANT HARDINESS ZONE CAN TELL YOU ABOUT PLANING & CARING FOR TREES

GROWING SEASON

Those extreme temperatures and their duration determine the growing season in your area, another HUGE factor in how you go about planning your garden. This knowledge can help you decide if you’d like to get a longer and more bountiful harvest by starting the seed germination process indoors well before the snow melts and freezes aren’t so threatening. Or weather you buy plants that are well on their way from your local garden store at the time of planting. ​

The National Gardening Association has a great little tool to show you the first and last freeze dates based on your zipcode.  Be sure to use this Frost Dates Calculator as part of your planning.
Utah, on average, has approximately 170 days between the last and first frost.  That is a short growing season! Popular crops like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants, for example, require around a 100 days to harvest so you’ll want to transplant those from starts you have grown or purchased.  
That being said, harvest times vary widely on the same types of plants so check the labeling on your favorites and start making a list.

Picking that perfect spot for your garden and flower bed growing can be tricky.  You may be limited to a certain spot.  Things that need to be noted in this space are:

• What direction it is facing
  
• The type of soil found there
  
• The amount of water it gets
  

Don’t get discouraged right away as there are ways to adjust each of these criteria to help you get the desired results.

SUN EXPOSURE

Most vegetables require 6-8 hours of direct sunlight per day. The more sunlight they receive, the more plentiful harvest, bigger veggies, and better taste. We’ll make our way around the sun starting with the least amount of sun to the most.

North facing 🌥🌥🌥🌥🌞

East facing🌞🌞🌞🌥🌥

North facing spaces get the most shade. While most plants will struggle with this, it can still be a good spot for a few crops like lettuce, mint, arugula, kale, oregano, beets, and chives.
If north facing is your only option, you may want to consider adding a greenhouse where artificial lights can be hung.

In east facing gardens the soil and plants get more of the morning sun and cool off in the afternoon shade.  This is ideal for heat-intolerant plants such as your leafy greens, like spinach. Along with carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and beets.  With at least 6 hours of sun, most longer sun requiring veggies will do well here too, think tomatoes.  Adding reflective mirrors to this area will increase the sun exposure.

West facing🌥🌥🌞🌞🌞

South facing🌥🌞🌞🌞🌞

The direct opposite is a west facing garden. West facing gardens miss the morning sun, but get shade and will then receive the afternoon and evening sunlight. This later sun tends to be the hottest of the day so take that into consideration and provide shade and cooling for more sensitive plants like spinach. However, other full sun plants will do well. Be sure to plant well after any chance of frost in these areas because of the slow warming in the mornings.

If your garden is turned toward the south, it will get the most sun.  The biggest requirement with south facing gardens is the need for water. Often skipping a day of watering can be detrimental to plants facing south, especially if you have any that are growing in containers. Incorporate trellises, A-frames, and mature trees in the area to add shade for heat-intolerant flowers and plants. Then plant away crops like watermelon, okra, squash, peppers, and heat loving fruits. Keep a watch for sunburn and drying out.

If you are planting up against your home, especially if it is brick, soil temperatures will be much higher and you will need to watch for drying out. This happens because your home is a thermal mass. Natural watering may be affected because of eaves and gutters as well.  Small amounts of PH leach from the mortar in between your bricks too. This is not a big concern for most gardens but may cause problems for PH sensitive plants such as blueberries, potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, garlic, and flowering camellias, azaleas, blue hydrangea, and zinnia.  Check this chart to see what your plants love. 

SOIL AND LANDSCAPE, WATER

Plant roots will readily spread through soft soil. What we want is rich, dark, nutrient rich soil that has organic matter, aeration, and porosity. Soil like this allows for deep root growth, an ideal environment for your plants. Enriching your soil by adding in Terra Zest compost, will add the needed nutrients.
Another solution to soften your soil and create oxygen space in your soil is adding wool pellets. Wool Pellets not only provide water holding it in your soil, but they create oxygen space for root expansion that will help your plants be hardy and strong.   
Make sure that the landscape and drainage prevents both drying out and flooding areas.  Ideally, water will absorb through your soil to a depth of about 6 inches. This doesn’t happen in hardened soils, water will take the path of least resistance and you’ll end up with run off, puddles, and a water depth of only a couple of inches. This makes for thirsty plants and muddy messes. For an in depth look at your soil solutions and to get the best results read How Do I Soften My Soil?

NATURAL PREDATORS - Kids, animals, and wind.

Our last consideration is preventative of the things that can damage your plants by attack. Plant in a stable area where wind won’t destroy your young plants or keep pollinators from doing their job.  There is nothing more frustrating than toiling away and waiting anxiously for that oh, so close harvest only to have them eaten by deer, swallowed up by voles, stomped on, picked, or eaten by the cutest plant predator...kids.  
While some measures can be taken to prevent such attacks, in other cases it may be better to choose less tempting crops.
I had over 300 tulips eaten by deer a few years ago, sigh, I’m still a little devastated by that one. My daffodils have been skipped over every time.  I have reluctantly given over to having less and less tulips in my springtime flower bed.

So what are those preventive measures? Eliminate moles by eliminating their food of grubs in your lawn. Also, castor oil sprayed on plants and lawns is a natural deterrent. Mixing wool pellets into your soil will naturally cut down on slugs and snails in addition to providing aeration, plant nutrition, and watering aid. Read 6 Reasons Why You Should Be Using Wool Pellets in Your Garden for more information. Other tactics that help with most pest and small predators is to remove hiding places in your garden, think broad leaves and tall grasses. However, wrapping and fencing are still the best deterrents to deer, rabbits, and most other predators.
Many plant labels have more information on just how tempting they may be to common predators, so check labels and add as many resistant blooms as you can.
And for kids… hide your strawberries where the neighborhood children can’t find them and keep your long stemmed delphiniums far from common walkways.  But in the end, just smile that your garden has attracted such young enthusiasts.

Now that your creative and horticulture juices are flowing, you can easily take notes and have those ready for the next article in our  Planning Your Garden series where we’ll discuss the different ways to map out and determine what type of vegetable garden is best for you.

What is the biggest challenge you face in your garden?

Cindy Cloninger

Virtual Assistant, blog manager, email & social media marketing assistant, web development. I enjoy hiking, fresh fruits & veggies, planting flowers, cooking great meals. But I love being a wife and mother the most.  When I'm not doing all of those, I love to read and try new things.   No matter the forecast, live like it's spring.