Garden planning mistakes can occur when we get carried away by the excitement of growing all the crops and plants we want. Growing vegetables is so exciting, even the expert gardener can fall victim to these common mistakes. Identify your common garden planning mistakes and how to avoid or deal with them for a productive harvest!
How To Deal With Common Garden Planning Mistakes
Gardening sure is an exciting activity, especially when the whole family joins in on planting and anticipation of harvest. I’ve taken my gardening to the next level by extending the space to grow food for our table. Still, I make sure that I plan my garden carefully and consider garden planning mistakes that I tend to fall prey to sometimes. Any gardener may still overlook some of these common garden planning mistakes. Find out what these gardening misses are and how to deal with them.
Overcrowding The Plants
We all love to look at photos of professionally-cultivated gardens and wish our vegetables can look as amazing as those in the picture. But sorry to break it to you, it’s not always how it looks. They can be overcrowded and still look great, but it’s not always the case with gardening in real life.
Having access to a lot of seeds can tempt you to grow more that what’s advised and allowed in the seed packets. Find out how to deal with that as you read further.
Allotting the right space is essential in vegetable gardening so the plants can mature properly. Vegetables grown close to each other will become inferior as they have to compete with neighboring plants for water and nutrients.
How To Avoid Overcrowding The Plants
Using A Garden Planner
There are gardening applications and garden planners available online. With just a few clicks, you will be provided with the proper spacing both in direct to the ground planting or square foot gardens and more.
Using The Seed Packet Guide
If you’re one of those gardeners who doesn’t want to rely on technology, then simply refer to the seed packet instructions. There’s usually a summary or planting guide that could help you. But the potential problem with collecting seed packets is you could definitely end up growing more than you should. The next tip could help you.
Saving Own Seeds For Next Planting Season
Planning for next planting season as early as this year’s harvest season will save you a lot of trouble. It will help you avoid the gardening mistake of growing too much from buying way too much pre-packaged seeds.
Saving just the right amount of seeds from this harvest season will help restrain you growing more.
Ignoring The Environment
Growing a lot of vegetables sounds great but it comes with the risk of pests and diseases, especially when we make major alterations to our environment with commercial pest repellents or chemical plant food.
We actually have everything we need around us to help us grow our own food. Rich soil is available in the decaying matters of the earth and plants are out to help each other.
But we tend to look for shortcuts and ignore nature’s gifts. When we don’t put a bit of effort into understanding how nature works, we lose the opportunity to grow clean and healthy vegetables and fruits.
How To Work Well With The Environment
Planning Companion Planting
This garden planning mistake can be amended or avoided with companion planting. This is using plant’s natural defense to protect themselves or surrounding plants. An online garden planner will allow you to identify the plants beneficial or incompatible to each other.
Grow Pest And Insect Repellent Plants
Do a little research about plants that repel pests and insects. Include in your garden planning a way to incorporate pest and insect repellent plants. You will be able to make your environment work for you this way.
Inviting Beneficial Insects
As you may already know, not all insects are harmful to your plants. Beneficial insects also help get rid of the harmful pests when they prey on them. Allowing a few carrots, onions, and garlic to bolt or grow flowers will invite beneficial insects over to your garden.
Protect Your Crops With Barriers
Some pests can be so persistent that using plants alone to deter them can be ineffective. You’ll have to anticipate this factor and include in your planning the use of natural pest repellents. Using barriers in the form of row covers, nets, and a mini homemade greenhouse to protect your crops will help maintain the balance of nature in your garden.
Planting Everything All Together
While there are tools to help extend gardening season, there are factors you cannot control such as pests, diseases, weather, and temperature. It can be very frustrating to work so hard on your vegetables and have them destroyed by frost and pests. Therefore it is unwise to plant seeds all together when you have the risk of losing them all at the same time.
How To Plan The Types And Amount of Plants To Grow
Use A Planning Calendar
You can refer to a garden planning calendar to know which months you’ll have a higher chance of success with certain crops. You can also keep a gardening log sheet to avoid your previous gardening mistakes. It can also guide you into another successful growing season.
Start Seeds In Intervals
The best way to do away with this common gardening mistake is to start several seed batches 2 to 3 weeks apart from each other. This way, you can just easily replace failing seedlings or plants or start another batch you can hopefully see through harvest.
Watch the full details on how to avoid gardening mistakes in this video:
Having some trouble with your garden planning and planting? Let me know your thoughts about this by posting your comments below.
Growing a fall vegetable garden? Then be guided by this vegetable garden design to help you lay out a fall garden.
Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter for more smart gardening ideas!
Feature image source via Organic Authority
This post was originally published in October 2016 and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
1 thought on “Most Common Garden Planning Mistakes And The Smart Ways To Counter Them”
Pingback: Top 10 Fall Gardening Tips | How To Prepare Your Garden For Spring - The Peoples Health Alliance - NZ