Organic Vegetable Gardens…Planning

Organic vegetable gardens require careful planning because they exist within a natural context that needs to be evaluated and adapted to. Organic vegetable gardens also require a process of soil building to enhance plant growth which is a slow, cumulative process. In a related way, organic vegetable gardening benefits from crop rotation and fallows that need to be planned in advance and are best implemented over long time periods.

The entire planning process can be summed-up as follows: goal setting, site analysis, site analysis, mapping and rotation planning, fertility and soil management plan, plant selection, plant propagation plan, planting plan, pest and weed management plan, harvest plan, and post harvest plan.

Goal setting is the always the first step. What do I want from this garden? Do I want smaller year-round harvests or a single large, predictable harvest for home canning? Perhaps the gardener loves to eat tomatoes and sets a goal of planting enough tomatoes to eat four a day from July to October. By thinking this way the gardener can work backward from an identifiable position when making decisions in the following steps. As with all of these steps in the planning process, it would be helpful to record these goals in a gardening journal or notebook.

Site analysis lets the gardener know what opportunities and constraints he/she has in regard to the garden. Factors such as sunlight exposure (intensity and duration), soil quality, slope and topography, plant competition, pollution, access to water, physical access to the gardening site, and others should be examined. Many resources are available on the Internet that will help such as soil surveys and aerial photographs. These results will feed-back into goal planning and may change them substantially. For instance, if you love tomatoes but your site is too shady for them, you may be better off growing lettuce instead. In this scenario you might trade with a fellow gardener whose site is too sunny for lettuce, or plan to remove some of the shading trees or structures.

Fertility and soil management is critical step at this stage. Based on the results of the site analysis, the gardener is likely to find that the soil is lacking in one or more trait of healthy, productive soil. This deficiency may be corrected immediately, such as the addition of irrigation water for dry soils or nitrogen rich organic fertilizers in low-fertility soils. In other situations the deficiency may need to be addressed over long periods of time as in the condition of low organic matter content or poor soil structure. Either way, it is important to map out the steps required to bring the soil to its maximum productivity and plan accordingly. It is important to note here that these steps may be interconnected: soil improvement should be part of the rotation plan and vice versa. Cover cropping and green manuring should be planned as part of the soil management and rotation stage, as well.

Mapping and rotation planning allows the gardener to visualize how much room he/she has for each of his/her goals and extend the plan through time. Proper plant spacing is vitally important if each plant is going to get the soil, sun, water and nutrient resources it needs to thrive without crowding from other plants. Rotations are important because they help to break the life-cycles of pests and weeds. By drawing a map of the garden and spacing the plants appropriately, the gardener will also get a better idea of how much you will need to plant in your propagation plan (see below).

Plant selection and propagation is another aspect of successful gardening that requires careful planning. Based on the opportunities and constraints, and the gardener’s rotation plan, plants can be selected that will thrive and best meet the goals outlined in the first step. The propagation plan will let him/her know when to plant, how many plants to produce, and how often they’ll need to be propagated. The planting plan, in concert with the plant selection and propagation plan, will help the gardener decide how planting is best accomplished. Will the plants be grown indoors and transplanted? Will they be planted in after first frost or just before the last?

Pest and weed management planning also should be done with the other steps in mind. For instance, use of rotations may be helpful in breaking weed life-cycles and reducing weeding over time. In the mean time, provision will need to be made for mechanical weed control. What will the gardener use: a hoe, a tractor, or a flame-weeder? Each of these options will affect the planning process in one way on anther. A good plan will make long term, positive improvements as well as anticipate and address short term needs.

Harvest planning will tell the gardener when to expect which crops to ripen and how they will be harvested. For instance, lettuce is a fast crop that can be harvested often but not usually in the heat of summer. A weekly chart is often used to note when crops can and cannot be harvested (these are also helpful for planting times). It may also be useful for the gardener to think about harvest techniques at this stage. Returning to lettuce, we know that it should be harvested in the morning and plunged into cold water. That kind of planning can prevent wilted greens at dinner!

Finally, post harvest planning brings the process full-circle. What happens in a given area after the crop is removed? Is the site left bare, possibly encouraging weed growth? Is there another crop on the planting chart that can go in immediately following harvest? This kind of planning can keep the garden protected from pests and erosion, as well as making it more productive. If there is a long period of time when growing vegetables is not possible due to seasonal constraints, the post harvest plan can help bridge growing seasons with techniques like sowing of cover crops and use of mulches.