It can be overwhelming to decide what to plant when there are so many great options! Simplify the planning process & decide what to plant in your vegetable garden with these three helpful tips.
Decisions, decisions.
Scrolling the websites of seed companies…
Paging through seed catalogs that showed up in the mail…
How does one choose?! The three simple steps outlined in this post will help you zero in on what you should plant in your garden this year. Let’s get started!
1. Plant What You & Your Family Like to Eat
Choose Your Favorite Fresh Foods
It’s time to make a wish list of your family’s favorites that you’d like to grow. Most seed companies will send a catalog at your request, so look for that option on their websites. Flip through the pages with your littles and let them choose a type of food (or even a flower!) that they’d like to grow. Dreaming of possibilities is one of the best parts of gardening!
If you’re considering planting berries, most varieties need one growing season to mature. Trust me, every bit of juicy goodness is worth the wait!
Grow Ingredients
When you have your list of favorite foods, think about ingredients. Do you like salsa? Grow the peppers, tomatoes, and onions. What about pumpkin pie or pumpkin muffins in the fall? Consider growing the pumpkins!
Plant Something New to Try
What are some veggies you’ve been trying to get your children to eat? Green beans? Carrots? Add ’em to the list! Home grown foods taste 100x better than store-bought and kids are more likely to eat foods they helped grow (fact!)
Keep track of your garden plans with our vegetable plant guide. It’s free and available for download in the shop.
2. Pick Seeds and Plants That Do Well in Your Growing Zone
You need to find out which seeds and plants grow well in your growing zone and will reach maturity within the time frame of your growing season.
If you aren’t sure what growing zone you live in or the length of your growing season, check out the post Growing Zones and Frost Dates.
Go through your garden wish list and make notes of the following:
- How many days until maturity?
- Which plants need to be started from seed indoors?
- Which seeds are directly sown into garden soil?
- Which plants will you buy from your local garden center? (Ideal for those who don’t want to start seeds indoors.)
3. Decide Which Plants Will Fit In Your Garden Space
You’ve made your list and checked it twice. Now make a note of each plant’s mature size and suggested spacing requirements. (Some plants may need 8 inches of space, and some might need 5 feet!) Sketch a rough map of your garden and calculate how many of each plant you might be able to fit according to their mature size and suggested spacing.
Don’t try to squish more plants in just because there is extra room. The plants will need room to breathe and so will you – because you’ll be crawling under them, leaning over them, and reaching through them to harvest the goods.
Have fun choosing your seeds and plants! Like I said before, dreaming about the growing season is one of the best parts of gardening. 🙂
Related Posts
- Vegetable Garden Design – How to Find Inspiration
- Get to Know the Soil in Your Garden
- How to Do Sun Mapping
Save these ideas to Pinterest for later!
