Planning Our First Garden

For the last several years we’ve been telling ourselves, “Next year we’re having a garden!”. Well, this time we’re actually doing it. We’re not lying this time. Seriously.

I’ve heard Curtis Stone state on a couple of his videos that you could tarp an area over winter to prep a spot in your yard for a garden. This kills the grass and weeds so you can have an easier time with your garden plot, from what I understand. We’re planning on using raised beds but thought tarping the area (solarization) would help us prep the area and, most importantly for us, force us to put in a garden since we now will have a large area of dead grass in the yard.

The general consensus for new gardeners is to start small with a 4′ x 8′ plot. Nah. The tarp I bought is 12′ x 20′. It’s not huge but not small, either. In that 12′ x 20′ area we plan on having raised beds and pathways covered with mulch.

Over the next month or two, we’ll plot out the size of the raised beds and pathways. Then, we’ll determine where to place the vegetables we’re hoping to plant using the square foot planting method and this tool.

How would you plant a 12′ x 20′ garden bed? Leave a comment below.