Finalized Garden Plan

Welp, I think I’ve finally done it. Granted, I’m sure there will be mistakes and revisions, but I am 89.9% sure I have the finalized garden plan layed out.

Here’s what it should look like at the middle of the growing season:

Utilizing both companion planting and succession planting methods, I am pretty sure we will be able to grow what we want in a 15×40’² area. Right now, it’s 15×25’², so we have about 15×15’² left to lay out. But- the brilliance here is that the stuff I’ve designated for that remaining area is stuff that can be planted a little bit later in the season, so we have time to get the soil in good condition.

I probably made this whole thing more complicated than I had to, but what else do I have to occupy my time while the kids sleep? Hmm? Right.

First I sun mapped our property to pick the optimal spot.

Most of our 5 acres are wooded. The area I was going to designate garden originally ended up being more shaded than desirable, so I decided to put it right here:

The garden this year will be smaller than we ultimately want, but hey, you gotta start somewhere.

I adopted a succession planting chart from littlehouseinthesuburbs.com and modified it to my “little green gardening book” to include what I would be growing this year

Using my sowing calendar, I was able to determine when to plant which vegetables and where

And I determined how much of each plant/space required to grow enough for 4 people. 

And that’s how I ended up with the final plan.

I am not sure about the melons and the pumpkins, but based on what I saw around here this fall, I think they’ll be just fine being planted in succession after my earlier crops are done. Now, we wait… Until indoor seeding gets going next month!