3 Questions to Ask When Planning a Garden
It is important to define your intentions.
As an urban farmer and educator, I get to go into many backyards and see what's growing, and sometimes what I see growing is frustration. This may be because of pests or soil imbalances that affect these gardens, and those are things the can be easily fixed. Sometimes, however, the frustration comes from a garden that doesn't quite meet the intentions of the gardener. More often than not, this happens when people don't take the time to create a vision, and then formulate a realistic plan.
Before you plant a garden, you need to ask yourself a few questions to understand your intention, and thereby increase your satisfaction, with your own garden (or inspire you to start one).
1. Why do you really want a garden?
There are lots of reasons people start gardening. Which is yours? You want more fresh, chemical-free food in your diet. You want to save money at the supermarket. You want to teach your children where food comes from. You want more fresh air and exercise in your life, or you received a medical diagnosis that snapped you into action. You want to meet your neighbors, mix up your landscaping in an interesting way that also provides you with sustenance, or grow food to donate. Chances are your intention to garden combines several of these reasons, but which is the driving force? If you can keep that in mind, it will help you make decisions about your garden and may connect you day-to-day with its bigger purpose in your life, hence increasing your satisfaction.
2. What do you want it to look like?
Do you have a picture in your head of what your perfect garden looks like? Do you want neat enclosures with straight rows or are you comfortable with loosely-defined plots and rambling plants? Flip through gardening magazines, view photos online, and visit as many gardens as you can. Your heart will gravitate toward a certain look and feel, and you will most likely start to see a clearer vision of your dream garden in your mind. Your frustration with your garden may be the disconnect between what your garden actually looks like and what you really want. You know this is a problem if every time you look at your garden you see what's wrong with it instead of deriving joy from it. Once you understand what your dream garden truly looks like, you can take specific steps to make it a reality.
3. How much time and money do you want to spend on it?
A big, robust garden filled with fast-growing vegetables will keep you busy, and if an hour of daily exercise and bowls of fresh food are what you want from your garden, then things are working for you. However, if spending precious time every day not only caring for your garden but processing, cooking, and preserving your abundant harvests is straining your life, then you may want to rethink your garden strategy.
Making a realistic prediction about how much time and money you want to spend on your garden will help you make decisions about its size and complexity.
Do you want to save money at the supermarket, or make dinner preparation extra easy by simply walking outside and snipping a couldn't-be-fresher salad? Do you want to have a personal hand in preserving heirloom seed varieties? Do you simply crave a crunchy radish or sweet-as-sugar peas? You will learn over time what you and those you feed (family, friends, you name it) really appreciate and what seems to be worth the effort, but give it some thought from the get-go to increase the chances of a satisfying gardening experience.
For more information on planning your garden, listen to the podcast episode: HOW TO PLAN THE GARDEN OF YOUR DREAMS