What to Plant?…How to Plan your Next Seasons Garden

It’s mid-January and raining in Southern California. My yard is slightly flooded and its cold. Since I can’t be outside in the garden it is a great time to plan my spring garden. There are many things that go into planning your garden. If it is your first year venturing into gardening or your 10th year the process is the same. You need to decide what to plant, how much to plant, and where to plant.

What to plant?

Knowing what to plant can be a daunting task. I always start with what I enjoy the most. I love cherry tomatoes right off the vine in the summer so I always plant some. There is no point in growing a fruit or vegetable that no one in your house enjoys. Next, I look at items I can store either by canning, dehydrating, freezing or that will keep for a long time (i.e. winter squashes). I will also prioritize items that I buy regularly that are getting really expensive. For example, we eat a recipe regularly that calls for a jar of roasted red peppers and currently they are approaching $5 a jar. By growing a few red bell pepper plants I can can these myself for a much cheaper price point. In addition, I know that they are organic and no crazy chemicals were used growing these peppers. I also enjoy trying something new even if it is just one plant it provides variety and expands your growing knowledge.

I am working on planning my spring/summer garden so I am also considering what grows well in my summer heat. Knowing your zone can help you decide what types of plants will grow in your area. I am in gardening zone 9b. You can search for your address on the USDA’s Site: https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/. Keep in mind that the hardiness zones are based on the low temperatures that plants can stand. They don’t take into account other factors like rainfall or humidity levels. Many parts of Florida are in the same zone as me but we have much different climates. Summer temperatures in my area can reach over 110 degrees Fahrenheit so any of the cooler temp vegetables do not do well in the summer. Luckily I have very mild winters being in zone 9b and can plant most of the cool vegetables over the fall/winter seasons. There are many great resources out there that will tell you when to plant certain plants based on your zone.

My list of plants for spring and why I’m planting them:

• Plum Tomatoes – Canning and Recipes
• Cherry Tomatoes – Recipes and Salads
• Cucumbers – Summer salads, tzatziki, and pickling
• Red Bell Peppers – Canning
• Jalapeños – Eating fresh, Canning (love cowboy candy), dehydrating (chipotle peppers & chili powders)
• Eggplant – Fresh Recipes – New for 2023
• Sweet Potatoes – Sweet Potato Fries! – New for 2023
• Chili Peppers – Canning, dehydrating
• Tomatillo – Salsa
• Carrots – always like to keep in rotation for soups, broths, and salads
• Cantaloupe – My favorite summer melon
• Basil – Sauses and Caprese
• Pie Pumpkins – Canning or freezing fo pumpkin recipes
• String Beans -Canning

How much to plant?

If you are just starting out or only have a small space then this might be an easier question for you but the larger your garden gets deciding how much of each plant requires more consideration. If you are starting small or its your first year don’t feel bad about planting one or two of your favorites. When we lived in an apartment I had 4 planters with tomatoes and 1 with strawberries on my balcony. I’ve also used raised bed elevated beds when we rented a home that I couldn’t disturb the landscaping. Growing at a small scale helped me to learn a lot and gave me confidence to venture into such a larger garden in our current home.

Deciding how much to plant as you get a larger garden goes back to what you want to do with your produce. If you want to can tomatoes you are going to need a number of plants to get a large harvest for canning. If you only want a few for your salad or on your burger than one plant might be plenty. I am always trying to grow as many tomato plants as I can so I normally start with working my way through the other plants and then fill in any remaining space with tomatoes.

Where to plant?

Now that I have a general idea what I want to plant, for what reason, and about how many I then start the shuffle game of where to plant. Things to consider when you are deciding where to plant:

• Plants you have in the garden already
• Companion planting
• Crop rotation
• Plant space requirements
• Plant support needs

This year I tried something new and I am using a program call Miro. It is a whiteboard online software that lets you create interactive whiteboards. I built out a template of my garden and put in all of my Fall plants as a guide to know what is currently in the garden to help with crop rotation.

Plants in Your Garden Already

In my garden I have perennial plants such as asparagus that come back each year and long growing plants such as garlic which I plant in the fall and they don’t get harvested till late spring/early summer. I created a spring outline to start building off of that included my carry over plants. This gave me a starting point to plan out all new plants.

Companion Planting

Companion planting is planting certain types of plants together that support each other. Some plant combinations will help keeps different pests away. For example, I am planting calendula next to my tomatoes this year because they can deter the dreaded tomato hornworms. I get these every year in my tomatoes. There are also plants that don’t play nice with each other. Dill and Fennel can stunt the growth of tomatoes.

Crop Rotation

Crop rotation is used to keep your soil healthy. Certain types of crops use different nutrients in the soil and some even replenish nutrients in your soil. Part of the benefit of having raised beds is it can allow you to rotate your crops more efficiently since you have a set defined area for each type of plant. There are many methods to crop rotation. I try to not plant the same plant family in the same bead season after season.

Plant Space Requirements

Each plant requires different amount space. A carrot takes up far less space than a pumpkin plant does. The back of your seed packet normally has space suggestions of how far apart the plants should be. Keep in mind this is normally for row planting and can be different if you are using a raised bed where you are interplanting companion plants. I normally look at a large(Tomatoes, pumpkins); medium(peppers, eggplants); small (lettuce, garlic); extra-small (carrots) breakdown when I am planning.

Plant Support Needs

My Spring/Summer 2023 plan

Using my template I made in Miro I built out my plan for 2023. I used emojis of all of the fruits and vegetables to make planning as easy as copy, paste, drag and drop. I’ve done this planning on paper in the past but I wanted a cleaner copy and a way to easily compare what I planted each season.

In my large garden, I am planting a large number of tomato plants, peppers and the pumpkin an Mellon plants. I had garlic and shallots planted that will carry over into the spring planting. I will use my large tunnel to support my pumpkins and melon. Once lesson I learned from last year is that I planted 8 tomato plants in one raised bed. This became too hard to get into the plants to get the tomatoes and there was some issues with some plants blocking the sun from getting to the others. This year I am limiting tomatoes to only 4 per raised bed and I’m interplanting smaller plants instead.

My smaller garden, I am using the large raised bed to plant my sweet potatoes. I have had this location in mind for the sweet potatoes when I planned this garden layout this fall. I had a lot of carry over of garlic, onions, and shallots so I am only adding a few tomatoes and sunflowers to the small beds.

I have a plan. Now what?

Now that you have a plan you can start deciding if you want to purchase plants from a nursery or try to plant your own seeds. You now know what you need to purchase. In addition, you want to keep your plan. Your plan helps you with crop rotation season to season, where to put your seedlings and plant supports, and allows you to look back and what did and did not work. Planning is an exciting time of the year for me. I get to brainstorm all of the possibilities. Happy Planning! If you enjoyed this post please pin and share.

Want to plant your own seeds get started here: All things seeds…What you need to know!