Garden Planning Guide

1. Name your goal before you draw a bed

Salads every night? A freezer full of tomatoes? Flowers for the table? A goal decides everything downstream — crop list, square footage, even whether you need a garden at all (a container of herbs on the steps counts). Write one sentence and plan to it.

2. Map sun, water and paths

Sketch your space on one page: where the sun hits at 9am and 3pm, where the hose reaches, where feet naturally walk. Put thirsty crops near water, tall crops (corn, trellised beans) on the north side so they don’t shade the lettuce, and perennials — herbs, berries — where the tiller won’t disturb them.

3. Plan two seasons, not one

The garden that feeds you longest is planted twice: cool crops (garlic, peas, greens) in the shoulders, warm crops (tomatoes, beans, basil) in the middle. Our fall garlic and cover crops keep beds working right through winter.

4. Leave room for flowers

Every fourth row — or the whole border — in flowers pays for itself in pollination and pest control. A strip of our Save the Monarchs mix along the garden edge feeds the bees that feed your cucumbers.

5. Order early, plant on time

The most common planning failure isn’t design, it’s timing: seed ordered in May for an April window. Work backward from frost dates, order a month before you think you need to, and let the seed wait for the soil — not the other way around.