Everyone approaches gardening in different ways and there are many variables (for instance climate, soil type/pH/fertility, sun/shade, aspect, wind exposure and much more) that can affect where to grow your plants. Every garden is unique, so there's no one perfect layout for your plants. However, the Garden Planner has a few nifty features to help simplify the process of choosing what goes where.
Crop family
First, look at the colored background on each plant icon. This indicates which crop family the plant belongs to, and makes it easy to group plants for ease of maintenance (for instance it's usually necessary to grow all brassicas, or cabbage family plants, under netting to protect them from pests) and crop rotation. Alternatively, some gardeners prefer to mix up the plant families in order to confuse insect pests that prey on particular crops.
Choose plants that meet your needs
You can use the filter options to show only plants that meet certain criteria in the plant selector. You can choose from several different criteria including crop family, easy to grow, frost tolerant, partial shade tolerant, and suitable for autumn planting.
Succession Planting
You can use the Succession Planting feature to make most efficient use of your garden space. Set in-ground dates for your plants, then view your plan month-by-month so you can quickly see where and when gaps will appear as plants are harvested.
Companion Planting
The Garden Planner can recommend beneficial growing partners for your crops that will help to attract pollinators, confuse pests, or which have other benefits.
