Start Planning Your Vegetable Garden Now

Even though the groundhog has told us there's still 6 weeks of winter left, now is a great time to start planning your vegetable garden. A little planning now will payoff big in the lazy days of summer. Many of the seed and garden companies are having specials in January and February which mean big savings for you. Two that I order from often (gurneys.com and henryfields.com) are running a $25 off $50 order right now for a very limited time. That's half off!

Go to the company websites and order the seed catalogs or just browse and order online. As you browse through the hundreds of varieties of vegetables, make notes on paper on what interests you. Also note the suggested spacing, maximum height and days to maturity for each vegetable.

Once you have a list of vegetables, sketch out your garden space on a piece of paper. Now go through your list and write down where you want your vegetables. You'll want the tall plants in 'back', that is to the north, so they don't shade the shorter plants. You also need to decide if you want to plant in rows or clustering. We have raised garden beds (3'x4') so I just fill them up. There's no need for rows because I can reach in from all sides to harvest and weed. As you are writing this down, you'll realize if you have enough space for all the varieties you want or if you'll have to adjust.

So what do you do if you want a big variety of vegetables but have a small space? Interplanting is the key. This takes careful planning and notes but it's well worth it. Interplanting, or intercropping, is simply putting 2 or 3 plants in the same space or right next to each other. You need to make sure the plants complement each other, though. An example is spinach and bell peppers. Spinach is a cool weather crop and grows fast. Peppers are planted early in the season, same time as spinach, but take much longer to mature. By the time the peppers are big and leafy, they are providing shade to the spinach - who don't like the hot summer sun much. You can extend the spinach harvest a few weeks this way. Pairing by height is another way of doing it, like beans climbing a trellis and potatoes or radishes that go deep. I often plant lettuce with watermelon because the cool weather lettuce is long gone before the watermelon vines get big. Some people intercrop because it's a good way to natural fight off the bugs. A very traditional pair is basil next to tomatoes.

Once you have your list and garden sketched out, you're ready to order. You'll want the sketch and growing info handy all summer long. I have a spiral notebook with notes from the last 4 years (when I started it). Each year has a sketch of where I plant the various seeds. I list each vegetable I plant and next to each I put down the days to maturity and the day I planted it, watering conditions and tips to know when to harvest. I also jot down if I ran into any problems like bugs or bolt or disease or whatever. It's turned into a helpful resource.