Planning Ahead to Maximize Productivity in Your Home Garden
by Emily Skelton

A great thing about gardening is that each site and each individual gardener are so unique that, even with sound planning, prodigious experimentation is often rewarded with increased productivity. To help you maximize the fun while you experiment with your garden here are a few tips on the planning process. Before you get started consider these four topics for maximizing productivity; diversity, succession planting, microclimates, and companion planting.

Diversity A diverse garden ecosystem builds resilience and increases production.

· Beneficial insect numbers increase with a diverse garden that is a natural backyard ecosystem. Natural predators help reduce populations of pests such as aphids. Interplant plenty of flowers to attract and hold beneficials. Our "Beneficial Insect Attracting Flower Collection" is a great way increase diversity while saving over 25% on individual pack prices. You can also combat pest outbreaks and increase numbers of beneficial insects such as the lacewing or 'aphid lion' by introducing them directly to the garden or greenhouse. Our Beneficial Insect Packages are a great way to accomplish this.

· Pollinators are attracted to a diverse garden with many flowering plant varieties such as our NEW Red Vein Crabapple or Siberian Crabapple will attract bees to your other apple trees for increased pollination, as well as to other plants in your vegetable garden, such as melons and squash. Our Pollinator Attracting Flower Collection is offers 8 flowers known for their abilities to lure these important insects to you garden.

· A diverse diet is not only more nutritious but is also more interesting from a culinary standpoint. Your health and your palate are both important and can both be satisfied with good garden planning. Summer squash corn chowder is so much better when we walk out our back door and pick the ingredients ourselves. There is nothing like a selection of juicy heirloom tomato picked at the peak of ripeness for a summer salad. Our many seed collections and seedling packages are a great way to bring diverse taste and nutrition to the garden.

Succession Planting and Intercropping These are essential strategies for prolonged harvests and extended blooming.

· Succession planting, or sowing the same crop at intervals of a few weeks, is a great way to assure a steady harvest of short season crops such as radishes, gourmet greens, and spinach or lettuce. Succession planting can be integrated with cover cropping and other rotations.

· Intercropping of short and long season varieties saves space, protects soil and builds diversity into the garden. Short season varieties, especially early cool-loving species bok choy or mustard, can occupy the space where later, long-season varieties like yacon or squash will fill in. The early crops will protect the soil from the drying sun and eroding rains while increasing productivity. Allow a few mustards to flower to attract hoverflies and other beneficials.

· Integrate annual and perennial flowers by sowing annual flowers between newly established perennial herbs and flowers. When planting perennials we like to leave plenty of space for them to grow into as they establish themselves. Planting annuals in those spaces maximizes the productivity and beauty of the garden and can result in some gorgeous new combinations of color and form. Some of our favorites are below. For more on establishing perennial beds see eNewsletter # 28 and tips for growing herbs in eNewsletter #36.

· Two perennial flowers that look gorgeous together are Peach Leaf Campanula (purple) and Cardinal Flower (red). Try planting these side by side with the slightly taller Sunrise Cosmos behind them, and the shorter Lemon Gem Marigold in front or between.


· Sow poppies in the fall or winter for the earliest spring blooms. Our new and unusual Iceland Poppy as well as Oriental Scarlet are two perennial varieties to plant with other favorites like: Hungarian Blue Bread Seed Poppy, Mixed Carnation Poppy, and White Peshwar Poppy.


· For a very blue spring try planting these three annuals: Bluebell Larkspur, Blue Spire Larkspur, and Bachelor Buttons, along with the perennial Delphinium Belladona.


· For gorgeous mid summer to fall blooms try these three perennials together: Double Gold Rudbeckia and Goblin Gaillardia, with the taller Gloriosa Daisy behind. Complimentary annuals include Maroon Coreopsis, Pinwheel Marigold, and Jerusalem Dwarf Sunflower.

Microclimates These are created in niches of all sizes in your garden.

· Consider the shade created by an impressive row of seven foot tall Russian Mammoth Sunflowers. In the hot summer sun this is an ideal, cool microclimate for growing our new Emerald Oak Lettuce, or to trellis our new Gold Marie Vining Bean.

· Windbreaks reduce evaporative transpiration from the leaves of plants and they minimize growth stunting in stressed plants.

· Plant Black African Sorghum, or Maximillian Sunflower corn, or other tall crops closely together as a tight hedge on the side of the garden from where the wind prevails.


· Trellis peas, beans, or a morning glory like Grandpa Ott's for a windbreak. Position two trellis's about one and a half feet apart and plant lettuce or gourmet greens on the downwind side.

· Cover Crops decrease soil temperature, significantly slow down evaporation from the soil surface, and create microhabitats for a diverse insect and reptilian population. Cover Crops feed soil organisms; reduce soil erosion, and suppress weeds. Try growing a legume (a nitrogen-fixing plant such a pea, clover, or vetch) with a grass, or oat for added nutrient building power.

· Season Extenders like coldframes, row cover or wall-o-waters can greatly extend the growing season by protecting from frosts and significantly increasing daytime temperatures, but care must be taken to avoid overheating.

Companion Planting Certain plants, like people, get along better with some plants than others. Experiment with different combinations of companions for healthier plants, increased nutrition, physical complementation, and better relationships between weeds, animals, and insects.

· Cucumbers thrive in the shade of corn or sunflowers. Add peas to this mix for extra nitrogen in the soil.

· If you have White Flies, plant marigolds and Aztec Nicotiana or Sylvestris Nicotiana. The marigolds secrete a strong tasting substance that the flies don't like. The Nicotiana has a sticky substance under the leaves that the white flies get stuck to.

· For better tasting Butter Lettuce, plant one spinach plant for every four lettuce plants.

· Basil grown with tomatoes improves growth and flavor in the tomatoes.

· Chamomile planted with cabbage and onions improves their growth and flavor.

· Plant summer savory with beans and onions to improve growth and flavor and to deter bean beetles.

For more ideas to help you plan a thriving, productive and diverse garden, visit the "Digging in the Dirt" Section of our website, or consult the following books:

Great Garden Companions by Sally Cunningham
The Sustainable Vegetable Garden by John Jeavons and Carol Cox
The Weedless Garden by Lee Reich