Chapter 1

Planning Your Garden

IN THIS CHAPTER

Siting your garden on your property and organizing its layout for best results

Squeezing out every square foot of growing space

Safeguarding against critters

A lush, bountiful vegetable garden is the centerpiece of any backyard homestead. Everyone loves good food. And what better way to have fresh, tasty, and nutritious food than to grow it yourself? You don't have to be a farmer to do so either. Whether you have a plot of land in the yard that's tilled to grow vegetables, a few vegetables planted amongst your flowers and shrubs, or containers loaded with attractive, edible choices, growing your own food is a satisfying and rewarding activity.

But vegetable gardening isn't just about taste. It's about safe food that's produced close to home. It's about knowing what has been sprayed on that food. It's about feeding your friends and family nutritious food high in vitamins and antioxidants (cancer-fighting compounds). It's about connecting with your neighbors and community as you experiment with ethnic dishes using exotic ingredients grown in your not-so-exotic backyard. It's about reducing pollution and global warming by not buying produce that's shipped hundreds of miles to your local grocery store. Finally, it's about getting in touch with nature and reclaiming your ability to grow some of your own food, even if it's a container of basil, to be more self-reliant in your little corner of the world. (And that's pretty much why you're interested in backyard homesteading to begin with, right?)

This chapter is all about conceptualizing the garden that your homestead will be built around.

Determining Location and Size

When considering where to plop down your plot, think of these three main elements, which are necessary for the perfect spot: site, sun, and soil. The following sections describe each of these and give you some things to think about when surveying your yard for the best possible spot for your plot. Figure 1-1 puts some of these ideas into visual perspective.

Illustration by Kathryn Born

FIGURE 1-1: A sample yard with possible (and impossible) sites for a vegetable garden.

Don't be discouraged if you lack the ideal garden spot - few gardeners have one. Just try to make the most of what you have.

Acclimating to your conditions

The first step in planting wisely is understanding your region's climate, as well as your landscape's particular attributes. Then you can effectively match plants to planting sites.

Don't use geographic proximity alone to evaluate climate. Two places near each other geographically can have very different climates if one is high on a mountainside and the other is on the valley floor, for example. Also, widely separated regions can have similar climates.

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

Low winter temperatures limit where most plants will grow. After compiling weather data collected over many years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) divided North America, Europe, and China into 11 zones. Each zone represents an expected average annual minimum temperature.

On the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map for North America (see Figure 1-2), each of the 11 zones is 10°F warmer or colder in an average winter than the adjacent zone. The warmest zone, Zone 11, records an average low annual temperature of 40°F or higher. In Zone 1, the lowest average annual temperature drops to minus 50°F or colder. Brrr!

FIGURE 1-2: The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map indicates each zone's expected average annual minimum temperature.

Zones 2 through 10 on some North American maps are further subdivided into a and b regions. The lowest average annual temperature in Zone 5a, for example, is 5°F warmer than the temperature in Zone 5b. When choosing plants that are just barely hardy in your zone, knowing whether your garden falls into the a or b category can ease your decision. After a few years of personal weather observation in your own garden, you'll have a pretty clear idea of what to expect for winter low temperatures too.

Most books, catalogs, magazines, and plant labels use the USDA zone system. For a color version, which may be a bit easier to read, visit the U.S. National Arboretum website, which offers a map of North America and individual regions at www.usna.usda.gov/Hardzone/index.html.

The USDA map is based on a single factor: a region's average minimum winter temperature. Many other factors affect a plant's ability to thrive in a particular environment, so use the map only as a guideline.

AHS Heat Zone Map

To help gardeners in warm climates, the American Horticultural Society developed the AHS Heat Zone Map. This map divides the United States into 12 zones based on the average number of heat days each year - days that reach temperatures of 86°F or higher. Zone 1 has fewer than one heat day per year; Zone 12 has more than 210.

Order your own color poster of the AHS Heat Zone Map by calling the society at (800) 777-7931, ext. 137. Or visit the American Horticulture Society's website at www.ahs.org/publications/heat_zone_map.htm for more information and a downloadable map. The site also offers a Heat Zone Finder to locate your particular heat zone by zip code.

Sunset map

In an attempt to take total climate into consideration when evaluating plant hardiness, Sunset Publishing created Sunset's Garden Climate Zones, a map that divides the country into 24 zones. This map is especially useful to gardeners in the western United States, where mountains, deserts, and coastal areas create wildly diverse climates, sometimes within a few miles of each other.

Although most national plant suppliers and references use the USDA zone map, regional garden centers and growers in the western half of the country often refer to the Sunset map. View it at www.sunset.com/sunset/garden/article/1,20633,845218,00.html.

Factoring in microclimates

Within larger climates, smaller pockets exist that differ somewhat from the prevailing weather around them. These microclimates occur wherever a building, body of water, dense shrubs, or hillside modifies the larger climate.

Microclimates may be very small, such as the sunny side of your house or the shady side under a tree, or as large as a village. A town on the shore of Lake Michigan has a different microclimate than a town just 20 miles inland, for example. Common microclimates around your property may include the following:

• North side of the house: Cool and shady year-round
• South side of the house: Hot and sunny all day; often dry
• East side of the house: Warm morning sun and cool afternoon shade
• West side of the house: Morning shade and hot afternoon sun
• Top of a hill: Exposed to wind and sun; soil dries quickly
• Bottom of a hill: Collects cold air and may be poorly drained due to precipitation that runs down the slope

No doubt you can find other examples on your site as you closely observe the patterns of sun, water, wind, and temperature throughout the year.

Plan your landscape and gardens to take advantage of microclimates. Use wind-sheltered areas to protect tender plants from drying winter winds in cold climates and hot, dry winds in arid places. Put plants such as phlox and lilac, which are prone to leaf disease, in breezy garden spots as a natural way to prevent infections. Avoid putting frost-tender plants at the bottoms of hills, where pockets of cold air form.

Urban environments typically experience higher temperatures than suburban or rural areas thanks to so many massive heat absorbers such as roofs, steel and glass buildings, concrete, billboards, and asphalt-paved surfaces. And that doesn't even begin to account for all the waste heat generated by human sources such as cars, air conditioners, and factories. The urban homesteader needs to consider all of these additional factors that could make their microclimate even more of a challenge.

Considering different sites

Choosing a site is the important first step in planning a vegetable garden. This may sound like a tough choice to make, but don't worry; a lot of the decision is based on good old common sense. When you're considering a site for your garden, remember these considerations:

• Keep it close to home. Plant your garden where you'll walk by it daily so that you remember to care for it. Also, a vegetable garden is a place people like to gather, so keep it close to a pathway.

  Vegetable gardens used to be relegated to some forlorn location out back. Unfortunately, if it's out of sight, it's out of mind. But most homesteaders prefer to plant vegetables front and center - even in the front yard. That way you get to see the fruits of your labor and remember what chores need to be done. Plus, it's a great way to engage the neighbors as they stroll by and admire your plants. You may even be inspired to share a tomato with them.

• Make it easy to...