At the start of each season the gardener is often faced with the situation of;
- how many plants will I need?
A bit of pre-planning can answer all of these questions and save a lot of heartache later.
The best time to do this planning is between the end of one season, and the start of the next i.e. the winter months.
In this way you will be in a position to order just the right amount of seed and or plants you need.
You can also determine if you want to grow some of your plants from seed, or buy in pre-germinated plants or indeed, use a bit of both, either way the choice is yours.
The following notes and links should help you to develop a working plan.
Please note; The charts shown in this exercise are just examples and can be modified to suit the users needs.
As with many plans, there sometimes has to be a 'change of plan' for whatever reason, so once again the flexibility of these charts will make this a simple matter.
The plan;
- Make a scale plan of your plot showing the individual beds.
- Work out the designated positions and spacing for each genus.
- Establish the number and length of rows required for each variety.
- Establish the approximate sowing / planting date for each variety.
- To save waste and coldframe space, establish how many plants of each variety require growing on for transplanting at planting out time.
Alternatively, why not plan all of this on a spread sheet on your computer, where for example; each column represents one bed, and each row a row of plants.
Another advantage of doing your planning on the computer is; you can keep your annual plans/layouts on file to assist in future crop planning / rotation.
Check here for further planning ideas