10 Things to Consider When Planning Your Garden

9-minute read

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With the threat of frost behind us now and all the big box stores displaying gardening tools, plants, and supplies it is time to get that garden in the ground. In this blog post I will share with you 10 things you need to consider when planning out your garden.

Location
Space
Watering system
Soil type
Fertilizers
What to plant in your garden
Companion planting
Seeds or plants
Pollinators
Pests Defense

Location

Sunlight is the number one factor to consider when scouting a location for your garden. Most of your vegetable crops will need at least 6 hours of sunlight. Finding a spot to plant that gets at least 6, but 8 hours is better, of sunlight throughout the day is a good starting point.

Watch your area over the course of the day to map out how many hours of sunlight your ideal garden spot is getting.

What time does the sunlight start shining on it in the morning?

What time of day does the sunlight disappear from it in the afternoon/evening?

Are there any structures that cast a shadow over your location?

If you answer these questions and find that you are getting a good 6 to 8 hours of sunlight on your spot it will make a suitable location for gardening.

How far is your garden from the house? This may not seem like it matters, but in my opinion, having a garden close to the house is wise. You are more likely to keep up with a garden if it is easily accessible from your house.

Other things to consider for your garden location:

Is this spot-on level ground?

Is it windy here? You want your plants to get some breeze for air circulation, but if you are planting in a spot that gets a lot of wind you may need to create a wind barrier or place wind tunnels to protect your crops.

How much work will it be to make this location a good garden spot?

How will you get water to your garden in this spot?

What is the soil like in this location? While considering the soil is important, you do have other options for your soil, do not rule out your location on soil alone.

Read on to find out more information about soil and of course other factors to consider.

Space

How much space do you have for a garden? You really do not need a lot of space to grow garden vegetables. I have grown an entire vegetable garden in containers on my back deck in 4X8 foot area.

Depending on how much you want to grow will determine how much space is needed. If you are unsure or a beginning gardener I suggest starting off on a smaller scale.

Here is an example of my container garden for reference.

I wanted to grow just a few vegetables for the summer so that I knew my fiancé and I would enjoy eating.

So, in my 4X8 container garden area I placed containers to grow 2 tomato plants, 2 cucumber plants, carrots, radishes, and onions from seeds. Then I did a mix of some salad greens, arugula, spinach, and kale. I planted 2 hanging baskets of strawberries and one large pot containing sunflowers.

This little container garden was the perfect size to feed us some fresh garden vegetables for the summer. And oh, how we enjoyed the strawberries.

Not having enough space is normally not a problem, you just have to get creative when it comes to smaller spaces.

Now that you have your sunny location and an idea of how big your garden will be, your garden will need lots of water.

Water

Keep in mind, your garden is going to need lots of water. In the heat of summer, you will need to water your garden every day. How will you water your garden?

Here are a few easy methods:

The garden hose of course. If your garden is in a location where you have access to a garden hose hook up, you can easily use the hose to water your garden.

If your garden hose is not an option, then consider getting a garden pump sprayer like this one. This is the option I use for all my container gardening.

It takes a little longer to water your garden with this sprayer, but it is effective and gives you the ability to add your fertilizers into the water and allows you to get the plants roots completely saturated. I call this the plant spa treatment sprayer.

If you are planting on a smaller scale, on your deck or patio in a few containers you may be able to easily water with a watering can.

If you are gardening on a larger scale you may want to consider a full-on water irrigation system.

Rain barrels are a popular and more natural option as well. Just be sure you can set it up correctly and that the water you are catching is not being exposed to contaminants.

When it comes to watering your garden, the best method is the method that works best for you.

Soil

I told you we would talk more about soil. You have your location, the amount of space you have available to grow in and a way to water your garden, now let's consider your soil.

Are you planting directly in the ground? If so, I suggest doing a soil test. Here is an affordable soil test kit to help determine what amendments your soil may need.

If the soil is just not good for planting in this location, you can always bring in some topsoil to the area and add amendments like compost to help make this location work for your garden.

Testing your soil is best when planting directly in the ground, this way you know what nutrients your soil already has, and what it will need.

If you are not planting directly into the ground, you may be using a raised bed option or containers, if so, you will need to buy your soil from your local lawn and garden center.

Here is the recipe I am using for my containers and raised beds this year to garden in:

Fertilizers

Speaking of amendments to your soil, here are some other things to consider feeding your garden all season.

If you are planting in the ground, have tested your soil and know what amendments to add you are well on your way to providing your plants with the goods they need to grow and produce some amazing foods for you.

Excellent fertilizers to consider for your garden vegetables.

What to plant in your garden

You may not know where to start when it comes to deciding what to plant in your garden. If you are like me, you want to plant everything you can get your hands on. But that is not realistic.

So, let us talk about the easiest to grow garden vegetables.

Lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, green beans, zucchini, peas, carrots, spinach, and cucumbers are all extremely easy to grow and rewarding. I have personally had success growing all of these and absolutely must grow tomatoes every year no matter what.

Before you rush out to buy all these seeds or starter vegetable plants, ask yourself if you will eat all of these. It is pointless to grow zucchini if you do not like to eat zucchini.

Also, keep in mind how many of each plant you grow. If you eat a lot of cucumbers, I still only recommend 2-3 plants, because these bad boys will produce a lot.

I suggest you make a list of all the vegetables you and your family enjoy eating, research how to grow them, then decide which you absolutely want to grow.

This garden season I am planting a little bigger variety than normal, but here is the method I used for deciding which vegetables to grow.

I made a list of all the vegetables we enjoy eating. Then I researched which are easiest to grow and will grow well in our garden. I narrowed down to which vegetables we enjoy eating multiple times a week.

Then I went with the vegetables we eat 2 or more times a week and that are easy to can. I also have taken my dogs into consideration. Many vegetables are good for dogs and my dogs love vegetables, so I plan to grow additional vegetables this year for my dogs. Here are good vegetables for dogs.

Companion Planting

Companion planting is a clever idea for all gardeners. Knowing which plants to plant together for added benefits in your garden. It is also good to know which are not the best companions. This will help when setting up your garden to know where everything is going to go.

Here is a good companion planting chart I have found helpful to refer to.

So now you know what you are planting and where you are going to plant it. Now it is time to decide if you are going to sow seeds or buy starter plants?

Here are the pros and cons for each.

If you decide to go with seeds, Urban Leaf is a good source for ordering seeds.

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Pollinators

Do not forget your garden needs good visitors to help pollinate it to grow and produce. Bees, butterflies, and birds are all attracted to flowers.

A few good gardening pollinators are sunflowers, butterfly bushes, cone flowers, calendula, marigolds, nasturtiums, lavender, borage, yarrow, and bee balm. These are flowers you may use to attract pollinators. I suggest picking 2-3 to grow in your garden area to get those beneficial critters visiting your garden.

I grow sunflowers every year as well and they are some of the easiest to grow and attract bees. Not only do sunflowers pollinate the garden, but they are also so lovely to look at, and you can harvest their seeds.

Pest Defense

Now that you have the plants that attract the beneficial visitors to your garden you also need to think about the pests that are not welcome in the garden. The good thing about deterring pests is that you can grow plants that deter pests too.

Here are a few plants to place in your garden to help deter pests.

I hope this has given you an idea of all the things to consider when planning your garden. I cannot wait to get things growing outside this season and hope you are excited too!