Wow that's a wide-open question! Can you be a bit more specific?

Are you talking about just drawing out an actual detailed plan on paper? Plotting out sun exposure patterns over several months to insure best location? Researching the exact needs of the specific crops I want to grow? Calculating size needed for amount of produce desired for family of ___? Doing all the pre-planting soil improvement needed including getting a soil test? Etc.

One can make planning a new garden as simple or as complicated as they wish and likely everyone does it differently. Is there a strong correlation between how much up front homework you do and the success you will have? Definitely.

I know we have had many discussions here in the past about the pros and cons of paper planning and the sides are pretty much split down the middle but the search will pull them up if you want to browse through them.

But first making a list of exactly what crops you want to grow and how much of each, learning when they each should be planted (they all go in at different times), determining whether you will be using transplants or direct-seeding each, learning what each of them needs in the way of water, sun and nutrients so they can be grouped together. learning the common pest problems associated with each, and working to insure high quality soil to begin with are all important parts of planning a garden. More important than just drawing something out on paper.

Dave

I plan for a 3 season veggie garden, spring, summer, fall. A calendar is helpful when you grow a wide variety of veggies 10 months of the year.

As Dave says, specific questions would be answered. Hugely general questions like this will more likely generate suggestions for books you should read. Wouldn't hurt to tell us where you are. MY season sure isn't over. I grow throughout the year. If you're in Alaska, yeah, your season is almost over.

Have you ever done vegetable gardening before?

Do you have a garden bed? What condition is it in?

What do you want to grow?

digdirt2,daninthedirt you two need to reread the original question.

I am not asking for help on how to plan my vegetable garden!

I am asking"what steps do "YOU take in planning YOUR vegetable garden?"

notice the words that I have put in bold and capitalized YOU and YOURS.

So please kindly reword and edit your responses accordingly.

Have a nice day!

Um, if you're not wondering how to plan your vegetable garden, why are you asking how I plan mine? Then I'd have to tell you -- Have I ever done vegetable gardening before? Do I have a garden bed? What condition is it in? What do I want to grow?

There, I reworded my response accordingly.

Because I am studying how others do it and their thinking because I work with a lot new and old gardeners who make many different mistakes I trying to compile list best practices to allow new and old gardener to be proactive in prevent obvious and not so obvious pitfalls.

the pitfalls for new gardeners come from lack knowledge and the ones for more experienced gardeners come antiquated methods and arrogance. the arrogance you put on full display in this thread is perfect example. ttfn.

I make sure that there will be 2 or 3 crops ready at all times, and I make sure that sun loving veggies go in the sunniest spots. things then vary, due to season, unexpected performances of new vegetables and experiments gone good or bad.

Wow talk about arrogance!

"trying to compile list best practices to allow new and old gardener to be proactive in prevent obvious and not so obvious pitfalls."

Perhaps if you had provided that information to begin with we might all have been on the same track.

Please don't make the mistake of assuming your are the first or the only person here that is proactive in assisting both new and experienced gardeners avoid pitfalls. That is after all the purpose of these forums including one entirely devoted to those New to Gardening. It is also likely the focus of your local county's Master Gardener program.

Also don't assume that such detailed lists have not been compiled on these forums numerous times in the past and are available per search or request for you to review.

Lastly, what one person considers "best" practices is clearly open to discussion if not debate. There is no "best" when it comes to gardening as there are too many variables involved.

But for starters:

1. research the needs of the crops you wish to grow before you plant them

2. have a professional soil test done, don't assume that all soil is equal when it comes to gardening

3. plan to amend and improve your soil on at least an annual basis

4. research the actual, not the assumed, sun exposure in your planned area

5. do some basic research on fertilizers, both organic and synthetic, how they work and don't work

6. understand that more is not necessarily better when it comes to water and fertilizer and number of plants in the space

7. understand that container gardening and in ground gardening are very different things and have little in common

8. acknowledge that what one calls "antiquated" another calls well-proven to work and what another calls "new and improved" is often nothing more than a passing fad unsupported by research

9. keep an open mind and remember there is no ONE AND ONLY way to do anything.

Dave

I already have a pretty good idea where most things are going next year. I do rotate almost everything...except the lettuce area.

I then prepare things for next year as they are harvested this year. For the early crops, I ridge the rows so that things will be warmer and dryer next spring for planting. It tends to be somewhat wet here in spring.

I try to at least plan my spring plantings so I know how I need to prep my beds in the fall and if I need to move a trellis or 2 from one bed to another. In the fall, I usually just roughly identify which beds will have what types of veggies but I don't plan varieties until around Christmas when the catalogs come out and I see what ends up on my seed orders.

<9. keep an open mind and remember there is no ONE AND ONLY way to do anything.

Dave>

Dave,

I completely agree and think we all tend to think that everyone should garden as we do and if/when they don't we think they are wrong.

I think I have been known to "do" outside the box what everyone feels is wrong. IMO gardening is one huge experiment - there are guidelines but hard n fast rules are few.

IF what you are doing isn't turning out the way you want - try something different.

