The garden's first year, planned against the sowing calendar
A garden is decided by dates you cannot move. Plan the first year as a board with the sowing window, the sun and the spacing on each thing, so what you buy in February is what can actually go in.
The short version
Gardens fail on timing more than on skill. Every seed has a sowing window measured in weeks, and missing it costs a year. Keep the window, the sun the spot actually gets and the spacing on each item, and buy tools once rather than replacing cheap ones each spring.
A sample board
The first year
Beds, tools and what goes in when. The calendar is the part that does not negotiate.
- Items
- 6
- Have it
- 1 of 6
- Total
- $173
- Budget
- $277 left of $450
Open any item for its details.
$18Have itStore · Fielder HomeSow · Mar to MaySpacing · 30 cm
$24To buyStore · OaklineMaterial · StainlessBuy once · Yes
$42ShortlistStore · RavelDiameter · 40 cmFrost proof · Yes
$38ShortlistStore · Halden & CoCut · 20 mmBuy once · Yes
$32ShortlistStore · NorrlandCapacity · 9LRose · Included
$19ShortlistStore · FellsideMaterial · GoatskinBuy once · No
Board photos from Unsplash, by micheile henderson, Jeremy Boley, Annie Spratt, Markus Spiske, Willy the Wizard and Jonathan Kemper.
Who it's for
Anyone starting a garden, an allotment or a first set of raised beds, buying tools and seeds at the same time.
What people use today
GrowVeg and Seedtime do proper bed layout and succession planting, and they are better at that than this is. They assume you have already decided what to grow. The board is for the deciding, when it is twenty seed packets and a shed with nothing in it.
What a board tracks here
Fields you name yourself, on the item they belong to. These are the ones that decide a purchase and have nowhere else to live.
- Sow window
- Weeks, not months, and missing it costs a whole year rather than a weekend.
- Sun
- What the spot actually gets, which is rarely what the label assumes.
- Spacing
- The number that decides how much you can actually plant, and it is on the back of the packet.
- Buy once
- Whether this is a tool that lasts twenty years or one you replace next spring.
Start one of your own.
Paste a link from any store and Vurra reads the page for a title, price and image. Free while Vurra is in early access.