Garden design ideas

One of the gardeners who attended my Garden Design class on April 13 asked if I would post sample designs for the community garden plots, so here goes Sample #1. (I'm using the GrowVeg planner I found on Mother Earth News' site.)

Here's the overall design:

To see the plan online with a list of plants needed and sowing/harvesting information, click here.

If you're interested in an explanation of my planting choices for this sample, read on!

First thing, I've kept a 1' wide walkway all the way around my plot -- that's the light brown. This is give  access to the north and south sides of the plot, which neighbor other plots. On the east and west sides, this is so I remember to leave adequate space between my plot and the grass walkway, so none of my plants sprawl in the grass and get mowed.

I've put the zucchini on the west side for maximum sun. Their vines sprawl and take up a lot of space, so I've given them just under 3 square feet apiece. Since the vines won't sprawl until mid to late summer, I'm going to plant bok choy and Swiss chard in the same space. These greens will be more than ready to harvest by the time the zucchini vines need the space. I've also included nasturtium, an edible flower that also has a sprawling habit. The nasturtium will attract pollinators to the zucchini and help to cover the soil, suppressing weeds. 

The next section to the east holds a mix of sweet and hot peppers, as well as eggplant and sweet alyssum. Both of these veg like full sun. I'm also planting a lot of sweet alyssum around these plants to create a living mulch and attract pollinators. The alyssum is short enough not to block any sun.

Moving further east:

This is the first section with real height to it. Tomatillo plants can get 4-6' tall, but they're not dense plants, so I'm not worried about them shading anything. One tomatillo will give me just enough fruit for salsa for the end of the summer and possibly for canning.

I'm putting in 4 tomato plants. I'm going to stake them using the Florida weave method (click here). I've arranged them not in an east-west orientation, but tilted to the southwest to get the most sun, since they're sun lovers. I've tucked basil around their feet, since I know I'll have space down there because I remove the bottom 6" of tomato leaves. I'm also adding in borage (an herb with edible flowers) and cosmos (an airy, tall flower) to attract pollinators.

I've tucked just one cabbage to the east and slightly north of the tomatoes. I don't need much more than that for my family. I've also tucked cilantro and sage to the south of the tomatoes. Herbs are easy to tuck here and there, because they usually don't take up much space.

The height in this section comes from the cucumber trellis.  I've decided to trellis my cukes on a leaning trellis like this. Cukes sprawl, but this way they'll sprawl up instead of taking up more ground space. I'm planting radishes all around them to repel cucumber beetles, and I'm planting lettuces underneath the leaning trellis -- they'll like the afternoon shade. I'm also planting sunflowers near the cukes, since I heard that they'll make the cukes sweeter -- it's worth a try! Just north of the cukes I'm tucking some parsley and more cosmos.

Finally:

The height in this section comes from a circular trellis for growing beans. They like full sun, so they'll get the morning sun and most of the afternoon sun -- the gap between the beans and the tomatoes means the beans won't get a ton of shade from the west from the tomatoes. I've paired the beans with lots of marigolds to repel pests. You can actually tuck marigolds all over this plan, wherever you have space. They're like a multivitamin for a garden.

And then we've got beets, carrots and onions. They'll get morning sun, which they all like, but a tad of shade from the west, from the cucumber trellis and the bean trellis.

So this is my first sample for you. I know it's not perfect -- if you've got thoughts or questions, post them in comments, and I'll address them as I can.