Every winter, I enjoy planning my garden for the coming year. Flipping through seed catalogs, perusing websites, and filling in labels on maps of the garden are lovely occupations for a cold winter day.
I keep records to make sure I don’t plant the tomatoes in the same spot year after year, preventing disease buildup and nutrient depletion. I also create plans at the beginning of the year to ensure I have a space for every vegetable.
Nothing is worse (and I have done this) than planting the garden and realizing you forgot a critical crop.
This year, because I am attempting to grow vegetables for sale, my planning has become even more complex. I created some basic documents that I print from my computer and fill in with a pencil and highlighter. The photo below is of one of my first charts.
Across the top are dates (I chose Monday) in intervals of a week, and along the side I wrote the name of the crop. From my seed packets and seed catalogs, I determine the days to maturity.
Some days to maturity are based on the date from transplant. Others, like turnips, are based on the date from direct seeding. I plan to write a post about understanding dates to maturity soon, so check back with me.
My farmers’ market opens on May 8, and I want to have plenty of vegetables ready for the market. May 6 is the Monday of that week, so I marked that date in orange highlighter, then counted back in yellow highlighter to the date I needed to sow the seed to have the plant mature on May 6.
I have made this chart available to you for free as a document you may download, edit, and print by clicking here. It’s very low-tech, and I know other farmers and the Excel-savvy folks do a more sophisticated plan, but if a pencil and a highlighter makes you happy, please use mine. It is on two sheets of paper, so you will need to tape it together to make a sheet including all the dates. Get some white-out, because you will need it when you incorrectly count the dates.
‘Polbig’ tomato will be an experiment in the hoophouse. I am writing this on January 29, and I sowed seed for the ‘Polbig’ tomato and the ‘Lunchbox’ pepper today. I will plant my main season tomato crops on March 11 to get them out into the garden at a time when the risk of frost has passed. I am not a risk taker by nature, and I learned through experience and damaged tomato plants to not push the season. I’ll provide these tomatoes with protection, and if they survive, they will be a bonus crop, not the main one.
I realized that using one chart for the entire garden was going to be too difficult to follow, so I copied the charts and made individual ones for each bed. I have ten beds, and so I put the corresponding number on each chart. Below is a much easier-to-use chart for bed 2.
I seed the broccoli in flats indoors on January 21, February 4, February 18, March 4, and March 18. I will transplant them a corresponding five weeks later, and I will expect a harvest six weeks later. This will give me a staggered harvest of broccoli into June.
By the time the earliest plantings of broccoli are finished, it will be time to sow the seeds for beans directly into the soil. They do not have to be transplanted, and they grow more quickly than broccoli, so I should be able to have a harvest of beans at one end of the bed while I am still picking broccoli from the other end.
Of course, this plan does not account for bad weather, insect damage, disease, or any other disaster that might befall my plants. But, I have a plan. Instead of wondering when I need to plant, or knowing when I need to plant and putting it off, I can consult my crop plan and sow the seeds on time.
Crop planning is sort of like lesson planning: your students may move more quickly or more slowly than you expect, or they might be sick a week, but at least you know what you are supposed to be doing in an ideal world.
By having this plan, I also know if a plant is not growing as quickly as the seed packet and the catalog promise. I can search for the cause of the problem and try to remedy the problem.
In the photo below from 2002, when I had a 300 square foot garden in my first house in a subdivision (the neighbors thought I was insane to have such an “enormous” garden) I kept notes on a piece of notebook paper. I love perusing my old garden journals. I will have to share more of them in other posts.
From year to year, I can also see if planting tomatoes early worked, or if it was a disaster. The first and last frost dates have shifted by several weeks since I began gardening, and I need to adjust my planting dates based on these changes. In 2002, I lived on an island off the coast of Charleston. Frosts arrived late and left early, and the soil was rich and black.
I live near Columbia, 100 miles from the ocean now, and I don’t feel comfortable setting out my tomatoes until mid-to-late April. Late frosts occur and kill the plants of the unwary gardener. So, although I might set out some tender plants early, I won’t put in the entire garden until it is definitely safe.
Now that I am gardening more seriously, (and have access to the wonders of a home computer and a printer) I made charts to document my planting plan that I will also share with you. It is a basic document that you may edit.
By keeping these brief records, (and keeping toddler fingers from removing the plant labels so I no longer know which plant is which) I have already discovered that the ‘Sun King’ broccoli seed does not germinate with any reliability, and I have discarded the seed. The broccoli seed I got at my neighborhood feed store, Sal’s Local Seed, is germinating correctly. 
When I started the process of trying to figure out succession planning, I searched the internet and found a few resources, but many of them were geared towards those unfortunate folks who live where it’s too cold to garden most of the winter. I guess they can’t actually get outside and do any gardening for several months out of the year, so they have time to write gardening and create websites.