How to Ace Your Spring Planting Plan
Your Plan is Made to Fit You
The Tropical Grower is featuring How to Ace Your Spring Planting Plan this week because the Actual Real Live Spring is here. Whether you have an idea, most people tell me they want to grow their own vegetables, or a desire, like a hard crusty walkway that could use some pretty green, it’s time for a plan. Take a breath. The best part about Your Plan is it is made to fit you.
Planting Plan
It doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be as simple as: ‘I want begonias by the front door.’
More involved like: ‘I’m going to plant beans and tomato seeds in those pots and lettuce plugs in that bed’. You might want some yellow flowers along your front walk, or you might want to get crazy and plan a bed with different varieties that bloom at different times throughout the warm months. We like to group bloomers together for a big show.
It’s your plan. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want. My advice is plant what you have time to take care of. The number 1 Rule of a Success Grower: If you can’t take care of it, it won’t be successful, unless you plan it that way. Low maintenance beds are a fav among plant bed owners everywhere, growers or no, but it still takes a Plan.
Make a Basic Plan
| Decisions | Stuff to Think About | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Choose an Area | What Needs Work, Screening, Spiffing Up |
| 2 | What Do You Want, Function or Pure Form | You Can Make Any Area Pretty, Does It Need to Provide Shade, Screening, Vegetable Crops |
| 3 | Pick Your Plants | Pay Attention to Your Zones, Don’t Choose More than You Can Take Care Of, Do They Fit the Basic Sun and Water Requirements for the Area |
| 4 | Buy, Make, or Obtain Your Supplies | Having What You Need When You’re Ready to Plant is Helpful. Check your Storage, Take a Trip to the Closest County Compost, The Store, or Order it Shipped to Your House. |
Figuring Out What You Want This Season
Perhaps you don’t have time or the desire to dig up the crusty stuff along your walk this season, but you still would like something pretty. Your Plan could include laying down some weed barrier mat and buying some plants in starter pots to grow there this year. Next year, you might feel like digging out the crusty stuff, and you will have already killed all the weeds or grass in the area. You also have either some extra dirt from the pots to mix with the crusty stuff and fresh soil or plants you know like it there.
Or maybe, you don’t have time to build those raised beds right now, but you still want to start growing vegetables. Your Plan could include a couple of container pots in the same area. You’ll know whether your area has the right amount of light to grow vegetables, and you can still have fresh veggies for the table this year. Or you could try How to Make Raised Beds with Recycled Pots we did last week. In my experience, there is a learning curve to growing food, and it will take a couple of seasons before you get the basics for your area. The sooner you start the better. The thing about gardens or landscaping is they usually start small and grow, just like growers. It’s your Plan. What do you want?
Dream Big, Start with What You Can Handle Now
Absolutely, 100% Dream Big when it comes to your garden or yard. Having a long-term plan allows you to take steps each season towards it. Whether it’s time or expense holding you back in the real world, nothing is out of the realm of your dream green. It can live in the fondest parts of your memory or be written down. Whatever works for you. I tend to keep my long-term Plan in my head so it doesn’t feel like a chore, and it’s constantly changing. The short term rotations are written down because I have too many planting areas and vegetables not to.
For ideas, you can tour botanical gardens, check out other gardens and landscaping online, go to your friend’s house, tour the big houses, the possibilities are everywhere. I once arranged my houseplants on a table like an English Garden bed I saw in a book. It was lovely. For Our Garden, we tend to desire specific plants, like Star Jasmine, and incorporate them into already existing beds or create new ones for them. We also plant and train our plants based on need, like shading areas or for screening.
Once you Know the Function, Adding Pretty is Easy
Plants perform many functions in Our Garden. Blocking the view of our neighbors is essential to us. We do it in levels or heights. For instance, a tall tree will block the view of their house, but mid-level plants and shrubs or small ornamental trees will block the view of the entire fence line, obviously the bushier the better. Adding some low flowering plants finishes the area with pops of color. The end result is feeling like there is a garden next door instead of people. Definitely smiling.
Maybe you hate using the Weedeater around your trees, or at all. Your plan could include making flower or planting beds around the trees. If you want to grow vegetable row crops in the whole southeast corner of your yard but you don’t have the time or budget at the moment, you can plan a smaller 2 foot by 2 foot area for this season to expand later, or you could add some container pots. Figuring out what you want from an area will help you know where to start.
