Every year I draw up a plan for the garden. This is this year’s.
It’s not a terribly sophisticated rendering, and I’m sure the scale and orientation are more than a little off, but it keeps me organized. It lets me easily see if everything I want to plant is accounted for and if I have any sun-blocking issues caused by taller plants. I can also compare it with last year’s diagram to make sure I’m rotating properly.
The growing areas are outlined in blue and the fence is in black. Natural obstacles like stumps and trees are outlined in red. I have left some things out though: there’s another fence and a line of trees behind Bed #6 (they belong to the neighbor).
Each bed is 4 feet wide and 8 feet long. The planting areas for the cucumbers and zucchini are each about 2 square feet. The containers for the potatoes and peppers are actually grow bags that are about 21 inches in diameter. That gives me about 192 + 4 + 9.6 = 205.6 square feet of growing area.
Last year’s yield was 250 pounds. This year’s goal is 50% more, or 375 pounds. Can we do it? Gosh I hope so.