Garden Planning

“A garden is half-made when it is well planned. The best gardener is the one who does the most gardening by the winter fire.” - Liberty Hyde Bailey, Cofounder of the American Society for Horticultural Science

Spending a snowy day in a cozy chair with a warm beverage and a stack of seed catalogs is the perfect setting for garden planning.

Make a list of everything that you’d like to grow in your garden. Now is the time to dream! Do some research and see what catches your eye. A few seed companies that we love are Seed Savers, Johnny’s Seeds, and Botanical Interests.

Sketch out how you want your garden to look. It doesn’t need to be precise at this stage, a rough sketch will give you an idea of the layout and where each plant will grow best.

The best part in starting now with your planning is that you have time to tinker. You can change around the layout or what you want to plant with very little effort. So when the Springs rolls around, you’ll be ready to go!

Frost Dates

Once you have an idea of what and where you’d like to plant, you can set up a schedule. Mark your frost dates. Here on Martha’s Vineyard the final frost is typically early to mid-May. This will give you an idea of when you need to start seeding and planting.