Pick Your Plants
We crave seeing certain plants grow in Our Garden. For Spring, I was craving some Yellow Daylilies, Gladiolus Bulbs, and this perennial garlic with a big purple puff flower. Bulbs for some reason, I don’t know, just was. I got them for Christmas from my nephew Dawson. I also wanted to try growing some Bok Choy and these little White Radishes. My Plan included adding some pots for bulbs, working the bulbs into the existing beds, and preparing a couple of vegetable beds ready for Brassicas and Root Vegetables.
Deciding what you would like to see in your garden is the best part of making your Plan and dreaming of what your garden or landscaping could be. If you’re only looking online, check the growing zones. I dream of a cherry tree, but I will never successfully grow one here. Local growers and even the big box stores carry plants specific for your area. Going and taking a look always gives me great ideas. Also, landscaping. Take a look around your area, what looks good? In Florida, you can find Birds of Paradise planted outside Tropical Smoothie, in medians, and along the highway. There are literally ideas everywhere.
Know the Plants You Choose
Always check the toxicity of plants you want to drop next to your house. Oleander, for instance, is a beautiful flowering shrub, growing to a small tree size in our area. It’s also toxic and eating it can kill stuff. It takes a considerable amount, but the thought of planting one in the yard makes me uncomfortable. Everyone has their comfort levels, and you should know what you’re planting.
In our area, we have a big problem with exotics. Since lots of stuff will grow here, people import lots of stuff, not all of it good for our natural environment. The 2 species wreaking havoc in the Everglades and all over Florida are melaleuca and pepper bushes. These things are so invasive, spreading and multiplying, killing everything natural here. While these are well known, others plants, also invasive, are sold by growers and stores regularly.
Be Responsible
Our Ground Orchid and Mexican Butterfly Weed are also considered invasive. Both were purchased locally. Because we knew what we were purchasing, they’re confined, planted that way. We are extremely responsible about seeds and spread. Our neighbors growing the very invasive yellow-flower vine along his fence line, very irresponsible. Don’t make your neighbors deal with your mess.
Basic Planning
Your plan should also include the basics. Is there enough sun for this plant in this area? Too much? Does it get its watering requirements? All plants have an environment they thrive in. Your job as a grower is to replicate it. If you’re growing in pots, these can be moved around after the plant is dropped if there’s a problem, but if you drop plants in the ground, you need to make sure they have what they need before they’re there. I like to place the starter plants to live for a bit, pots and all, in the area I want to plant them, before I drop them in the ground. Just checking.
Most plants come with planting and growing instructions, read them. They will be your starting point. Don’t be afraid to add a beach umbrella for some shade or irrigation if you find the instructions don’t work correctly in your area, but try to start with what they like, in general, and modify it based on what works. Next year, your Plan might include adding a shady companion shrub next to what you planted this year. I’m a firm believer in reducing the standard sun requirements in our area across the board. Also, adding a simple timed irrigation system made a world of difference when I was working at an office. You’ll find some tricks too.
Tropical Plants & Trees
If you are Growing Tropical, this is not the time to plant your tropicals. Your Plan should include dropping those at the end of May. Most tropicals are just waking up, mildly, from the drought season. Since they are still in it, they will not come alive until rainwater is hitting them everyday.
You might be toying with the idea that the sprinkler will trick them, but it does not. You simply cannot replicate the amount of water, humidity, or sunlight these things need in an outdoor environment. Stopping them once it begins is an impossible task, but dropping a tropical plant in the ground when it’s still in its dormant stage and not getting ready to come out of it, isn’t going to make it happy. It’s going to confuse it. At worst, you can kill it. At best, it will struggle through the first part of its life in its new home. We leave our new tropicals in their pots until the rains begin, and they start their new lives happy.
Vegetables
Vegetables require a plan especially if you want to start growing them regularly. Because the nature of most vegetables is temporary, you will be rotating out the plants every season or two. This is soil intensive, meaning everything you plant is sucking nutrients out of the dirt to make the nutrient rich stuff you eat. The bigger and happier the plant, the more it is robbing the soil. It is also attracting bugs, fungus, and bacteria.
