CHAPTER EIGHT 
PLANNING THE GARDEN 
Let us sit down by the crackling fire and lay out plans 
for the year. 
Old Farmer’s Almanac 
THE arrangement of every home vegetable garden 
should be worked out according to a plan made several 
weeks in advance of the earliest planting dates. This 
will allow time for buying seed before planting time. 
The plan should show the kinds of crops to be grown, the 
relative location of each, and the space to be given to 
each kind. 
Such points as the size of the garden plot, the kind of 
soil, the drainage, the exposure to sunlight, how the 
garden is to be cultivated, the local climatic conditions, 
the particular needs of the crops to be grown, the family 
tastes and preferences for vegetables, and whether the 
family will be away during the summer, are all matters 
to be considered in planning the garden. It will help 
greatly in deciding what crops should be grown and how 
much of each it is best to plant, if a definite plan of the 
garden is made. 
Making the plan. In drawing a plan it is best to draw 
to a scale. This means that the garden itself is first 
measured and then the plan of it is drawn so that each 
inch on the plan represents a certain number of feet 
in the garden.. If the garden is small the plan may be 
drawn on a scale of 2 feet to the inch; for the moderate- 
sized garden it is better to use a scale of 4 feet to the 
inch; and for the very large garden a scale of 8 feet to 
the inch may be necessary. In this way, by using the 
divisions on an ordinary ruler ( such as 4 inch, + inch, 
go 
