Quick Garden Planning Guide for Beginners to Try

Taking a dive into the world of gardening but wondering where to even begin? First, read through this garden planning guide. It is essential for beginner gardeners. Then it is time to either read how to start a vegetable garden or what tools will help you get started gardening! It might also be helpful to learn how to raised bed garden, if that is your plan!

Keep reading for my best quick-start garden planning guide!

Why You Should Garden + Benefits

Gardening is awesome for many reasons! It’s not just about growing stuff—it’s about hanging out with nature and feeling good.

When you garden, you get to move around and exercise, which is healthy.
Plus, you can grow your own food, which means you can eat fresh and help the planet.

It doesn’t matter if you have a big garden or just a few pots on a balcony—gardening makes you feel proud and happy when your plants grow.

So, whether you’re new to gardening or you’ve been doing it for a while, it’s a cool hobby that makes life better in lots of ways!

Gardening Guide for Beginners

Here are my most tried-and-true garden planning tips to get you started (and fast!) this season!

Flesh Out Your Goals

Before you start ordering seeds, tubers, or cuttings, stop and think about your goals for what you grow. Are you growing for pure enjoyment? Are you growing veggies to replace the grocery store? Are you growing as a side hustle, for a special occasion, to show blooms at a local fair, or are you starting a serious farm?

It’s important to keep your reason for growing at the forefront when making your plan.

Get Comfortable with the Uncomfortable

Often, when we try something new, it can be frightening. We’ve all been there – “what if I fail?” And guess what? You will fail, there will be little failures all along the way.

I am in my fourth year flower farming and I still have failed! It’s all part of it, but please don’t let that fear stop you from trying.

I am afraid of different things now than I was in the beginning, but I still have to push aside my fear and decide that I’m going to just go for it.

Start Big and Work Small

We say this often at the farm because it’s the best way we’ve found to construct a plan.

Start with your big vision, then work backwards from there through the details. This takes some thinking and brain power so work on this part when you have a quiet moment!

You can think about things like if you’re growing flowers as a side hustle, how many bouquets do you need to sell per week to cover costs?

If you’re growing for pure enjoyment, which figure dahlia and zinnia and other varieties make you the happiest? Grow what you love!

If you’d like to make bouquets for a special occasion, plan out your color scheme and bloom wish list and work backwards from that knowing the date by which you need them ready.

I have a bunch of blog posts about the nitty gritty of how to plan your garden and more help on goal setting!

Spreadsheets are Your Friend

I don’t know about you, but I struggle to keep all the details in my brain!

Making a spreadsheet of and listing out all the different varieties of dahlias and other cut flowers we’re planting here on the farm is an absolute necessity.

Most of you probably aren’t planning to plant acres of flowers, but I’m guessing that you’re probably like me and always want to try one more new variety or squeeze in one more dahlia.

There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’ll save you time and money to know what seeds/tubers/rooted cuttings you’ve already purchased or saved from last year.

Plan Your Space

Gardening space is a limited commodity, so one of the first things you must do is make sure you have enough room for all the flowers and veggies you plan to grow.

You’ll want to plan out adequate spacing, as well as taking into account the way the sun moves over the garden, access to a water source and whether the soil is ready for planting or needs amending heights of your different plants.

It always helps me to get out a sheet of graph paper and draw the space to scale to see how many plants I can reasonably fit.

Make A Seed Starting Plan

After you’ve done your planning, you may want to plan your seed starting schedule for indoor and direct sowing. Depending on your growing zone and last frost date, some of you may have already begun this delightful task.

This month (March) in Zone 6b New York, our hands will be deep in the earth as we nestle cold hardy seedlings into their beds, direct sow seeds for cool flowers, nurture our dahlia cuttings, and divide the last dahlia tubers.

Gardening friends, imagine your delight as a bloom unfurls despite the odds—this is much like our floral journeys.

Short though it may be, the message is clear: like a hearty seed breaking through tough soil, so should we blossom through both trials and triumph. Trust in the process, tend to your blooms with heart, and remember, every setback is ripe ground for growth.

Together, we’ll cultivate not just gardens, but resilience. I can’t wait to share these horticultural treasures with you and to see what beauty comes out of your gardens this season!