Garden Layout

Good morning everyone!

I came across this site a couple of days ago in my search for a way to trellis my tomatoes. I have been very impressed with the treasure trove of information contained here and could not help myself; I had to join and become a subscribing member!

Anyway, we are in our 3rd year of veggie gardening at our house here in Virginia and we have expanded every year. We initially started with two raised beds but we quickly got the bug and needed more! Last year we added a tilled up 50 x 20 foot section to the garden to add to the raised beds. This year, I have decided to go with more raised beds (instead of tilling and planting) since they seem to be easier to weed when (if) necessary. The new sections are highlighted in green.

Being a computer nerd by trade, I have put together the attached document to plan it all out. The two beds on the left are 4’x8’x24” but the rest will be 4’x10’x10.”

My question to all of the more seasoned vets is, how does this look and is there anything that you think I should change?

Thanks in advance,
Jeff

P.S. Yes, I got laughed at by my co-workers (A LOT!) for using Excel, but it is what I am comfortable with!

I love Excel, and it's what I would use too if I wanted to be that organized.

The plan looks great!

Love it -- I found an on-line gardening tool also. SO cool - it helps with the crop rotation issues. Here is my tentative plan for the year...

Hey Jeff, here is a link for some great info that may help you with your crop placement.

www.seedsofchange.com/enewsletter/issue_55/companion_planting.aspx

@starwoodfarm - thanks for the feedback. It's nice to know I'm not the only excel person!

@happygirls345 - that plan looks great. Is it the Better Homes and Gardens application?

@deezil72 - that is good information. I think i am going to mix some basil and parsley around in my tomatoes and plant some marigolds and mint around the border.

Thanks again to everyone!

-Jeff

I can't take all credit for the link, someone else posted it in another thread...I read thru it and really thought it to be really useful to pass around.
Glad it was as helpful to you as it was to me! I have completely revamped my layout on paper a few times now...lol...wish I knew Excel...lmao.

Dee

Dee,

I'd be happy to share the spreadsheet if you'd like it...

Jeff

Jeff...lol...if I knew what to do with it sure, but I don't think I have the patience to learn another program, it takes me 5 minutes to draw up a sketch and layout of yard placement so trying to learn to diagram it on a pc would take a bit too long. But, now that I know it can be used for that and probably things like floor plans or drafting my remodeling...I will make it the next thing to do on my list.

Thanks, Dee

I love seeing everyone's plans here! Jeff, welcome to the group! I'm just a short distance from you over in DC.

I recognize happygirl's plans as being from growveg.com, because that's what I just subscribed to myself!! It's made all the difference in my planning last year, I feel more focused and it helps me to visually see what I want to accomplish. Also, it's so much fun to rearrange the plans as I add or change things, and the plant list is a great tool as well.

I garden all in ebuckets (5 gallon self-watering buckets from another DG forum) and other tub-like containers, which is why everything is in a circle or square. This year I'm also building two salad tables, so those are the large brown squares.

Enjoy!

Here is part of the plant list that I mentioned. It generates automatically based on your last frost date, and you can add notes or change the dates around if you're planting different varieties.

I've also heard of plangarden.com but it seemed like just about the same thing as growveg.com, and I liked how easily I'd learned growveg so I stuck with it.

Kindlekat,

Thanks for the reply and sharing your plan. I have discovered growveg.com and have done my plan there as well. I love the timeline more than anything there. The pictures of the beds is nice, but for me not as handy.

I have seen posts about the e-buckets but have yet to investigate. Other than self-watering, what is the draw? Wouldn't they over-water?

Thanks,
Jeff

Jeff,

They don't overwater because you install a drain. They were an invention of a few very talented individuals over on the Self-contained box gardens forum. All the information for building them is on a blog from a fellow DGer here: http://mckarion.wordpress.com/2009/11/29/frugal-gardner-self-watering-bucket/

That should hopefully explain more of your questions but if you have anymore, head over to that forum I mentioned and ask! I'm sure there are lots more people who would gladly answer.

For me personally, the draw is that I have crazy hot summers in DC and would have to be watering every few hours for some of our days. With this system, I don't have to do that, plus the plant is essentially the one controlling how much water it gets, as the soil and it's roots wick up water when its needed.

Hope that helps!

Kindlecat

Glad to see someone else likes to use that garden planner. Its great isn't it.

We live just up the road, it does get hot here in the summer. I'm thinking of doing some of the e-buckets for the tomatoes because I grow them in containers on the side of the house and forget to water them. Out of sight out of mind, that kind of thing.