Designing Your Food Garden for Better Yields | Be a Planner, Not a Planter

With a little planning before you plant, you can design a garden that's a lot more resilient during the growing period and a lot more productive at harvest time. So in this video I'll show you some tips on how to make that happen. Now when it comes to gardening I often talk about the difference between being a planter and a planter. A planter wastes no time getting those plants in the ground and while that can be good for getting those plants off to a fast start, is that really the best thing? No, definitely not. A planter on the other hand thinks through the best placement for those plants to meet the longer term objectives. Unlike people, plants can't get up and move if they're not happy in their current location. It's all about right plant, right place. And if we're talking about a food garden, designing your garden to take advantage of a plant's growth habit can lead to better yields. Now first things first, make sure that your soil is as good as it can be especially when it comes to drainage. So if you're not there, go ahead and spend some time up front improving the drainage. And secondly, the amount of sunlight you get is very important to set your plants up for success. Shoot for at least six hours of direct sunlight per day, especially with edibles, but if you can get to eight, that is great. Now the next thing to consider in designing your garden for maximum efficiency is placement of your plants within the garden. For example, in the northern hemisphere, the sun is shining down from a southern exposure. So for me, that's from up there down in this direction, which puts this part of the garden on the north side. So put your tallest crops such as peas like I have here, or corn, okra, pole beans, or tomato plants on the north or west side of your garden. And then next, place your mid-sized crops to the south or the east of the taller plants. And then place your lowest growing plants to the south or the east of your mid-sized plants. If you follow this design layout, you will be taking advantage of the opportunity that all your plants have to get the most amount of sunlight possible. The taller plants won't shade out the mid-sized plants, nor the smaller plants to the south or to the east of the mid-sized plants, nor will the mid-sized plants cast any shade on the taller plants or the shorter plants to the east or to the south of them. It's a win-win-win all the way around. It's easy to do, and all it requires is a little planning on the front end.