It's Never Too Early to Plan Your Garden

It's mid-summer-the time when you might be tempted to rest on your gardening laurels-enjoying the bounty of your flower and/or vegetable garden. If, instead, you take the time to jot down observations, visit the nursery, or grab the seed catalogs, you'll reap the benefits come next planting season.

Journal or Calendar

If you haven't already done so, begin to maintain either a gardening journal or make use of a large calendar where you can write down information pertinent to your garden.

Making note of when different seeds and plants are planted will make it easier to know just when you can expect the plantings to bloom or bear vegetables.

Write down which plants did well in this year's garden-and which ones didn't. In this way, you'll have many months to determine whether you'll want to try again with the difficult plants, and if so, what condition(s) might need to change in order for next year's plants to thrive.

How long did the begonias bloom? Were the sunflowers taller than you had planned? Were certain parts of the garden without blooms for a period of time, and if so, what time period was that?

Make note of your successes, too. Perhaps this year you found a natural method of keeping those worms from the growing cabbage, or finally determined that growing this plant next to that plant lead to both plants being their healthiest and vigorous. You'll want to make sure you remember these tidbits when putting together next year's garden.

Sketch or Graph

You don't have to be an artist to make a drawing or representation of your garden's basic layout. Re details you put into the drawing, the fewer details you'll have to commit to memory. Knowing that the shasta daisies you planted this year were about 18 inches tall could come in handy next year when planning whether to put them in front of or in back of the 12 inch high snapdragons.

Inventory

As the summer season comes to a close, many department stores and and home improvement stores will be having sales on seasonal items-like the tools and accessories that you know would be useful to you next year.

Taking the time to make an inventory now of needed items can help you save a bundle of money next spring. You might save enough money to splurge on something you want versus something you need-a comfy hammock where you can relax and enjoy your garden comes to mind.