Offers a visual of how your garden will look throughout the season.Notes feature to record plant performance.Eases crop rotation by helping you plan which crops follow others.Provides a planting and harvest timeline.Tells you when to start seeds and transplant seedlings based on your zone’s frost dates.Consolidate diagram, planting and harvest records in one place.Preloaded plant varieties with growing information.Better Homes and Gardens design tool includes more landscape features like trees, shrubs and flowers. Zukeeni garden planner is a top pick for vegetables. Mother Earth News and The Old Farmer’s Almanac both offer online virtual garden planners. Some virtual garden planner computer applications are sold as software, but most are online and require username and password to access. No preloaded varieties, growing information, climate, planting and harvest timeline.Separate pages needed for diagram, varieties, notes and sowing and harvest dates.

Pencil and eraser make easy modifications.

Now that I’ve convinced you to plan your garden, let’s look at pros and cons of three ways to plan: paper, virtual and template. Last, plotting out plants identifies sunlight interference by existing structures or crops, such as a shed or tall sweet corn overshadowing sun-loving tomatoes and cucumbers. You can use the records to plan future growing seasons’ crop rotation schedules and identify top-performing plant varieties. Garden planning also provides accurate records after the season has ended. It saves time looking around the garden scratching your head in spring, not knowing where to start. Planning saves money by determining the exact amount of seed, soil amendments and supplies to purchase. Knowing how much room you have to work with helps to prioritize which plants to grow and pinpoint the best places to put them. First, planning keeps you realistic about available space. There are many benefits to planning your garden.

Online garden planner free