Rotating Your Crops
Vegetables will be more successful if you rotate them. ‘This is The Way’ if you are growing organic. Have you heard of crop rotation? It simply means you move your varieties of plants around to different pots and beds, preferably in different locations. Change them up. This is definitely one of situations where knowledge is power. If you aren’t ready for such an Advanced Set of growing skills, you just need to remember to move your plants around with a minimum of 2 full seasons elsewhere before you move them back. There is a standard chart to help if you want a step-up from beginner level, but still want simple.
Standard Crop Rotation Chart
| Season | Type | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | Legumes | Beans, Peas, |
| Season 2 | Brassicas | Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Kale |
| Season 3 | Root Vegetables | Carrots, Parsnips, Celery, Garlic, Radishes, Sweet Potato |
| Season 4 | Nightshades | Tomato, Peppers, Eggplant, Potatoes |
| **Alternate | Lettuces & Herbs | Romaine, Swiss Chard, Basil, Tarragon, Arugula |
| Repeat |
Knowing What Your Plants Want
Giving your plants what they want makes you a more successful grower. Brassicas, like Broccoli, need lots of nitrogen in the soil to grow. Beans don’t need nitrogen, they make it, even pull it from the air. If you plant Beans in the bed the season before the Broccoli, it will set your soil up to be nitrogen rich for the Broccoli.
Root Vegetables do not like nitrogen, which make leafy tops instead of the roots you eat, and they help break up the soil. If you plant Root Vegetables after beans, you’ll most likely only get green tops. The nightshades like phosphorus and potassium which are not in high demand from the other plants and are left in the soil after their seasons. Lettuces & Herbs are fairly neutral, with little nutrient demands, and can be planted at any time for a rotation or as a succession in early harvest beds.
The Idea
So, the standard works like this: You start with fresh rich, well drained soil (add some sand if you are Growing Tropical). Season 1 you plant beans and boost the nitrogen levels in the soil. Then, Season 2 you plant broccoli in the same bed which eats the extra nitrogen the root vegetables you plant in Season 3 do not like for big roots. Season 4 you plant nightshades which will suck up all the remaining phosphorus and potassium. Each plant is getting what they like best from the bed in their rotation. As a grower, you are adding fresh compost at each plant to renew the beds or pots, but they are already rich with specific nutrients needed for each plant. Advanced Growing 201, the Cliffs Notes.
Or You Can Add Fertilizer and Rotate
Now, with all that being said, you can also just add fertilizer or not, specific to each plant you want there, to give them what they need, but it is still important to switch out the plants in your beds or pots. Certain plants attract specific bugs, fungus, and bacteria. Moving them around makes them more difficult to find and less likely to cause an infestation. If the bugs have laid eggs in the soil, they have to go elsewhere if the plant they want to munch on no longer lives there, and you are stopping a potential infestation.
We have a nasty cup fungus that will take out soft stem plants like basil, but I can stop it in its tracks if I plant a hard stem, small leaf, like rosemary in the same bed. It has nothing to feed on and dies. Bleach is the only other thing that works on it. When I find it, I literally remove everything that can decompose in the whole area and throw it away.
Ensure the Health of You Garden
Rotating your crops will help with the overall health of your garden, and it should always be a part of your Plan. This does not work with beds that have long-term plants since you are rotating them only rarely. You will most likely need to supplement the beds and treat them for bugs, fungus, and such. We seasonally add compost/fertilizer and only spot treat problems for long-term plants.
Ace Your Spring Planting with a Plan
I’m not going to lie, we’ve been dropping plants since Jan 20th when the corn seeds were planted, but we’re Growing Tropical and My-Need-for-Green bug bites early. If your Growing Tropical and planting a variety of vegetables, I hope you’re Plan is in full swing. If not, there are a number of vegetables you can still grow successfully this season like tomatoes, beans and peppers. The rest of you, still waiting on your Spring thaw, now is the time to get planning.
Whether you want to drop bulbs, seeds, starter plants, slips, sets, or any of the other number of ways plants start their growing seasons, Spring usually offers most plants the best chance for success. We like that in a growing season. It’s not magic, although a seed sprouting seems pretty magical to me. It is a combination of heat and water that brings most plants out of their dormant stages, a.k.a. Spring. It’s here. Next week we will be covering Seeds and Starter Plants. So, Get Dreaming and make your Plan, and we’ll figure out the best way to get you there next week.
