Stuart Woodcraft

Garden plans? Yeah, we have those!

Last month, I asked Ian to bring home graphing paper. Because we are building a garden from scratch this year and I wanted to be precise about the overall size and materials needed.

We went through several designs, with the vision becoming more clear and detailed each time. Sketching out the garden was a lot of help. Below are the different ideas.

Design number one. Ian said we needed a hexagon-shaped garden. He doodled a persuasive sketch on the fridge white board.

I had a lot of questions, but gave it a go.

Hexagons… difficult to measure and draw. Especially for the first sketch. So many angles. For my drawings, one grid paper square = 1 square foot. I wanted all measurements to be exact, so we can apply them to real life.

In the sketch above, the triangle sections are the garden beds. The thin areas in between are pathways. An interesting concept, but hard to execute. Also, there is not a lot of space for plants.

Attempt number two. The garden beds are rectangle this time. Easier to measure and draw, but also… what is the point of having a hexagon perimeter if the beds are rectangle?

The design needed more work.

Attempt number three. I’m not sure what’s going on here.

The garden beds go around the hexagon boarder, with an additional four garden beds in the middle. The pathways form a cross intersection at the center.

The dotted corners represent areas for mulch and flowers. Thinking about it more, I love the idea of a mulch perimeter with flowers. Flowers make a buffer against pests, help with wind block and erosion, and they look nice.

Next attempt. I scrapped the hexagon garden idea. Too complicated.

I decided on a simple square design. Drawing and measurements were a breeze! I played around with vegetable placements following guidelines for companion planting. Some plants grow best next to other plants. More on that topic in a future post.

Notice the dotted border around the edge. That is the mulch perimeter.

Here is the same square garden, but with plans for an irrigation system. We will install a drip tape irrigation system. Again, that is a topic for a future post. But this sketch provides exact measurements for ordering materials and clarifies what connection parts we need.

Mainline poly tubing runs vertically on both ends of the garden beds. Dotted horizontal lines are the drip tape. The circles represent valves. The “Y” and corner symbols are connectors.

I showed the design to my garden partner, who complained that the design is not hexagon. He also said the paths are too narrow.

Valid. The center pathway is only 2-feet wide, so a wheelbarrow cannot fit inside the garden. The pathway inside the fence perimeter and between garden beds is only 1-foot wide. Too narrow for people to move around.

I accepted the sizing critique and decided the garden should be BIGGER. The previous garden design was 20 x 20 square feet, making a total area of 400 square feet.

The updated design is 25 x 25 square feet. It is divisible by five, because it helps with calculations. Here, I rearrange the plant friends to different garden beds.

This design has a sit-down area with a bench near the entrance. Ian mentioned that a “staging” area would help, so we can put down tools and organize plants.

The concept of a garden spigot makes a first appearance here (a square symbol with a “W”). A hose connects to the spigot. We can shut off water from the garden area instead of hiking back to the house.

Unfortunately, after running the calculations for fencing material, irrigation, compost, and mulch, the cost is too pricey. It is a luxury garden!

The final design. I go back to a 20 x 20-square foot design. The plants are rearranged one more time.

I’ve been watching videos and reading blogs about gardens. A lot of people recommend a 30-inch wide (2.5 foot wide) garden bed. Not only is the width easy for stepping across, but many market gardens use 30-inch wide beds. If the garden bed is 30-inches wide and 10-feet long, then the total area equals 250 square feet. Calculating materials and the harvest yield becomes easier, plus gardening equipment is standardized to match that width.

We are only a hobby garden, but the benefits make sense.

Following the advice of another garden blog, I made the pathway between garden beds 2-foot wide. The middle pathway is 4-foot wide for a wheelbarrow.

Here are the calculations for the final design. They look like the scribblings of a mad scientist. As it turns out, garden planning is all about math. Calculating size. Calculating materials. Calculating planting dates.

I pulled these helpful numbers from an online mulch calculator and by referencing information from our local nursery.

You can input the size of your garden into the mulch calculator, and it tells you how many bags you need to purchase (either in the standard 2-cubic feet or 3-cubic feet size). It also says how many cubic yards you need for a bulk scoop of mulch from your local nursery.

One scoop of mulch is roughly half a cubic yard. A standard truck with a 6-foot bed can carry two scoops of mulch. If you prefer to buy bags, then one scoop is roughly 6.5 bags of mulch (of the standard 2-cubic foot sized bags).

For the final garden design, we need two scoops of compost and six scoops of mulch, plus 17 metal t-posts and 80 feet of chicken wire fencing.

Here are the calculations for the irrigation system and parts. There are so many parts to a drip tape system! It makes more sense when you see the parts. Look forward to our post about that.

So that’s the garden plan. Will the plans transfer to real life? Stay tuned to find out!