When it comes to growing a productive, attractive garden, planning is essential! It will not only save you time and money, but it will save you some headaches during the gardening season. Here are some tips to make your garden planning successful.
Identify What Worked Out (and What Didn’t)
Start your garden planning process by listing out what worked and didn’t work for you this past year. You may think you’ll remember everything that either flourished or flopped, but as time goes by, your memory will start to fade. You might recall your amazing tomato harvest or lackluster zucchini yield, but will you remember how many you planted or when you planted them? Make sure to jot these things down so you can reference them and use them to your advantage for next year’s garden.
The key to a healthy garden is organic matter!
Amend Your Soil
The key to a healthy garden is organic matter! And lots of it. Fall is the perfect time to add soil amendments like compost, bone meal, kelp meal, and other organic fertilizers. Adding nutrients now will mean they will have plenty of time to break down, enrich your soil, and become biologically active by springtime. With cold weather in the Colorado mountains, you’ll want to protect your amended soil as much as you can. Mulch your soil to protect the amendments. For raised garden beds, also consider covering them with a blanket or some low-row covers. This will reduce the chances of the soil becoming compacted over the winter months.
Map it Out
Even if you aren’t artistic, sketch out your proposed garden. This will help you visualize if you’ll have enough room to grow everything you have in mind. It’ll also help you plan which plants will go next to each other. Crop rotation is important, so don’t put plants from the same family in the same location as last year. Also, keep in mind which plants will work well together. Corn and sunflowers will block the sun from their neighbors, but if you plant things like lettuce and spinach next to the taller plants, they should play nicely together.
Prep Early
Prepping early is key. When the pandemic hit, gardening supplies ran out quickly. Even before the pandemic, certain gardening supplies were difficult to find in stores once spring arrived. Plan ahead and buy certain items when you can. This can include seeds, acidic fertilizer, and bone meal, even tools. Make sure you have everything ready before it’s time to start planting.
Plan Your Schedule
Last but not least, come up with a planting schedule! Based on your plan, come up with when you’d like to plant everything. Consider frost dates, when certain plants should be started, your success and failures the year prior. Create your schedule or jot down dates on a calendar to keep your gardening on track!
Garden Planning for 2022
Garden planning isn’t too difficult, but it will help you grow a healthier, more productive garden for next year! If you’re needing some help getting your garden ready, we’d love to help! We have compost, mulch, and organic soil amendments to get you ready for the spring. Beaver Lakes Nursery & Landscape Supply is located in beautiful Montrose, Colorado, and we can’t wait to help you grow!
