How to plan a quarantine garden: 6 steps to get started
There’s nothing like the taste of eating something you’ve grown. You start a garden with the intention of growing food, but it’s you who ends up growing most! I know that the idea of starting a gardening can seem overwhelming, with no idea where to even begin.
But during this time of uncertainty, one thing is true: we need fresh food and gardens grow it! So understandably there’s been a huge uptick in first-time gardeners. Whether you’re a first-timer or someone who’s back to try again, welcome! There’s room for all of us to grow our own food.
And the place to start is with planning your garden. The amount of things that go into this first phase can hardly be contained in a single blog post. But this is the beginner’s guide, the simple version that makes this easily digestible and less overwhelming! So let’s plan that quarantine garden!
No matter how eager you are to buy seeds, plants, soil, and dive in, some careful planning can mean the difference between a happy garden and bountiful harvest and a troubled garden with constant problems. And for tips on what you’ll need, check out the 10 essentials you’ll need in The Quarantine Garden Supply Guide. But gardening is also about taking risks, so let go of the notion that things will go perfectly–you learn the most in gardening when things go wrong!
From examining your available space to finding community to support your many questions along the way, I’ve laid out the basics of what you need to get your green space going and growing.
1. Consider available spaces to garden.
When you imagine your ideal garden, you probably already have a spot in mind. And that’s important, because you want to be able to enjoy viewing and working in your garden. And then consider these topics:
- Sunlight. What direction does the area face? How many hours of sun does it get? A garden with a southern exposure gets the most sunlight, but you should pay attention to the actual hours, watching the clock on a sunny day. Trees, your house, all kinds of things can reduce the needed 6-8 hrs a day for most vegetables. While many garden plants prefer more light than not, there are exceptions to this. Herbs and leafy greens, for instance, can do well with fewer hours a day.
- View. Can you easily see your plants from inside your house? It’s really important to be able to keep an eye on your plants when weather conditions get extreme and you need to quickly water them, cover with shade cloth, etc.
- Water. Can I easily water this area or set up irrigation for it? And setting up irrigation with drip hoses is definitely ideal, FYI.
- Resources. Can you build or buy raised garden beds? Do you have pots you can use? The amount of space you have to grow will determine how many and what kind of plants can grow in your garden. You might be surprised how much you can grow in a small space! Our vertical gardens by Flower Street Urban Gardens have been a game changer!
- Plants. What kinds of plants do you want to grow? Mainly herbs and flowers? Only tomatoes? A large variety of plants? While herbs can tolerate partial shade and shallow containers, large vegetables need space for deep roots and lots of sun, for instance.
2. Consult a planting calendar for your area.
This is super critical to your success—don’t ignore this step! Always determine when to plant the items in your garden based on the specific planting calendars for your area. Never follow the instructions of when to plant something based on the back of a seed container or on a pot!
Did you know that every single county in the country has a dedicated agriculture office? In 1914, the Cooperative Extension System was created as a partnership funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and land-grant universities, and these offices support local gardeners today. Check for your county’s cooperative extension office by Googling “your-county’s-name cooperative extension” and they may have planting calendars for you!
Also The Farmer’s Almanac is an excellent resource. From the homepage select Calendar > Gardening Calendar. Then search for your location. Also many local nurseries will create calendars. And Googling something like “Central Texas Planting Calendar” is likely to return results. For the best Central Texas calendar, check out my Gardening Planning page on Pinterest.
And you can also use the local resources in #6 to find out what your neighbors have had success with and their experiences with the growing season where you live.
3. Use the square foot gardening method.
Unless you have acreage for starting a mini-farm, you will need to use limited space to grow your plants. And I highly recommend building or buying raised garden beds. A raised garden bed is essentially a frame (with no bottom) set on top of the ground. This extra height allows you to control most of the soil the plants are exposed to while providing the plants with optimal drainage and raising your working space to make it less back-breaking. I also recommend doing something called sheet mulching to prep the existing garden soil before you add your new soil on top.
