The unseasonably warm weather here in the GTA has really kicked my thoughts of vegetable gardening into overdrive. Definitely a good sign, because it means that last year's first steps into veggie gardening weren't a phase. As I'd mentioned in my last post, we'll be creating two square foot gardens this year, rather than one, with the new vegetable garden dedicated to salad ingredients. I'm still unsure about everything that's going into this salad garden, aside from some leaf lettuce, spinach and now cilantro (thanks to BD for the suggestion!); however, one thing I am sure about is that I need to start planning.
This year veggie garden planning means finding a good online vegetable garden planner. While there are lots of printable grids and vegetable garden planning Excel templates, there aren't many options when it comes to finding an online vegetable garden planner. My first search mission has lead me to three possible options. Overall, all of the vegetable garden planners are very easy to use. They're completely online, there's nothing to download and all are fairly printer friendly, should you wish to have a hard copy of your vegetable garden planner. Each of the three displays plants in the square foot garden format. Meaning, four heads of leafs lettuce per square, 1 tomato plant, 9 spinach plants, and so on. I am a square foot gardener, so this is exactly the type of vegetable garden planner I was looking for. Now, on to my discoveries:
The vegetable garden planner from Eat Close to Home offers a very basic vegetable garden planner with extremely simple drag and drop usability.
The Pros: Aside from its simplicity, the most interesting thing about this planner is the seasonality option. You can click on different months located below your planting grid and see what stage each plant should be in during this specific time. As an added bonus, there are some interesting side links to posts containing recipes and information on canning.
The Cons: Again, the simplicity. The list of vegetable options is very limited and this planner isn't exactly what one might call pretty ...if you're into that sort of thing.
This fresh and very vibrantly colored page is only part of an overall useful, primarily ecommerce site. The online vegetable garden planner specifically, is very user-friendly. First of all, you have the option of adjusting your garden size, so whether you're planting a 4X4, 4X6, or a fabulous 4X20 row raised vegetable garden you'll be able to plan it out perfectly with this online option.
The Pros: This is just an overall great vegetable garden planner. The flexibility of the grid design is very helpful, and there are a few more varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs and flowers than in the previous example. The other great thing about this planner is something as simple as the pictures. I need to see the little radishes and heads of lettuce populating my grid, and this definitely delivers.
The Cons: While the Vegetable Gardening Online vegetable garden planner offers more veggie variety than the Eat Close to Home planner, I would still like to see some more variety included.
There is much about Gardener's Supply Company's vegetable garden planner that makes it similar to the planner put out by Vegetable Gardening Online. It offers an adjustable grid and has an attractive graphical element and an ok assortment of veggies, fruits, etc. However, there are two things that set it apart from the other vegetable garden planners.
The Pros: There are two HUGE pros to mention here. #1 is that in addition to everything mentioned above, this vegetable garden planner adds little sections of planting information at the bottom half of the page whenever a new plant is added to the grid. Very helpful for a beginner level gardener. The second handy item here is the Design Your Site Map tab. Click on this tab and you can arrange your entire gardening space with either your own saved gardens or a really neat selection of pre-planned vegetable gardens, such as the All American Garden, the kitchen herb garden, and the salad bar garden. All in all, the Gardener's Supply Company's vegetable garden planner is a wonderful tool for beginner to intermediate gardeners who want to have a little fun playing online.
The Cons: As with the others, a broader selection of veggies would be welcome.
If you know of any other vegetable garden planners online, please send them my way; I'd love to have a look!
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