Map your space, place your crops, then build a week-by-week planting calendar you can use all season.

<aside> 📌

What you’ll learn

• How to map your growing space and make layout decisions that match your constraints.
• How to work backwards from harvest dates to build a planting schedule that makes sense.
• How to decide what to start from seed indoors, what to direct sow, and what to buy as transplants (if any). </aside>

<aside> 🗓️

What you’ll need:

• Graph paper if you have it, but any paper will do
• Pens + post-its (anything to differentiate what you’re looking at!)
• If applicable, a list of your old seeds. </aside>

What you walk away with

• A completed garden plan with a drawn and mapped layout.
• A week-by-week spring planting schedule for your zone.
• Clarity on what to start when and where

The planning flow

1) Quick review: what you should know before you plan

What we covered in Workshop 1: Prep before you plant

The short list

• Your zone. (Zone = cold tolerance for perennials. Frost dates = your planting windows.)
• Your last spring frost and first fall frost.
• Your sun situation for the growing area you picked.
• Your setup is decided (containers, raised beds, or in-ground), and you know what you can realistically manage.
• Your watering plan is realistic for your week.

Write down your constraints

• Sun: hours, plus shade patterns you noticed.