I'm curious. Do you draw diagrams up just for planting? If so do you find they really help and that you stick to them? I know it can be a fun way to pass the time during the winter hours. But when it comes to actual planting time I never have found them to be of much help. And they tend to block the flexibility I need at planting time so they tend to get pitched anyway.

Or do you draw them up for labeling purposes, to remember what is planted where and when? I know many new gardeners try that approach - and then hope they don't lose the diagram. ;-) I prefer to use specific plant and row labels and sometimes even the old stakes with strings approach with direct seeded row crops.

Dave

My method is similar to Dave's, but I also make a basic drawing of the beds and jot down the 'bones' - where my more 'major' crops will be planted. I'll mark a bed for tomatoes, but as I go, I'll probably stick a few spinach or lettuce plants in there before I transplant the tomatoes. I'll also mark a few spaces for a crop but I won't know if I'll actually put them there until later. An example this year is watermelon. I have a few spots I'd like to put them, and I jotted that down on my scribble, but practicality will force me to put them off to the side so they can ramble and not block aisles.

I'll stick a plant here, or there, but it does help to make a couple of notes.

My plans don't exist until I am standing looking at the garden and can see where the spaces are.

My plan turned into a record keeping tool. The plan:

I sometimes do a plan like this and then combine the plans with actual photos of the garden and results , add some nice garden quotes , and then make calendars as Christmas gifts using cafepress. People loved them.

I guess my university job has conditioned me to keep records galore. I have seed inventory, seeding charts, planting maps, performance records, etc. going back 40 years. Some days, like today, I'll gather the files together to figure out how many plants of each of the started 106 tomato varieties I will plant. Of 856 plants started I'll likely only plant 500 in the first planting. Trying to make these decisions without good records and future plans always ends up leaving me wondering why I didn't plan ahead. Having most records in spreadsheet form allows quick sorting by multiple criteria. In the end I'll do very little differently than I've done over the last few years except to make room for 20 new varieties.

Other plans and a garden portrait from my archives.

to those don't have a written plan here is some advice from ww2 victory gardening pamphlets " those who fail to plan; plan to fail.

Well, in that case I I have to wonder where all the veggies are coming from in this failed garden. Maybe someone is creeping in at night and sorting out the mess I've made. In my job I certainly plan but in my garden I work from what's in my head. And that's built on experience, memory and knowledge. I've not written or drawn anything since the first couple of seasons. How did our illiterate ancestors manage to feed themselves, I wonder?

I tried to pencil out garden plans ahead, but when I was ready to plant it did not make much sense, plants too tall where the sun rises from blocking shorter plants too many rearrangements. I don't label in the garden beds, I don't know why I would forget what I planted, I raised them from seeds. The only planning I do is what seeds I want to grow for the coming season and that changes a lot too.

A good point Hab. Sometimes just the expected height of the plant will enter into the plans. Other times disease or pest issues are better controlled by noting what has occurred before.

Taking pictures is a very small part of my process but with the newer technology of face recognition in cameras I can imagine that in not to distant future a disease recognition app will be in the works. Then who would need Gardenweb?

Its difficult to read. Plus it usually ends up looking a lot worse once I print it out and scribble all over it with my 'as-builts'. This year I expect it to be especially scribbled as we need to expand the garden in order to make this plan happen (includes building a fence, 6 new boxes, etc.). I really need to get on that if I am going to stick to what I show here.

"To each his (or her) own". The only correct way, is the way that works for the individual. Personally, I am with Dave, Floral, and Hab. Planning is important, but it can also be limiting. Hab explained my experience best, plans on paper don't always work out in the dirt.

I plan which, and how many seeds/varieties to plant based on what everyone liked in the years past. Then I just stare at my garden beds and try to figure out where everything should go. In my little brain, I believe I spend less time looking at the garden, and making it work, than I would drawing plans to scale.

I like to go with the flow; it's hard to keep plans when there are so many variables. What if some seedlings die? What if we have a mild winter/early spring and my fall/early plants keep producing? I like flexibility.

I make a sketch as I plant so I know which variety of pepper is where, and often stick in a label ... the rest I can see from the leaves what they are.

I have been keeping better track of my activity, because if I'm going to blog about something, I need to have facts and dates.

I do make a ploy layout in excel that shows all of my beds in one worksheet but it is more for rotation and succession planning purposes so I can remember what was where the previous years and also so I remember what is following what in the fall and get the correct plants started in June and July.

"Well, in that case I I have to wonder where all the veggies are coming from in this failed garden"

Well said Floral !!

I'm all for journal record keeping - variety, dates, performance, disease/pest, WGA (worth growing again), feeding, water requirements, etc. But planning layouts ahead on paper just stifles and complicates.

Dave

Not quite done with it though
Garden plan

I almost always make a sketch of garden plans. It gets somewhat followed especially the few things I try to rotate. Then it's where do I put these seeds or seedlings? Most of my beds are 4x8 feet though some are longer. The 4x8 beds often get divided into 4 smaller areas. Then I consider timing, shade from trees, fences, other plants or the house while I'm outside. Generally mass chaos is avoided.

I had to clean mine up and update it. I was able to plant (not mulched yet) 24 plants in less than 2 hours when I got home. It was too cumbersome to follow the plan. It was far easier to grab the plant at hand, put it in the ground, then go back and read the names off the empty cups and mark the paper. I only missed two, I am sure the cup is still nearby outside and I can figure out the two I missed tomorrow in the daylight. It was perfect planting conditions except for the noseeums.

