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Garden Planning: How to Plan Your Garden

Garden planning helps you make the most of your garden’s available space and sunlight. Each new season can feel overwhelming. Knowing what to plant, when to plant, and where to plant is a juggling act for even experienced gardeners. Taking the time to make a plan helps you feel confident, buy only what you need, and give each plant the best chance to produce.

When you plan, you can prioritize space for the crops you care most about. Planting in the best location and at the right time leads to better growth and better harvests. Instead of grabbing random seeds and hoping it all fits, a plan helps you match your garden space to your goals.

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Before you start: choose the best planning tools

You can plan a garden with a simple sketch and a list, but the right tools make it much easier to stay organized and plant at the right time. I’ve worked hard to create resources that take the guesswork out of timing because in the low desert, timing is often the difference between a garden that struggles and one that produces.

My Calendars, Guides, and Garden Planner and Journal are designed for the low desert of Arizona (warm desert areas below about 3,500 feet), where planting dates can be very different than many other regions. If you garden in another area, use this guide to help you find a planting calendar for your location.

Below is a quick overview of the planning tools I offer, so you can choose the method that best fits your garden.

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Start with the free planning resources on my website

Visual Planting Guides

These visual planting guides are a great place to begin. They help you quickly see what to plant and when, then you can use the calendars, crop guides, or planner to get specific.

• Arizona Vegetable Planting Guide
• Visual Guide for Low Desert Herbs
• Arizona Fruit Planting Guide
• Arizona Annual Flowers Visual Guide
• Low Desert Flowering Bulb Planting Guide
• Arizona Vine Planting Guide

Monthly planting lists

If you like to plan one month at a time, my monthly planting lists tell you what to plant outside now and what to start indoors so you can stay on track without feeling overwhelmed.

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Garden Calendars: month-by-month at a glance

Use these when you want an easy visual monthly reminder of what to plant each month.

Calendars help you:

• See what to plant outside this month
• See which seeds to start indoors this month
• Stay seasonal with photos of what is typically blooming or ready to harvest that month

Best for: gardeners who like an at-a-glance monthly check-in and want to stay on track without overthinking. Purchase the planting calendars here.

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Crop Planting Guides: each crop’s full-year cycle on one page

Use these when you want to plan a season (or a whole year) around specific crops.

Guides help you:

• See the full-year planting window for one crop at a time
• Know when to start seeds indoors and when to plant outside
• Use spacing, timing notes, and practical tips to avoid common mistakes

Best for: gardeners who want to grow specific crops well and avoid planting at the wrong time. Purchase the planting guides here.

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Garden Planner and Journal: planning pages plus tracking and lessons learned

Use this when you want everything in one place, and you want to improve each season.

The Garden Planner and Journal helps you:

• Plan monthly indoor and outdoor planting for vegetables, herbs, fruit, and flowers
• Follow updated monthly to-do lists with watering guidelines, fertilizing, and pruning reminders
• Map beds and track seeds, harvests, pests, and what you learned

Best for: gardeners who want a simple system they can repeat every year, plus a record of what worked. Purchase the garden journal here.

The simplest way to use all three together

• Start with the Perpetual Calendar to see what is timely this month.
• Use the Vegetable and Flower Guides to choose your crops and confirm spacing and timing.
• Use the Garden Planner and Journal to map where everything goes and track what happens.

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5 Steps to Plan Your Garden

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1. Draw out the layout of your garden

Use graph paper, Google Earth, and online garden-planning tools (or a combination of all three) to create an aerial view of your garden beds and planting areas.

Diagram your garden and add as much detail as possible, including raised beds, containers, and in-ground areas.

• Create separate “zoomed-in” diagrams of each bed if desired.
• Label any trellises or vertical structures so you know where vertical gardening is an option.
• Label areas by the amount of sunlight they receive (full sun, part sun, afternoon shade, etc.). This may change depending on the season, and in hot summer areas it may change if you add shade cloth.
• Assign each planting area a number or letter on your layout. This makes it easy to describe where crops will be planted on your Garden Planning Worksheet (get the free printable at the top of this post).

