Mapping Out the Garden
Mapping out my garden space is my favorite. I use graph paper to map out my space. Each square represents a square foot in my garden, showing me how many plants of a certain crop to put in that space. This provides a solid visual for how I’m planning to lay things out. It makes it easier to research companion plants. Knowing exactly where I plan to put things tells me where I need to be more intentional with watering or watching for certain pests and disease. Once everything is on paper, I can think through if I’m using my space most efficiently.
Mapping out my space can seem daunting to begin. I start with writing in with pencil and once I’m pretty sure I like the set up, I use different colored pens or markers to finish mapping it out. That’s not necessary, I just enjoy it! To have a map of the garden and keep those plans year after year is helpful in crop rotation and remembering what worked well in that space or what didn’t.
Another piece to think through is how these plants will be watered. Am I using drip irrigation? Am I setting it on a timer so I can count on my garden getting watered at a certain time each day? Am I hauling water in buckets? Whatever system I decide to go with, it has to be sustainable for the summer. Knowing how often I will be watering and how I am watering is a crucial system to keep the garden going. If the plan seems difficult on miserably hot days, will I keep up with it? Thinking through these types of systems sets up a sustainable plan for some of the basic challenges that arise.
One more detail to consider when laying out the garden space is knowing what plants need more attention than other plants. Plants I want easy access to for cooking, like herbs and lettuce, I put in the closest garden bed to my kitchen. Things I pick less often I put a little further away. Personally, I like to keep the garden close to my house for ease of watering and watching plant health. Often with pests I can remove the pest and avoid total damage of the plant. If I am only looking at the plant once a week, I will not catch pests or disease in time for an abundant harvest. I put most annual vegetables close to my house and further out I put perennials like blueberry bushes, raspberries, strawberries, elderberries and mushrooms. I still check on them a few times a week, but maybe not daily.
Mapping out the garden is a fun way to visualize plans for the space. Then it’s easier to figure out how many plants you need, what grows best with your main crop, the plan for watering and if I’m putting the right crop the right distance from my daily care. Having that plan makes the next year’s planning more productive because then there is record of what was in the space and how that went.
