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You are here: Home / Home / Gardening / Planning the vegetable garden layout

Gardening

Planning the vegetable garden layout

By Practical Mama |
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I always plan the layout of the vegetable garden before planting for that year. I usually plant new items and drop some items that I cannot grow really well. Sometime I just change the amount I am planting. Eventually, I do a new plan every year.

I start with taking the measurements of the areas I am planning to grow vegetables. Here my helpers are taking the measurements.

Then I put all my seeds in front of me and note down the seedling I am going to buy from the organic plant sale. I draw a grid (each grid represents a square foot) layout on a paper. Reading the instructions on the seed packs and knowing how far I need to plant the tomato and eggplant seedlings.

I take these into consideration:

  1. I rotate plants every year.
  2. I plant them so that taller plants do not overshadow the smaller plants.
  3. Based on what I read in gardening magazines and websites, I try to put complementary plants next to each other. 
Then  I start to place where I am going to plant what on the grid.

After laying out the grid, I started with seeding the early spring greens. You have to plant the greens except for arugula and golden purslane in a row. I dug out rows of small canals with a stick and put seeds for kale, spinach, broccoli, lettuce and romaine. I wrote the names of the plants on craft sticks with a marker and stuck in front of the rows.
Once I put the seeds in, I closed the canals with the help of a rake.
Then I spread the purslane and arugula seeds and covered them with peat moss to prevent the birds from eating them.

Let’s take a note to history. As of Tuesday, March 13, 2012, I seeded my green leafy plants and watered them to germinate.

If you closely look at the first picture and the last picture, you’ll see that the parsley that was spread around is now in a smaller area. Right next to it, I seeded dill. On the right side, I seeded spinach, 3 types of lettuce and romaine, purslane, arugula, kale and broccoli. I will plant cucumber seedlings by the trellis on the right side, when weather gets warmer. I will seed corn and two types of beans on the left side.

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« Previous Post: Preparing vegetable garden soil for seeding and planting
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  1. Vegetable Garden 2013: Planning the garden | Practical Mama says:
    at

    […] sprung in Chicago and I was able to, at least, sow the seeds for the greens in my vegetable garden. Going back to my old posts, last year I remembered, I sow the seeds for greens in mid March. This year, I could do it on April […]

    Reply
  2. Chicago Family Bucket List - Spring 2016 - Practical Mama says:
    at

    […] a lot of nature activities outdoors, enjoying the blooms and flowers, particularly tulips. We also plan and prepare for our vegetable garden. We feel very lucky to have an early Spring this year. Biking is one of my favorite outdoor […]

    Reply

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I am a mother of two and a type of person who you would call “Jack of all trades, master of none”. As you might guess from categories, I love my children, reading, sewing, gardening, traveling and cooking. I also work full time so I have to be practical to do all the things I want to do in a 24-hr-day. More About Me


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