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2. Make a list of what you would like to plant

Use calendars or monthly planting lists to narrow your options

Start with the current month and the upcoming month. Get ideas for what you would like to plant.

• Make a list of what you can plant outside now.
• Note what you can start indoors now.
• If you feel behind, the Calendar helps you quickly see what is still worth planting.

Use the Vegetable and Flower Guides to choose what you plant

Once you have a short list, read the “How to Grow” guides for the crops you are considering.

• Confirm timing for starting seeds indoors and planting outside.
• Check spacing to see what realistically fits.
• Read the timing notes and practical tips so you don’t have to guess.

Then fill out your Garden Planning Worksheet

Use your local planting guide to list what you want to plant on your Garden Planning Worksheet (download the free printable at the top of this article). Complete as much information as possible. The more information you include now, the easier it is to decide what goes where.

Fill in the following information for each crop:

• Whether you will plant from seeds or transplants
• How many you would like to plant
• Spacing requirements for each plant (square-foot gardening makes this step simple)
• Sunlight requirements (especially important in hot summer areas like the low desert of Arizona)
• Whether the crop grows best vertically and needs a trellis

Tip: If you use the Garden Planner and Journal, this is a great place to write your “priority list” for the season. What do you want most, and what is optional if space runs out?

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3. Decide where to plant each crop

Take note of what is already growing in your diagram. In warm climates, many crops remain in place year-round, such as peppers and perennial herbs.

Now decide where to plant each crop using the information from your Garden Planning Worksheet and garden diagram.

Write the area (the number or letter you assigned to each garden area) on your Garden Planning Worksheet. Use a pencil if you are writing it out. This step takes some adjusting.

Use your Planner and Journal to make this step easier

If you are using the Garden Planner and Journal:

• Sketch each bed on the mapping pages.
• Assign crops to each bed based on spacing and sun needs.
• Track what you planted where so crop rotation is easier next season.
• Make quick notes on pests, varieties you loved, and what did not work.

Things to keep in mind as you place crops

• Rotate where you plant crops each season. Planting in the same location can lead to pest and disease build-up in the soil. Rotate legumes, root crops, fruit crops, and leaf crops from year to year.
• Use seasonal checklists to help you prepare for the upcoming season (Spring Garden Checklist, How to Prepare Your Garden for Summer, Fall Planting Guide).
• Plant a variety of crops in each bed to increase biodiversity and attract a wider range of beneficial insects and pollinators. Resist the urge to plant all of one crop in one location.
• Try planting different varieties of the same crop in different parts of the garden. Corn is the exception, grow it together for pollination. Read this article for more information about companion planting. 
• Pay attention to spacing and avoid over-planting. Good airflow matters.
• Adjust planting amounts as needed if there is not enough room or if you have extra room.

Including a Three Sisters bed in your seasonal plan is a great way to maximize space and harvest multiple crops from one bed.

Once you’ve planned your crops, this post shows how to bring that plan to life with raised beds and backyard layout ideas.

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4. Purchase seeds and transplants

Let’s be honest, sometimes this is the first thing we do, and then we have to figure out how to make it all fit.

Look at your list and decide:

• Which plants you will sow from seed directly in the garden
• The seeds you will start indoors
• Which crops you will purchase as transplants

Some plants do best when started from seed directly in the garden. This blog post can help if you are trying to decide which is best and when to start seeds indoors. 

• Purchase seeds. See my favorite seeds here.
• Start seeds indoors.
• Purchase transplants.

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5. Plant and enjoy your garden

Using your plan, plant seeds and transplants in your garden. Don’t forget to label plants.

Make changes and adjustments as needed. Note changes on your Garden Planning Worksheet and update your garden diagram. Keeping that information accurate helps a lot when it is time to rotate crops and plan the next season.

If everything doesn’t go according to plan, that’s okay. Enjoy the process. Build on what you learn each season.

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Ready to learn more about garden design? Join me for in-person classes or online in my monthly Growing in the Garden Academy. I cover this and dozens of other timely gardening topic. Visit Patreon to start learning today, and don’t miss my class: Garden Design Fundamentals.

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