New Garden Templates for Planning

[chrysanthemum]

During our recent cold nights and mornings when my plants were covered up, I spent some time trying to figure out a drawing program on our computer to make some new garden templates. My daughter had made me some, but then her program had problems. I’m not familiar with drawing programs, but I managed to make acceptable templates for planning purposes. Edges are a little wonky, but they are in my garden, too. The terra cotta circles represent my many ollas, the underground terra cotta pots that I use as water reservoirs.  I figure I can print fresh ones each year, and during the year I can erase what I’ve pencilled in when crops change.

This first one is what we call the main garden. There’s a large asparagus bed in there, too, that’s not shown on the plan because the plantings won’t change. The long beds are two feet wide and from ten to twenty feet long. The squares in the middle are 4 x 4 and have my garlic in them now. One variety in each bed: Shilla (hard neck), Viola Francese and Blanco Spagnolo (soft necks) and Labera Purple (Creole). They have a good start on growing though the outer leaves were burned the day it dropped from 80 to 24 overnight.





The next template is the four 4 x 10 raised beds that we were given by neighbors last year. They all have onions in them now. One of these is where I plan to plant corn next year, probably in a diamond pattern around the ollas.





The last bed looks big, but it’s really small. It’s made of cinderblocks and is tucked into a corner of our house in the back yard. I have some herbs in some of the holes and have recently seeded carrots and radishes into the empty space. I hope to grow luffas on tall trellis (borrowed from the squares in the main garden) to make some biodegradable dish sponges for myself next year.  It’s where I grew my Roselle last year, and it faces south and west, so I want a plant that can take the heat.





January is my month for garden planning (though I’m always thinking about my garden all year round), so I’m getting a start.

[macmex]

Garden planning is a weak area for me. I'm doing good to decide this coming year that I'm adding a third long row of sweet potatoes and planting almost all unused space (early on) in corn, beans and cowpeas. Back in 1984 I had a Commodore 64 computer and a program for planning the garden. I LOVED it, though I think I loved it more for using for daydreaming about what I "might grow" more than actual planning. Now Jerreth is my garden planning program 

[heavyhitterokra]

Grandma and I used to sit on the couch in front of the stove every February, looking through seed catalogs together and mapping out her next garden. Great memories chrysanthemum, thanks for posting that!

[chrysanthemum]

macmex, Jerreth sounds like an all around great woman and a helpmeet suitable for you. Congratulations!

heavyhitterokra, I’ve been sitting somewhat to the side of the woodstove and pencilling in my plans.