Figuring Out the Size of the Garden

Right now I am working on a layout for my garden.  The space I have to work with is basically a blank slate with a tree on either side.  The land does have a gentle slope and I plan to incorporate that with the layout of the beds in the garden to make the most efficient use of water in this system.  I won't have access to irrigation for my garden and want to keep my watering to a bare minimum, so I plan on making some sort of drip irrigation system and using heavy mulch to conserve moisture in the soil.  The mulch will also help improve the soil over time as it breaks down and adds organic matter to my dusty, rocky soil.

My last garden had eight 3 x 10 foot beds which gave me a total of 240 square feet of garden space.  I am going to try to make the garden at least that size again this year with plans for expanding it as time and energy allow.  I also try to allow at least two feet for walking paths between the beds to make it easy to move around in the garden for watering and pulling weeds.  The only problem I have found with narrow paths is that they tend to become overgrown by the end of the season, but that just means that my garden is doing well!

The area I am going to work is going to be about 10 x 40 ft which should give me enough room for 8 beds again.  I try to stick to a three foot width for each bed because that is the most comfortable for reaching across for planting, weeding and harvesting.  I tend to plant my beds as densly as possible and avoid row planting because I feel like I can fit more plants in a bed than in a row.  It also helps to discourage weed growth if I can space the plants so that they are just touching when they reach full size.  It does take a little practice to determine how far apart plants should be, but after a few years of gardening you tend to get a general idea.  Most seed packets give guidelines for plant spacing, but those are mostly for planting in rows and plants can still do well even when slightly crowded.  Some types of plants like squash need alot more space than called for on seed packets and I try to plant them at the edges of the garden so they have room to roam.

I have decided to only give one bed to each type of vegetable that I want to grow next year, though ideally, some crops like potatoes and onions should get two to three beds if I am going to grow enough to last me a full year.  I also tend to plant what I call fill in crops in whatever spaces I can find between my main crops.  Things like carrots, lettuce, and radishes will be scattered throughout the garden which maximizes my use of space.  I also have been experimenting with succession planting to extend harvests of some of my crops, though I find it difficult to remember to plant successions after the main planting because I get caught up in garden chores.  Perhaps a calender of planting dates will keep me on track next year.