Designing your garden

Designing Your Garden

Before you start prepping your space, it's important to consider what will go where. In this lesson, I'll guide you through my design process.

Sketching out a plan for your garden is a really helpful way of visualising what you are going to do over the coming growing season. Creating a sketch based on your available space will help you to understand what plants will go where and how to strike the balance between perennial and annual planting.

Sketching Out a Plan for Your Garden

To help you visualise your space, start by sketching out a few beds. My beds are usually around one metre wide. Sticking to this size means that you will have a good amount of growing space and you won't have to overstretch yourself as you try to reach from one side to the other.

I leave a path in between all of my beds, and it's a good idea to make your paths wide enough to push a wheelbarrow down.

Things to Consider When Planning Your Growing Space

• What do you want to grow?
• How much time do you have?
• What resources do you have?

If you don't have a lot of time to devote to your garden but still want to grow your own food, then it may be a good idea to make several of your beds perennial.

What Do We Mean by Perennial?

Perennials are plants that return season after season without the need to sow seeds every time. In the food-growing world, these are plants like asparagus, and rhubarb, as well as fruit bushes such as raspberries, blackberries and currants.

Other Things to Add In

If you have a sunny, paved area in your garden then it's a good idea to add in some container-grown plants so that you can make the most of the sun.

Don't forget to add space for the more practical elements of a working growing space too, such as a compost heap, tool shed and a greenhouse if you have space for one.

Working Out What to Grow in Each Bed

From my initial design I have decided that I'm going to have three beds for growing annuals in, which I will replant every year, so now it's time to focus on these and decide what I will grow in them throughout the year.

Crop Rotation

One of the main principles of organic growing is crop rotation. This means growing a particular family of crops in one bed and then moving this family to the next bed the following year.

In my garden, I use a five-year rotation, but for this hypothetical design, we're using a three-year rotation as we have three beds.

Why Rotate Your Crops?

The main reason why I rotate my crops is to combat pests and diseases. If you have certain soil diseases in your garden, crop rotation can sometimes disrupt their lifecycle and therefore help you to grow healthier and happier crops.

This is also true of pests too. If pests know they will find a good meal in the same place year after year then they will quickly destroy all of your hard work.

My Three Beds Are Going to Be:

• Legumes
• Brassicas
• Other

| | Spring | Summer | Autumn | Winter |

|-----------|-------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|-------------------------------------|

| Legumes | Broad beans<br>Peas | French beans<br>Runner beans | Peas<br>Broad beans | Peas<br>Broad beans |

| Brassicas | Purple sprouting broccoli<br>Mustard<br>Rocket | Kale<br>Radishes<br>Pak choi | Purple sprouting broccoli | Purple sprouting broccoli |

| Other | Leeks<br>Endives<br>Radicchio | Summer salads<br>Chard<br>Beetroot<br>Spring onions | Chard<br>Endives<br>Radicchio | Chard<br>Endives<br>Radicchio |

Once you've decided what you want to grow throughout the year, you'll be able to work out how many plants you will need to fill your beds.

Adding Additional Information to Your Plan

Another useful thing to add to your plan is when the first and last frosts are likely to be.

Your Assignment

Taking your own garden space as a template, sketch out your growing space below. Remember to take into account any paved areas and also consider which parts of your garden get the most sunlight or are in shade.

Note: There are some handy apps that can help you with this process too, including: Planter and RHS Grow