How to Make Plans to Plant Your Home Garden

Planting a garden at home is fun and a home garden growing vegetables can save you money at the grocery store. When planning a home garden, it is good to develop a site plan or layout. This will help you to visualize your garden so you can make changes before you get the plants in the ground and if you keep a copy in your files, at the end of the warm season you can see what plants are annual and should be removed and what plants are perennial and should be wintered over.

Here are some things to keep in mind when making plans to plant your home garden:

• Choose full sun plants for areas that will get lots of light.
• Put shade plants where they will be protected from the sun. (ie. under a big tree or on the north side of your home.)
• Put heavy drinkers (plants that need a lot of water) with other heavy drinkers and put plants that like to be kept dry with other plants that like to be kept dry.
• Some annuals will drop seeds and come back every year. If you shake the seeds out of the flowers after they have dried, this will encourage them to come back again next year. It is easier to do this if you have some room to walk through your garden.
• Weeding is also easier if you leave spaces between plants to move around or even navigate through with a rototiller. Always account for plant growth when planning space for walkways.
• Keep in mind the time that you are willing to dedicate to caring for your garden. For plants like vegetables that require a lot of water, an inexpensive irrigation timer may be a worthwhile investment.
• You will also want to consider the light that the area gets and plan to put taller plants where they will not block light from reaching shorter plants that need full sun.
• Use rocks or edging to contain plant varieties that tend to spread. This will help to keep them from choking out your other flowers or vegetable plants.
  

If you are planning your garden on a budget, you may want to plant mostly annuals and select a few perennials to purchase and add to your garden each year. Flowers are full of color and variety, you can select a few colors that you like or plant as many different colors as you can imagine. There is no right or wrong way to choose colors, God made them all BEAUTIFUL!

God Bless and Happy Planting!