Wednesday, January 14, 2009

PLAN TO PLANT

Well here it is the second week of January, today I thought I would talk a little bit about planning. Now is the time to think about what to plant in your garden this year. I call this preliminary thinking 'plan to plant'.

Know the size of your garden and draw a map of your yard. Include what is already in your yard. It is a good idea to color code the map using a high lighters. Use one color for existing plants and a different color for the flowers, fruits and vegetables you would like to plant. I have garden plans from every year I have planted a garden.

I like to plant most of my garden in rows, so I draw out the rows and write in the names of what I want to plant in the row. Of course it takes several plans or changes in my plan before I have a complete plan. When it comes time to plant my garden, I take this plan on paper with me and make changes if necessary as I plant. I write the name of the seed or the plant on my perfect plan.

This way I know where everything is, what worked, what didn’t and the changes I should make next year. I sometimes take pictures too, so I have a better idea of what everything looks like.

So this week, begin to ‘plan to plant’.