So you want to grow a vegetable garden this year, but maybe you’re feeling a little overwhelmed about planning it all. There are so many vegetables to choose from, and not enough space to grow everything you want to. Not to mention that gardening is one of those activities that attracts much excitement, but sometimes follow-through is difficult because we take on too much, or don’t properly plan it to begin with. Planning your vegetable garden layout will set you up for a successful garden and keep you from buying way more seeds than you have room to grow.
In this article, I’ll go over the four steps I use to plan my vegetable garden layout. I also share a free printable PDF download to help you plan and organize your vegetable garden this year.
4 Steps to Plan Your Vegetable Garden Layout
Step 0. Set Up Your Garden Beds
This is step zero because you won’t need to do it every year. But, if you don’t yet have your garden beds you’ll need to make them. This is the first and maybe most important step in planning your vegetable garden layout. Even if you don’t physically build the garden beds yet, at least plan where they’ll go and how big they’ll be.
Choose the sunniest location available to you for your garden. Sunlight can always be shaded with shade cloths, but not usually increased unless you demolish a building or cut down a tree.
Typically, garden beds should have their long axis running north and south for the best distribution of sunlight. This is more important the farther you move away from the equator. However, orienting garden beds east to west is sometimes beneficial, particularly for tall vining plants growing on a trellis that faces south in the northern hemisphere or north in the southern hemisphere.
For further information on creating garden beds, check out these articles:
Step 1. Browse Seed Catalogs and Make a Wish List
Before designing a vegetable garden layout, you need to know what you’ll be growing. So first, get familiar (or re-familiarize yourself) with your options. This is particularly important if you’re relatively new to gardening. Resist the urge to buy a bunch of seeds before you have a plan for them. Instead, allow yourself to dream as you browse the catalogs or online seed stores.
My favorite seed companies are Botanical Interests (affiliate link), High Mowing Seeds (affiliate link), and Seed Savers Exchange. You can request seed catalogs from all of these companies or order your seeds online (or both).
As you browse catalogs or websites, read plant descriptions and think about which varieties would work best for you. As you go, make a list of your top picks, including the source. If you have physical catalogs, take a highlighter to them and circle the varieties you’re most interested in growing. You’ll come back to this list when it comes time to order your seeds.
Don’t Limit Yourself to Vegetables
Remember to look at seeds other than vegetable seeds. Include herbs, flowers, and perennials. And don’t limit yourself to plants you can eat. Think also about what plants can support your garden.
Herbs are some of the easiest to grow and most expensive to buy plants, plus they offer numerous benefits to a vegetable garden, such as attracting beneficial insects and repelling pests.
Many flowers also repel pests, and others attract and trap pests already in your garden, keeping them off your crops. Other flowers have deep taproots that break up compacted soil and mine nutrients from deep in the soil. Here’s a great article by Tenth Acre Farm about flowers in the vegetable garden.
Step 2. Narrow Your List
Referring to your list, consider which plants make the most sense for you to grow. Ask yourself these questions as you consider each plant on your list.
Questions to Ask When Deciding What Plants to Grow
- Is it suited to your climate and growing conditions?
- Do you or your family members like to eat it?
- What does it cost to buy at the grocery store or farmer’s market? (and is it worth growing yourself?)
- How much space does it require?
- How easy or difficult is it to grow?
Then consider how much of each plant you want to grow. Ask yourself some more questions.
Questions to Ask When Deciding How Many of Each Plant to Grow
- How many people are in your family / will be eating from your garden?
- How much of your food do you want to grow versus buy?
- How big of a garden can you comfortably manage?
Here’s a resource to help you know how much of each crop to grow to feed your family from Michigan State University.
Do Step 2 in whatever style suits you. You can be systematic and detailed with your analysis, making a master list or spreadsheet. Or, you can make quick, qualitative decisions as you consider whether to grow each plant type. (The latter is my style.)
Step 3. Sketch Out a Plan
By this, I mean to draw a plan view of your garden and fill it out with every plant you want to grow.
Use any piece of paper or digital method you like. My preference is to use graph or grid paper to draw out my garden configuration to scale so that I know exactly how much space I have to work with as I fill in the beds with plants on paper.
Free Garden Layout Worksheet
You can use graph paper or download my Garden Layout Worksheet. It has a handy dot grid for easy drawing without the grid being too dark to see your drawing over, which sometimes happens with graph paper. Just fill in your email in the form below, and I’ll send you the download link.
My worksheet can accommodate gardens 36×40 or smaller when using a scale of one grid space equals one foot (or your preferred unit). If your garden is larger than that, change the scale as necessary. For example, have one grid space equal to two linear feet (four square feet). If you’re working in meters, consider making three grid spaces equal one meter (or one grid space = 0.33m).
Consider Plant Spacing
As you fill out your plan with vegetables, herbs, and flowers, it’s helpful to know how much space each plant takes up. I’ve put together another free PDF resource, my Plant Spacing Guide, that lists about eighty plants you might like to grow and how many of each you can fit in a square foot. The information is based on the square-foot gardening method.
Again, to download this free PDF, fill out the form above and I’ll send you the link to the file.
What If You Run Out of Space?
As you create your vegetable garden layout, keep the questions from Step 2 in mind. If you run out of garden space for all the plants you want to grow (which happens to me every year) then go back and ask yourself those questions again. Prioritize and make sure to design your garden layout for the most important plants first.
After that, if you still have more plants than space, you’ll need to either add another garden bed or grow fewer plants.
Once you have a completed layout, take a moment to bask in the joy that that piece of paper (or digital file) brings you. Show it off to your family. Ask for their feedback if you like. Make adjustments if necessary. Pin it up on your wall or stick it to your refrigerator. Or slide it into a sheet protector or slap it onto a clipboard so you can take it outside with you when the time comes.
Step 4. Plan Your Seed Starting Dates
You have your garden layout done, but you’re not done planning yet. Now that you know every plant you’ll grow, it’s time to create a schedule for when to sow and transplant your seedlings.
You might need to start some seeds indoors early or plan to buy seedlings from a nursery. Remember that if you’re going to buy seedlings, you’ll be at the mercy of what the nursery or garden center offers. So if you want to grow specific varieties or anything unusual, it’s better to grow them from seed yourself.
Read the information on the back of your seed packets (if you have the packets yet–if not, look it up online).
Pay special attention to when and where to start the seeds. Make a list of all the seeds to start ahead of time indoors and when, and what you can sow directly in the garden.
If you want to track your seed starts and transplants on paper, you might like to use my printable seed-starting tracker, which you can download at How to Use My Free Printable Seed-Starting Tracker.
Conclusion
The four steps to planning your vegetable garden layout, after your garden beds are in place, are the following. One, browse seed catalogs for what you’d love to grow and make a list. Two, narrow down your list of plants based on your limitations and priorities. Three, draw your garden beds to scale and work out where you’ll plant each of the plants on your list. Finally, in step four, plan your seed-starting, transplanting, and direct sowing timeline.
Remember to order your seeds once your plan is complete.
Happy garden planning!
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