A logical approach to designing a productive and enjoyable garden this season:
Before you pick up a spade or open a planner, you need to understand the unique characteristics of your space. A successful vegetable garden starts with a realistic assessment of three key factors:
Most vegetables require 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight to thrive. Observe your garden throughout a full day to identify where shadows fall from buildings, trees, or sheds. Remember that shadows are much longer in the winter and early spring than they are in mid-summer.
Healthy plants start with healthy soil. Check for low-lying areas that collect standing water after rain, as "wet feet" can cause root rot in most vegetables. If your soil is heavy clay or very sandy, you may need to plan for raised beds or significant organic amendments.
Take note of permanent structures like fences, trees, and sheds. These can provide useful windbreaks or vertical growing supports, but they can also compete with your vegetables for water and light. Mapping these first ensures your new layout integrates perfectly with your yard.
Pro Tip: Don't forget to locate your nearest water source. Lugging heavy watering cans across a large garden is a common mistake for new planners!
A useful plan is based on suitably accurate data. You don't need surveyor-level precision, but knowing the dimensions of your plot prevents the frustration of finding out your new raised beds don't fit where you planned.
For a high-precision plan, a 30-meter (100ft) tape measure is the best tool. If you’re in a rush, even "pacing out" your plot—where one large step roughly equals one meter—is enough to create a functional foundation for your 2026 layout.
Start by measuring the perimeter (the "outline") of your garden. Then, locate "fixed points" that won't move—like the corner of your house, a fence post, or a shed. Measuring the distance between these points allows you to anchor your digital plan to the real world.
By establishing these measurements now, you create a permanent "base map". Once this is in your digital planner, you’ll never have to measure your garden again. You can simply drag and drop new ideas onto your scale layout as your garden evolves year after year.
This is the creative phase where your assessment and measurements come together. Designing a layout is about more than just where the plants go; it is about creating a space that is functional, accessible, and productive.
One of the most common mistakes is making beds too wide. Ensure your vegetable beds are no more than 1.2 meters (4ft) wide so you can reach the center from either side without stepping on the soil. Keep your main paths wide enough for a wheelbarrow—usually around 60–90cm.
Position heavy or permanent items like sheds, greenhouses, or large compost bins first. In a 2026 garden plan, you should also consider vertical space. Use north-facing fences or walls for climbing plants like beans or cucumbers so they don't shade out smaller crops.
On paper, every change requires an eraser. Digitally, you can "sketch" a layout, duplicate it, and try a completely different configuration in seconds. This allows you to compare a traditional row layout against an intensive block-style design to see which yields more for your specific space.
With your layout designed, it is time to choose your crops. While it is tempting to grow everything you see in a seed catalog, a successful 2026 harvest depends on what you enjoy eating and, most importantly, what your climate allows.
It sounds obvious, but many gardeners grow crops they rarely use. Focus your space on vegetables that are significantly better when home-grown (like tomatoes and sweetcorn) or items that are expensive to buy at the store.
One of the best features of VegPlotter is that its garden planning tools automatically adjust to your local climate. By knowing your location, the software calculates your specific growing window so you don't have to.
If you are planning on paper we recommend using a frost date and growing zone calculator to find your exact last spring frost date, first autumn frost date, and growing zone.
Instead of planting everything at once, consider "Succession Sowing." Planting a few lettuce seeds every two weeks ensures a steady supply of greens throughout the season, rather than a single massive harvest that goes to waste.
Now that you know what you want to grow, the next challenge is knowing when to get those seeds in the ground. A common mistake is planting everything on the first warm day of spring, only to have half your crops fail because the soil was too cold or the season wasn't long enough.
VegPlotter takes the guesswork out of timing by generating a personalized Planting Calendar. Tailored to your local climage data, the software creates a month-by-month schedule showing exactly when to sow seeds indoors, when to transplant them outside, and when to expect your first harvest.
By seeing your entire 2026 season laid out visually, you can easily spot gaps in your garden. If you see a quiet period in July, that is your cue to plan a second crop of carrots or beets to keep your soil productive and your kitchen stocked.
We want you to triumph and deliver your most organised and productive vegetable garden!
No more forgetting what you wanted to plant, when or where. You can design your garden in minutes, using our Vegetable Garden Planner with its inituitive drag and drop interface.
Then, plan out your planting calendar as far into the future as you want.
"Fantastic! I’m thrilled. You’ve done truly excellent work and made a tool that has made gardening loads easier."
VC Smith
"I just discovered your website over the weekend to plan my garden! It was very user friendly and helpful!!"
S Watkins
"Thanks so much for that great app (saving lots of paper!). We are using it to plan all our garden this year and so far it's been quite a success."
Anonymous
Using some twine or counting strides will quickly give you rough measurements of your plot and beds
Use the simple drag and drop interface to add your plot
Plan your garden/allotment month by month adding plants as they go in or plan months/years ahead
Use your smartphone to check/update your monthly plans from your allotment or garden
Easy for everyone to use! All can have a garden planned in minutes.
With our month by month approach you can plan all aspects of your vegetable garden as far in to the future as you need...
from when to sow your seed, to when to put up your plant supports or cloches.
Our Garden Planner lets you know what plants go well together.
Select a plant on your plan and a list of good companions for it appears in the menu.
Avoid plant pests and deseases.
The planner will warn you if your are planning to put similar plants in the same spot.
Track and record the progress of your garden plan by adding notes and photos to items on your garden plan.
Never forget planting instructions: Take a picture of your the seed packets and upload the the planting row in your garden plan.
