This is the final draft of our garden layout. When I began the process of planning our garden space, I didn’t even know how a garden was “supposed to be” laid out. Truthfully, I still don’t really know. Gardening is a big game of trial and error. Our final layout is the first attempt and felt like the right place to start.
We did have some advice from my grandma. (BTW, you can read some HER garden blogs on my Mom’s website: imbho.com) And she suggested using this garden planning tool from gardeners.com. While not all of the plants in our garden are on this tool, it was nice to get the basic planting and care information as well as see a rough layout.
My second draft of our layout was done with paper and markers. I still didn’t know what I was doing.
A couple of basics my grandma shared with me:
- Use tall plants to shade smaller plants
- Don’t plant onions, garlic or root veggies near asparagus
The rest was a little bit of googling it and seeing what happens.
I also spelled cantaloupe wrong in my chart… ignore that. 😅

What we are growing:
Most of the seeds and plants were selected by my grandma. We definitely relied on her years of experience and preference to pick the best. Plus, we’ve been eating her veggies for years with no complaints.
We did have to buy a few seeds on our own that are not included in my grandma’s garden.
Tomatoes
- 1 – Cherokee Purple Heirloom (we purchased this starter plant at Lowes.)
- 3 – Better Boy
- 3 – Burpee Big Daddy
- 1 – 4th of July
- 1 – Sweet Hearts Grape
- 1 – Sweet Seedless Hybrid
- 1 – Sweet Tangerine
- Added May 9th in spots of snapped tomato plants | Plants purchased from Stutzmans Greenhouse
- Cherokee Green Heirloom
- Lemon Boy Yellow
Squash & Zucchini
- 2 – Spineless Beauty Zucchini
- 2 – Tigress Zucchini
- 2 – Fordhook Zucchini
- 2 – Yellow Criminal Squash
- 1 – Early Profile Yellow Squash
- 2 – Tivoli Spaghetti Squash
Melons & Pumpkin
- 1 – Golias Pumpkin
- 2 – Triple Crown Seedless Watermelon
- 1 – Sweetie Pie Hybrid Watermelon
- 3 – Park’s Whopper Hybrid Cantaloupe
Misc. Plants & Herbs
- Yellow Onions
- I wish I had more info, we had to buy these at Johnson’s Garden Center and they had one unmarked option.
- 2 – Shallots
- 8 – Garlic
- 1 – Sweet Karma Peppers
- 2 – Sweet Daddy Yellow Peppers
- 2 – Thunderbolt Peppers
- 2 – Primo Jalapeno Peppers
- Row of Carrots – Carrot Romance Seed Tape
- Row of Radishes
- Row of Star of David Okra
- Garden Bean Blue Lake Bush Beans
- Alpine Strawberries
- These are all that was left at Lowes by the time we decided to try a small container of them.
- Ferry Morris Salad Bowl Lettuce
- 4 – Skyscraper Sunflowers in the corners of the strawberry bed.
- Basil – Emerald Towers
- Garlic Chives
- Chives
- Cilantro
- Dill
No idea what we are doing.
If half of my plants grow and produce, I will be thrilled.
If nothing grows, I will have learned. That’s what is important.


