How do you organize your planting scheme?

[cdntomato]

How do you plan your planting out?

Green-when-ripes all together for side-by-side comparison?
In alphabetical order by variety?
By type (e.g. cherries with cherries, pastes with pastes)?
By nationality (all the Italians sunning themselves in the SE corner while Canadians shiver in the NW)?
Alternating PLs with RLs, reds with other colours?

I find it fascinating how different folks plan their grow-outs.
Please share your strategies, ones that work for you as well as ones that didn't. Plus ones you would prefer to use in an ideal garden (which, of course, almost none of us have).

Jennifer

[JerryL]

I have a VERY sophisticated method. I put all the plants I plan on putting in the main gardens in several 10X20 trays. Then I carry one tray down to the first garden. Pick one out of the tray and plant it. Record the variety on my planting map and move on to the next plant.

Pretty sophisticated right?

[Reign]

I use a ritual similar to Jerry's. Except I carry 6-10 plants down, plant those, walk back to the patio. Husband passes me his beer. I drink deep until he asks if I want my own. I say no.......grab 6-10 more plants. Repeat. Last round, my own beer magically appears on the table.. I love the beer fairy.

[creister]

Lay them out in alphabetical order. A is south, Z is north. The only reason for that is Aunt Ginny's Purple gets the best spot in the garden.

[montanamato]

Due to unpredictable length of season, I try to group according to maturity.

I plant the varieities I really know better than to try, all together in the best spot where I can cover them in the fall, should it be the rare year when I will get a good crop out of later varieites.

I have a side that is rockier , hotter and windier....I have found most Italian and eastern europeans can handle the added stress and still do ok.

I usually put the determinates throughout, wherever there is a gap or space at end of row.

Also lots of dwarf types and determinates in pots. Sometimes late seasons in pots, space allowing, as they tend to ripen faster than the in the ground ones...

Then I make a master copy of the varieties, and also place the plant marker deep and camouflaged from toddlers...

Jeanne

[Mantis]

I haven't done this so far but next year I am going to plant similar varieties close together for comparrison purposes. ie Stump of the World, Prudens Purple and Brandwine in one group etc

[DonnaMarieNJ]

And here I thought trying to position the plant from the smallest to the largest would be the best way. I was going by Carolyn's book - what she considered "medium" plants were going in one bed, "large" in another, etc. And all the cherries together. This is not a good idea?

So much to learn.......

[Mantis]

If you have beds running the same direction as the sun travels then putting the taller growing ones at the back of the bed, ie north side up your way, south side down here, would ensure more sun got to all plants.

[Delora]

Originally Posted by DonnaMarieNJ

And here I thought trying to position the plant from the smallest to the largest would be the best way. I was going by Carolyn's book - what she considered "medium" plants were going in one bed, "large" in another, etc. And all the cherries together. This is not a good idea?

So much to learn.......

That's what I do; except everything is in one bed. My bed is south-facing against the back of the house. I put the tall ones in back and the short ones in front, and going left to right, put the tallest of the tall on the west side and the shorter ones on the east side.

Peppers and other veggies go east of the tomatoes.

The whole bed is usually in shade after 1pm, and only gets dappled sun in the afternoon. I really do need to cut down the dozen or so mature tuplip populars in the back yard to allow more sun to reach my veggies. Anyone have a few grand to spare?


-Delora

[JerryL]

Reign

I have hereby modified my method.

And just in time for this year’s planting.

[cdntomato]

I just knew there would be interesting responses.

Thanks for sharing!

Jennifer

[barkeater]

This year I'll have 6 rows with a total of 40-42 caged tomatoes. The determinates /dwarfs go together in one row. The early indeterminates all go together in another row. After that they all go pretty much at random, except the cherries and the biggest fruited varieties go at the ends of the row where they're easiest to get to.

The ones I'm trying to compare, I try not to put right alongside each other, I don't know why.

[Althea]

I'm planning on arranging mine by height, tallest in the back, then by color, planting the Kellog's Breakfast (if any of the latest planting of seeds come up) next to the Purple Russian, the reds and greens next to each other for good contrast. If KB doesn't come up I'll look for an orange or yellow tomato plant for color contrast.

[Goddessemer6]

This year I planted alphabetically! It's going well so far...

[jenn_sc]

Last year I planted along two fences in my backyard, and put the plants in alphabetical order.

Then I had trouble with my neighbors along one fence swiping tomatoes.

So this year I came up with a plan: I put the green-when-ripes along the fence that they have access to!
I'm sure they don't know that there ARE green-when-ripe tomatoes! Hee hee...let them wait on "ripe" ones to pick!!!

The other fence, that they can't reach, is where I planted all the reds and pinks.

Again, everything is in alphabetical order, after the above criteria were met!

Jennifer