Spring Vegetable Garden Planning

Spring vegetable garden success depends largely on proper planning.

If you're fortunate enough to have plenty of room, you can block out space for the spring garden and leave some space empty in readiness for the summer garden. This way, you can plan and plant the summer garden without interference from the spring garden (which by then, you've already harvested).

Succession Planting Is Important in the Spring Garden

Vegetable gardens bring many rewards, but they also bring problems. One of the most typical (and most frustrating) occurs when everything ripens at once. It isn't easy to plan for a continuous harvest of fresh vegetables, especially for the beginner. And the small-space gardener has a bigger challenge than the small plot farm gardener. Vegetable garden 'succession planting' - making the best use of the garden space you have - is the best way to avoid such situations.

The way to a continuous harvest is to make successive planting of small quantities. For example, if you first plant lettuce in March, you can make another planting in April, and another in May. To get a continuous harvest of a vegetable, you must plant the second planting before you harvest the first.

When you graph your succession plantings on paper, the long harvest is much easier to accomplish. It's really not that hard because planting times are decided on by only four factors:

When the soil is workable in the spring
The date of the last spring frost
the date of the first fall frost
and the average time the soil becomes frozen, if ever

Next, look up the vegetable varieties you would like to grow in your spring garden, and note when they should be planted and the average number of days to harvest.

By combining these figures, you'll know what to plant and when, about the time it will be ready to harvest, and when to replant for a steady harvest.

Once you've plotted your succession plantings in this way,
you can make adjustments that will lengthen the harvest season.

Spring Vegetable Garden Planting Schemes

Let's imagine a 25 X 30 foot garden area. We can make a vegetable garden planting scheme that will bring a succession of crops throughout the spring growing season. A small space gardener can either use this scheme as is or adapt it to their available space.

I plotted my spring vegetable garden planting scheme one year using this diagram.

Divide the area into three sections, each approximately 10 feet wide. Plant a 10 X 10 foot block in the first section with early, cool weather crops. In the second 10 X 10 foot block in the next section, plant the same vegetables, but a month later. Or you could try other cool season varieties if you choose.

Leave the third block to plant crops that will be ready to harvest in the fall. Plant the rest of the garden space with warm-season crops, after the soil is thoroughly warmed up.

Some Cool Weather Crops

Here are some examples of cool weather crops you can grow in your spring vegetable garden. When to plant them will depend largely on your climate zone, of course. I, for example, don't plant tomato seeds directly into the soil here in zone 3's short growing season. To ensure ripened tomatoes before the first frost, I choose to plant small tomato transplants.

Early Spring

Plant as soon as ground can be worked in spring:

Broccoli plants
Cabbage plants
Endive
Kohlrabi
Lettuce
Onion sets
Parsley
Peas
Radishes
Spinach
Turnips

Mid-Spring

Plant these at time of the average last killing spring frost:

Carrots
Cauliflower plants
Beets

Onion seeds
Parsnips
Swiss Chard

Plant 2 Weeks Later:

Beans
Corn
Potatoes
Early Tomato Seeds

Spring Vegetable Garden Plan

Coming up with a spring vegetable garden plan can be problematic, but when necessary you can gain time, fill in unanticipated gaps after harvest, or even plant totally with transplants from your local nursery or garden center.

Some of the tastiest foods are grown in the spring vegetable garden and with some initial planning, you can yield a bountiful harvest.
Try growing some Chives this season! Enjoy Your Spring Vegetable Garden!