This is the end of the beginner gardener series. All of my posts will still be useful for any beginners, but this series was meant to provide all of the information for you to start in the garden. Now that we’ve covered all of the beginner plants, it’s time to look at what your plots might look like and how to go about writing your plan and structuring them.
First off, you need to choose which plants you want to grow. Check out the linked blog posts for how to grow them, which may help you decide.
You’ll then want to split the garden into the sections of a crop rotation plan, and put the plants into their respective categories, leaving the ones that don’t fit into a category separate, using them to fill in the gaps.
Then you’ll figure out how to fit them into each plot. And finally, plan when you will be planting everything, and from there what you need to do to prepare.
Crop Rotation
Before we split your growing area into sections, you need to decide what space you want to dedicate to growing plants that you could fit into a crop rotation plan. This can include perennials and flowers, but it doesn’t have to, these could go outside of the plots. Once you have decided this, you’ll want to measure your growing area and split it into either 4 or 8 roughly equal sections:
- 4 sections if you only want to grow either tomatoes or potatoes, or if you have the space to grow them a little apart from each other within the same plot.
- 8 sections if you want to grow both tomatoes and potatoes, but you don’t have the space to grow them apart from each other within the same plot.
The recommendation is 10 ft between tomato and potato plants, but you could probably go as low as 3ft between them, keeping an eye on the plants (disease and pests) and ensuring that you don’t disturb the roots of your tomato plants when you dig up your potatoes.
Choose how many you want to split the area into and then draw up the plots. I personally prefer to do this on graph paper (using the bigger 5 x 5 squares as 1 sq ft) or on Excel/Google Sheets/Numbers (using 1 cell as 1 sq ft).
The below example will be the one I use for this post. It is an 8 x 8 ft area, with a 1 ft wide path going in between the plots. These paths could be used for potted plants, plants in the ground, or left as an empty path. I personally have slabs in between my plots, with gaps in between the slabs for flowers to grow. See below a picture of the slabs, but it’s out of season so there aren’t any flowers. I use paths because although you can get in between rows of plants to reach them and harvest, you want to limit the amount of time you spend walking on the soil where you’re growing, as you will compact the soil.
Now you know your growing area, and have split it up into equal plots, it’s time to decide what you want to grow, and create a list.
Plants to Grow in the Edible Garden
This is not an extensive list, as I can’t cover every plant that you may want, so I have chosen some beginner friendly ones that I have covered in the previous posts in the beginner series. Choose the plants from the following list that you want to grow. You could grow plants not covered here if you want, but I’m going to focus on these ones for my example.
- Runner beans, Peas, Broad Beans (legumes)
- Cabbage, Kale, Radish (brassicas)
- Potatoes, Tomatoes (nightshades)
- Garlic, Onions, Beetroot, Carrots, Parsnips (onions & roots)
- Lettuce, Spinach (salad leaves)
- Cucumber, Courgette, Winter Squash (squashes)
- Basil, Coriander, Dill, Parsley (annual herbs)
- Lemon balm, Mint, Oregano, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme (perennial herbs)
- Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackcurrants, Gooseberries (berries)
Once you have chosen the plants, you now want to group them together. Plants in the numbers 1-4 refer to the plants that go into those sections of a crop rotation plan, and the remaining don’t go anywhere specific. I would split the remaining plants into 5-7 (annuals) and 8-9 (perennials). The perennials that I’ve chosen can be treated as annuals, or grown in pots, planted from cuttings, etc. But I have left out the true perennials as they are a bit more complex for trying to fit into a crop rotation plan. Now that you’ve done this, it should look something like this.
- Runner Beans
- Cabbage, Radish
- Tomatoes
- Carrots, Beetroot, Spring Onions
- Spinach, Courgette, Winter Squash, Basil, Coriander
- Mint, Oregano
So from the above picture, Plot A will be runner beans, Plot 2 will be cabbage and radish, Plot 3 will be tomatoes, and Plot 4 will be carrots, beetroot, and onions. I haven’t included a section for flowers, but I strongly recommend growing flowers in your garden, trying to have flowers blooming during different seasons. The remaining plants (5-6) can fit into multiple places in the garden. Making sure to avoid growing plants together that should be avoided, which you can find in my previous posts in this series, you can find places to fit these plants in. Here are some examples for things you can do to help you with your decisions.
Spinach likes to be shaded during the heat in the summer to prevent it bolting, so this can fit in the shade provided by the wigwams the beans are growing up, making it a good fit for Plot A.
Basil, Coriander, Oregano all grow well with tomatoes, and as annuals (you can treat oregano as an annual) they can be planted with the tomatoes in a different plot next year too.
Winter Squash fits in well with the wigwams in Plot A, as they are trailing plants.
We are now left with Mint and Courgette. There is space for courgettes in plot D, and they are fine grown with onions, so they can go in there. And then I’ve kept mint out of it for now, so I’ll go through that at the end.
Plot A
Place a wigwam for runner beans in the middle of the plot with space to grow 11 bean plants. There should be space in the middle of the wigwam to grow 3 spinach plants, with the structure offering them some shade to prevent bolting. Then plant 4 winter squash plants, 1 in each corner, trailing them down the sides of the plot. This should still give you space at the bottom and top to reach the beans and spinach to harvest.
Plot B
Grow 6 cabbages, 3 along the top of the plot and 3 along the bottom of the plot. (top and bottom row). Sow a row of radishes through the middle of the plot, which should be around 25 radishes. If you make an early sowing of radishes, then you can harvest them and make another sowing in summer.
Plot C
Grow 6 tomatoes, 3 along the top of the plot and 3 along the bottom of the plot. The space in between can be used to grow basil, coriander, and oregano. Depending on the variety of tomato you choose to grow, you may need to provide the plants with growing support.
Plot D
A row of beetroot along the top, which should be around 8-10 beetroot plants. Then carrots in the next row, which should be 10-13 plants. The next row is spring onions, which should be around 10 plants. In the bottom row, grow 2 courgettes, one in each corner. Bush varieties are going to be best here. If you make an early sowing of beetroot, then you can harvest them and make another sowing in summer.
Other
Mint can be very invasive if not controlled, so I’d recommend beginners grow it in pots so that it can be controlled, or in a specific area in the garden where it can be controlled. Make sure the roots don’t spread through the bottom of the pot and into the ground if you’re growing it in a pot.
What to do now
Now it’s time to plan when you want to plant everything. From this you can figure out when you need to prepare the garden, and maybe when you need to buy seeds compost, or equipment. In the plant posts linked in this post you can find out when to plant your chosen plants, and then work backwards from there. Some will want to be sown directly outside, some inside (if possible), and some can be either so they are up to you. Most seeds will have a range, so you can try to time them in a way that fits you best, as anywhere within that range will be good.
I am proud to be affiliated with JustSeed, a company that I have bought seeds from for a few years now. I believe in what they are doing over there, and if you are going to buy seeds, garden tools, or seedlings, then please consider checking them out and using my link below to do so. Thank you for supporting me.
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