If that’s not possible then large container gardens are also an excellent choice. You can get just as much growing space and completely control the environment that way, although it will require more frequent fertilizing.
Once you decide on your garden beds, you divide each space into 1’ x 1’ squares. One could write an entire book on this method (and many people have), but it works and is the most efficient way to garden to get the most out of each space. You can use string, wood, anything you like to help you in your planting but the first step is the planning.
You create grids to help you properly space your plants in this efficient planting method. Or if you only have planters that are a foot wide, then you can just use tape to indicate one-foot markers. And once you get them planted, you can take it down if you like!
When you use the square foot gardening method, you’ll plan out each square based on two things– how many of a particular plant can go in a square and your plants’ relationships to one another (see #4). For instance, you can plant 16 carrots in one square foot, but only one tomato plant. So, in a planter that is 1’ wide x 4’ long, you could plant 64 carrots or 4 tomato plants. The guidelines are accurate and amazing! And as you plan out your garden, this will help you know how many plants you can put in each space.
Check out some helpful handouts for square-foot gardening to get you started! And please follow me on Pinterest so you can access my gardening boards and pins as I add them this spring!
Also, mysquarefootgarden.net is an amazing resource for all things square foot gardening. It’s one place that helped me get started!
Once you’re figured out how many square feet of gardening space you have, you’ll know how much soil you need. Soil is usually sold in cubic foot bags, and always buy more than your calculations call for. I’ll get into more on soil in my next post on Planting your Quarantine Garden, but for now, know that if you buy the highest quality organic soil available, you’ll be making an important long-term investment and boosting chances for your success.
4. Reference a companion planting guide.
When making a map of your garden, you must consider what plants can grow well near each other and how they will affect one another. Each plant requires different nutrients, amounts of light, soil requirements, etc. But the most important thing you need to do is to just consult these guides—you don’t need all the reasons why tomatoes and cabbage should not be planted next to each other, for instance. Not unless you have the time to learn!
Once you have one or two of these handouts (there are a variety of opinions on certain combinations), keep them in hand as you map out your garden plan. Use a paper and pencil to draw up your box plans or use a spreadsheet to create a digital map of your garden boxes.
Check out my favorite companion planting guides here. And don’t forget to follow me on Pinterest for more resources coming soon!
5. Check the availability of seeds and transplants.
Many garden centers of hardware stores are still open and selling vegetable seeds and transplants, so that’s a good place to start. There are also a handful of nurseries open for business via delivery or curbside pickup. But call first before making a trip, to save them and you the exposure if they don’t have what you are looking for.
Also, especially right now, many things are disappearing quickly, so before you commit to certain numbers of plants in your planning, make sure you can get everything you want.
This is also where your gardening community comes in handy (see #6)! I’ve bought and traded several plants over the years (and most importantly, during this crisis) from kind gardeners in my community. There are lots of people doing this for the first time right now, so don’t be shy. Ask for help and make some friends!
6. Connect with your local gardening community.
From learning which varieties of plants do best in your area to problem-solving pests and even finding plants you need, other local gardeners are one of your best resources!
This is a unique time, because usually local nurseries are usually the heart and soul of gardening, so we must lean on our community. But this is a good thing, too! Search on Nextdoor and Facebook for gardening groups. Many are even specific to your area of town if you’re in a large urban metro area.
The connections I’ve made during this quarantine include someone who made my raised beds, someone else who sold me eggs from their backyard, and another wonderful person who gave me extra tomato plants! So whether you need seeds, advice, looking for a trade, or want to learn, local gardeners are truly generous and so helpful!
Also, look for nonprofit gardening organizations in your area who may also have some great online gardening resources and forums. This is a great time to build community with others, albeit from a safe distance!
I hope this is a helpful introduction to how to get started with a garden of your own! Stay tuned for more articles in this series and follow me on Instagram for more tips in my stories and posts. Now get growing!
