Planning Your Garden Part 1
The success of a garden depends a great deal on the planning that is done beforehand. First map out your garden in detail by drawing it to scale. You can use a scale of ½ or ¼ inch to a foot. Your plan should show the plants you intend to grow, where you are going to place them, the number of rows you will have, and the amount of space between each row. Be sure to keep in mind the size of each plant when it is fully grown so that you will not have an overcrowded garden.
If you are raising flowers, you might start with a garden 3 feet by 12 or 15 feet. Do not make it any wider than 4 feet, or you will not be able to lean across it to work on the flowers in the center of the bed. For a vegetable garden, a good size is 12 feet by 16 feet. You will have to stand between the rows to weed, so leave at least a foot between them. If you are raising larger vegetables, you may have to leave as much as 3 feet.
If the ground slopes, plan the rows so that they run across the slope like the rows of benches in a football stadium, rather than up and down. Then rainwater will be caught and held, and the soil will not wash away.
Annuals, Biennials, Perennials
Before you decide to place each kind of flower and vegetable, there are several things to consider. The first is the number of years a particular plant will live. Some plants grow from seed, bloom, and die all in 1 year. These are called annuals. Some plants complete their growth in two years and are called biennials. Other plants live for a number of years, or perennials.
In a flower garden biennials and perennials should be planted where they can stay for more than 1 year. But some annuals should be planted among them. This is because many perennials bloom early in the spring. The annuals, like zinnias and marigolds, bloom much later, but they continue to bloom all summer long. By planting some annuals among the perennials, you will have flowers throughout the growing season.
In a vegetable garden, plan to keep the perennials like asparagus, rhubarb, and strawberries separate from the annuals. (The strawberry is a fruit, but it may be grown in the vegetable garden.) Place them together on one side of the garden where they will not interfere with the rest of your gardening. On the other side, plant together all the vegetables that will be ready for harvesting at about the same time.