I try to remember to update my notebook. I think I tried to plant a packet of seeds that had poor germination before and should have been thrown out. I do frugal things like instead of throwing out an old packet of parsnip seeds, I'll mix an old and new packet together. After all, won't old seed that might not germinate help me sow more thinly? But, thanks to my notebook, I know we almost always gets a light frost around 9/18 when our neighbors up the wrong and uphill from us don't get touched. I need to remember to have frost protection ready if I'm trying to get a late planting of beans thru a couple of cold nights. We usually have at least two weeks of good weather after than.

If I'm thinking about a new variety, I try to find it at a farmers market to taste test it. I did this successful one year to find a good tasting melon to grow in NH. (Hannah's Choice) Last year I went to a tomato festival where we could taste and vote for best tomatoes.

I follow several market farmers on facebook to keep track of what they are doing. My favorite is local and I try to buy from him during winter. His swiss chard tastes wonderful if he has it at the winter market.

I have to be firm with myself. I have one bed that is too close to a maple tree. It's beyond the drip line but has root infiltration. Beans and sugar snaps did ok. Bell peppers aren't doing as well as a those in a neighboring bed. I've made a note that I could grow some peppers in containers in that bed to use the space. I'm not ready to grass it over.

Although I originally built my beds using the lasagna method, I have not added a significant amount of organic matter to the beds since. I finally planted a mixed green manure crop on one bed. It's time to get more chopped leaves etc. in the others.

Keep plugging even though it's almost September here in NH when a lot of people stop gardening.

Planning that works for me:

1. Sun - I live where we can grow edibles year round, so I made a raised bed where it would not be shaded in the winter.

2. Water - Have an automated system or be close to a hose.

3. Soil - There are plenty of "recipes" for raised bed mixes, basically 1/3 peator or coir, 1/3 pumice, perlite, or vermiculite, and 1/3 mixed compost - manure, etc.

4. Size - How much can your family eat? Are you growing veggies for others? You can grow a lot in asmall space - Square Foot Gardening.

5. Plant at the appropriate season. There are cool season and warm season crops.

6. Taller veggies go to the north if your in the northeren hemisphere.

7. Fertilize regulary according to the directions of the product you are using.

Not to beat what, to me, is a dead horse, but "planning" is a word that means different things to different people. If I'm planning a garden where there never was one before, I'd have a big list of things to do. If I were planning a garden where I had one before, it would be an entirely different big list of things to do. In the latter case, that list would be highly dependent on what I did the previous year, and what successes and failures I had then. That list would depend on what I want to achieve, which is not necessarily what someone else would want to achieve.

Probably the main thing to consider is - what experience do I have to build on? And, I suppose also - how much work do I want to do?

A mistake for one gardener could well be a success for another gardener, working with different conditions. It all depends.

One could ask about how you'd plan a vacation, or how you'd plan a career, or how you'd plan to decorate your house, but those are generalities that are not really all that constructive when it comes to actually getting the job done.

Specific questions about gardening strategy are good for discussion, but very general and open-ended ones are like wanting to condense thick volumes into a few paragraphs. There is probably a slim volume around called "Gardening for Dummies".

That being said, a very fair general and open-ended question might be - so, I want to do vegetable gardening. Where do I start? There are good answers to that question.

Another fair general and open ended question might be - so, I want to vegetable garden again next year. This is what happened to me last year. Where do I go from here?

I'm not trying to solve a problem with my post (I'm just being conversational, since I thought that's how the OP was meaning to be).

I get seeds. I decide where to plant them. I repeat this process throughout the previous year and the winter. I plant them. I usually rotate crops, although I've had good success with certain kinds of crops in the same place two years in a row. I strategize as to how to avoid cat problems.

I mostly grow Solanaceae (esp. tomatoes) and Cucurbitaceae plants, but I grow a bunch of other stuff, too, like basil, okra, corn, radishes, and bunching onions.

I have to plan what to grow in more shaded areas, what to grow in containers (usually peppers), what to grow in the raised beds, etc. I have to plan how and if to amend the soil. I tend to till the soil (with a shovel), and do a lot of weeding.

I experiment a lot. The garden isn't all about this year, in my view. Learning can help for the future. I'm not usually conventional in the way I garden (this is partially because the growing conditions and my resources aren't conventional, but also because I'm not the most conventional person out there). I don't mind taking risks if I see possible gains that I like enough. I actually grow F2 hybrids, sometimes. I save seeds from most things.

I grow a lot of varieties to learn about them, and for genetic diversity in breeding projects.

I keep records of results and what I have.

I'd like to get into cover crops more.

I make sure to plan when to start seeds in cells/trays in my small, unheated greenhouse (to be transplanted out of it later). March or early April seem to be good times for what I start in it. I plan my seed-starting mix, containers, etc. I plan when to fertilize my seedlings for the first time (if they're in the greenhouse long enough).

Of course a lot of stuff you just have to plan until you find something that works (and then you can do that stuff that works again instead of planning all over).

What works for one person or in one garden may not work for another in another.

Key things I keep in mind are light and moisture retention. I.e taller plants must not shade smaller ones and Moisture prevention usually = planting thick enough hence ground cover. Other then that. Slow released fertilizer.