15 Home Organic Garden Planning Tips

These home organic garden planning tips will help you create a garden that is beautiful and bountiful.

By planning ahead, you can make the most of your available space and maximize your harvest. We’ve got resources for heirloom and organic seeds, container gardening tips, zone map information, a garden planting calculator and much more.

When it’s cold outside and the days are short, I love to daydream about the garden and make plans for the next growing season. Do you feel the same way?

Here are some ideas to help you get started.

Know Your Climate

1. Before you plan a garden, it’s a good idea to know exactly what hardiness zone you’re in. Here’s the USDA map showing plant hardiness zones. You may want to err on the side of hardiness to account for increasing weather extremes.

Decide Where You’ll Plant Your Garden

2. If you have a typical yard, you might be inspired by the Urban Homestead website. This family grows 3 tons of food on 1/10th of an acre!

3. Check out these inspiring edible landscapes for beautiful ideas about expanding your growing area in non-traditional spaces.

4. If you have a small yard or garden plot, you may enjoy the “Square Foot Gardening” method to maximize your yield from a small space. We follow some of these principles in our raised garden bed.

5. If you live in an apartment or a space without a garden, here are some container gardening tips.

6. Check out the community gardens in your area. The American Community Gardening Association has an interactive community gardens map to help you find one near you.

7. Learn about 5 free ways to build your soil – naturally, and without chemicals.

8. Composting can help you turn kitchen scraps and yard trimmings into a rich soil enhancer, and mulching can help you save water and prevent weeds.

Figure Out What You Want to Grow

9. Growing a vegetable garden can be a great way to save money. However, gardening can also be a great way to spend money. For thrifty tips, you might enjoy “Frugal Gardening, or How to Avoid $100 Tomatoes.”

10. If you want to grow veggies from seed, but don’t have time to start seedlings indoors, you’ll be happy to know that you can direct sow seeds for beans, beets, corn, cucumbers, lettuce, melons, onions, peas, radishes, spinach and squash.

11. It’s always fun to peruse the new seed catalogs and online offerings each year to see what new varieties have been introduced. These are some of my favorite seed companies:

• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Botanical Interests
• Fedco Seeds
• High Country Gardens
• Johnny’s Selected Seeds
• Seed Savers Exchange
• Seeds for Generations
• Seeds of Change
• The Tasteful Garden
• Territorial Seed Company

What Else Do You Want to Plant?

12. Want to create a natural landscape? Eden Brothers has a selection of beautiful North American native wildflower mixes.

13. Perhaps you want to create a garden space where you can relax and enjoy being outside. You might enjoy reading “A Garden Where There Once Was None” about our transformation of a patch of overgrown brambles and bushes on the south side of our yard.

What About Timing?

14. Seeds for Generations has a very helpful Garden Planning Calculator with a wealth of information about germination times for growing dozens of plants from seed, average days to maturity, and more.

15. A garden journal is an invaluable tool for helping you keep track of planting times, ideas for future plants you want to try, successes, failures and more. Here are 7 things I write in my gardening journal.

How About You?

What are you planning for your next garden? Are there fun new veggies and plants you want to try this season? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the Comments section of this post.

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