Plotting a Plan

January is a great month for kicking back by the fire and pouring over seed catalogs. By February, their pages are soft and dog-eared. I’m full of inspiration and chomping at the bit to get started, but, in these parts, Mother Nature isn’t quite ready for me to dig in the dirt yet, so I do the next best thing. I come up with a plan.

A sketchbook, reserved specifically for this brainstorming activity, is the best way for me to organize all of the plants that I’d like to grow and harvest this year. I start by simply drawing the overall shape of the kitchen garden and then, using “bubble diagram forms,” I block out and label areas where certain kinds of plants have done well. For example: my lettuce likes it cooler (upper left corner), and where the peppers thrive, it’s very sunny and hot (the entire right side).

By putting my Kitchen Garden dreams down on paper first, I can keep refining my thoughts and choices with each new page. While the soil in the Connecticut Country garden may be set with stone, the plan for the garden is not. It’s flexible, easy, and a wonderful way to get excited about the fast approaching growing season.

Some of my favorite seed companies:

John Scheepers Kitchen Garden Seeds – http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com

High Mowing Organic Seeds –  http://www.highmowingseeds.com

Territorial Seed Company –  http://www.territorialseed.com

The Whole Seed Catalog – http://www.rareseeds.com

Happy planning!

Love, Nora