I made a clean updated record (not a plan anymore) when I got to the house. I made this plan on the iPad with the iPen. By posting it here, i now have a back up.

I always make a garden plan on paper but that doesn't mean everything always get planted where or when I want. Things always get switched around at some point due to my own procrastination, the weather forcing me to procrastinate, a crop taking too long to mature, things simply taking up more space than I thought they would, an unexpected failure, etc. Still, it is fun to make out a plan and think about how I would like things to go for the year.

Rodney

The problem with posting my plan diagram is that it is done in pencil, which would not show up very well here. Plus, things have been erased and re-written enough times that it is something one would have to see in person anyway.

As I have permanent beds, I do try to have a plan but that plan is pretty flexible. I try to plan where the cucumbers and melons will go because early in Spring I will just clean out the chicken coop directly into that bed, let it sit for a 2 months and then plan there. In theory planning things would help me when starting tomatoes but I always start too many any way.

The original post of janice looks like my plans....especially the second one where everything is written over and rearranged :) That isn't always reassuring to my accountant husband who keeps very orderly records, but he knows my garden will grow and be fine.

I think many long time gardeners plan a lot, but it is in their heads, not drawn on paper. They are constantly evaluating and revising using knowledge gained through the years. It is interesting to walk through a garden with experienced gardeners and hear them talk about why they have things the way they do and why they might change things up later.

I do square foot, succession gardening so a plan is critical. That's what winter is for! I use a free online planner at :Free online square foot garden planner. With it I can not only plan what goes where, but also how many plants per square foot, when to plant, when to harvest, what to plant once you harvest each square, and also shows how each crop is staggered so I can get enough lettuce (or whatever) for the longest period, but not more than I can use.

I can also access my plan on my phone or print it. Usually I take my phone out and as I am planting I can check how many plants and in which square foot they go. I update it during the growing season when I harvest stuff, so I can look back next year and know exactly how long something takes from seed to transplant to harvest or direct seed to harvest. I put in the varieties also so I know if I liked them to plant the same variety next year or try a different one.

I did final updates on my spring/early summer garden. Everything is in the ground except for the cucumbers. They are still hardening off. Due to my climate(too humid to pollinate, miserably hot) there is little going on July through September. That is my planning time. I will start gardening again mid Sept and garden straight through until mid July. Tomatoes are top priority, so anything still growing at the beginning March is pulled. Along with tomatoes, I grow small amounts of peppers and eggplants during spring. Everything else is grown in fall/winter. There are some notable absences like beans, peas and squash. I have limited space and tomatoes have priority.

Many are intermixing plans and drawings. While there is nothing wrong with a drawing I know what a plant should look like and have no use for the visual effect. What I need in a plan are answers to questions that I get all the time- How many bu. of certain variety will be available and when; when Late Blight arrives in area where are LB Resistant varieties planted? What has worked to control certain disease in the past, at what rate and is that at upper limit of Label recommendations? Naturally pesticide application records are required by law. Many other records are just logical.

I have a newer edit from this one but this is the most current picture of my plan! I have an 11' x 4' city garden plot so I've decided to try my hand at square foot gardening.

My newest plan replaces Rhubarb with Kale, Collard Greens with Swiss Chard, and Swiss Chard with Kohlrabi. Also, my Pink Banana Squash seeds never sprouted so I am currently debating on keeping that space open or adding another Zucchini.

This is the first year I'll have raised beds for the entire growing season. I spent a lot of winter weekends making my plan and have spreadsheet for growing data ready to go. I'm expecting that my spacing is off since I'm not 100% sure how big exactly things will get. I'm looking forward to having a lot of green outside!

My plan only goes as far as documenting "areas"...I can go back years and know what area my cruciferous veggies were planted in, same with tomatoes..everything else gets rotated from my memory from year to year...maybe I'm playing with fire but it works for me. We can spend too much time with details , and never enough actually observing our plants.

I love making plans and then only partly following them. This is my first year with raise beds and I have the following loose plans for spring and summer. They're 3x3 each and 16" high to make it a little harder for the bunnies in my neighborhood. The wild rabbits here are very lazy so this may be sufficient to protect the goods.

I'm still unsure what to plant in those blank spaces this summer. I might fill in with a bunch of herbs and flowers where the cool weather crops are now. The tomatoes and peppers will probably take more space than I'm planning, though.

I have them in my head....3 fair sized gardens. The only markers are a list of where the varieties for tomatoes and watermelons are.

I have three separate plans for four areas - a formerly landscaped area along a fence that had gotten overgrown, the less-than-gorgeous part of our perennial garden I'm turning into veggies, a back door herb garden, and some raised beds we'll be putting in. I threw them on the same plan for simplicity.

byrd2park where's your garden plan?

Interesting to hear how others plan or don't plan your gardens.

My garden was once much bigger, and I tried a lot of different things, but I've simplified it. I change it up a bit year to year, like last year I grew corn.

It's a soaker hose layout, using some plastic and then mulch in between the rows.

2017

Back row of sunflowers
Trellis for cukes and green beans
8 tomatoes
3 peppers and 2 summer squash
An area for the sprawlers, Delicata and Spaghetti Squash, along with ornamental mini pumpkins (for fall decorating).
Tomatillos to make and freeze some more salsa verde
And a row of Zinnias across the front, which is along the street. Zowie this year.
I grow snow peas and herbs in pots on my deck.

No garden diagrams. That's in my head. Just sheets of papers laying around like this for my started jiffy pellets so I know what's what