How do you plan your garden? Actually, do you plan your gardens at all? After many years of gardening and speaking with many garden experts, I learned that a successful organic vegetable garden doesn’t just happen when you plant it; it starts on the day you plan it. Garden success comes down to being strategic about plant selection, intentional with your soil health, and realistic about what can be managed.

In this episode, I have the perfect recurring guest, Joe Lamp'l, to discuss planning your garden for the year ahead and making sure 2025 is your best gardening season yet. Joe is the founder of Joe Gardener and creator of many digital gardening courses I've taken, including Organic Vegetable Gardening Course (discount applied at checkout through clicking the link!).

In this episode, we learn:

• [01:14] What is strategic garden planning?
• [04:11] How can we make 2025 the greatest gardening season yet?
• [08:02] Timing for starting seeds/seedlings & plant selection
• [15:01] Learn how to safely identify and use wild mushrooms with Whitney Johnson’s book “Go Forth and Forage.
• [16:09] What are the most important aspects of garden planning?
• [19:54] Why soil health is important
• [22:33] How to improve soil health
• [25:58] What are some useful garden planning tools?
• [17:17] How to choose the right plants
• [29:48]  What is biodiverse gardening?
• [31:37] Helpful local botanical centers
• [34:48] What is companion planting?
• [40:33] Joe’s new garden plans this 2025
• [41:32] Check out Joe’s Organic Vegetable Gardening Course (discount applied at checkout through this link!)

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Growing Joy: The Plant Lover's Guide to Cultivating Happiness (and Plants) by Maria Failla, Illustrated by Samantha Leung

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Why Plan Before You Plant?

Garden planning makes you ready for what to grow, how much to grow, and how to source your seeds/seedlings. So make sure to consider your plant hardiness zone and be very realistic about timelines.

Joe recommends planning about two months before your last frost date. For example, starting tomato seeds should be done about 4 weeks before potting them up, and another 4 weeks before transplanting them into the garden.

This method works for most warm-season crops like peppers and eggplant. But not every plant needs to be started from seed, so sometimes buying seedlings is the best option.

Soil Health is Everything

At the end of the season, our plants should have pulled all the nutrients out of the soil, so it should be considered in your plant aside from plant selection.

Soil is the most important thing in your garden according to Joe. If you have a dollar to spend, put $0.90 into the soil.

The best way to build soil health is to start with compost:

• • Topdressing with compost at the beginning of the season (adds nutrients and improves soil structure)
  • Mulching then helps retain moisture, prevents weeds, and adds organic matter to the soil as it breaks down.
  • Avoid synthetic fertilizers
  • Crop rotation to prevent buildup of soil-borne diseases.

Plant Selection and Biodiversity

A biodiverse garden is a healthy garden. You can try to include a mix of flowers, herbs, and companion plants, which all help attract pollinators like bees and butterflies, while also inviting beneficial insects that help control pests naturally.

Something like borage, basil, and dill are great examples.

Plan Your Garden Layout for Success

You might be tempted to fit as many plants as possible into a space, but this usually leads to poor air circulation and lower harvests.

It’s easy to go overboard at the garden center, only to realize there’s nowhere to put everything.

Joe has 16 garden beds, where he carefully spaces crops out to allow airflow and easy maintenance. Isn’t he amazing?

You can use a simple notebook or spreadsheet to track progress and plan ahead. This should prevent a lot of frustration later in the season.

Joe’s Organic Vegetable Gardening Course

If everything we talked about here feels too much, Joe’s Organic Vegetable Gardening Course is unlike anything else available.

His course follows plants from seeds to harvest with real-time video lessons. He got the idea from the show he previously hosted called Fresh from the Garden (on the DIY Network).

It takes you through the entire growing season, so you actually see how plants mature, what challenges come up, and how to troubleshoot along the way.

Joe also offers real-time support, so students can ask questions and get guidance as they grow. And for this week only, the course is available at a huge discount; normally $797, it’s currently $297.

The deadline to enroll at this price is March 31, 2025.

Mentioned in our conversation:

• Organic Vegetable Gardening Course (Discount applied at checkout through clicking the link!)
• Master Seed Starting Course
• Northwest Flower & Garden Show
• Xerces Society
• Missouri Botanical Garden
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
• Giverny Gardens
• Chattahoochee Nature Center
• Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden by Jessica Walliser
• GJ Episode 20: Talking Tomatoes with Craig LeHoullier and My MOM

Thank you to our episode sponsor:

Quarto: Go Forth and Forage by Whitney Johnson

Did you know that some of the most delicious and medicinal mushrooms aren't found in grocery stores, but they're found growing wild, sometimes right in your backyard? In the new book, Go Forth and Forage, expert forager and Appalachian native, Whitney Johnson takes you on a season-by-season journey through 50 North American wild mushrooms, from spring morels to fall lion's mane and beyond. With stunning photos, clear identification tips, and expert guidance on safe harvesting, this book is your go-to field guide for finding, preparing, and even making medicinal tinctures with your foraged finds. So whether you're a curious beginner or a seasoned forager, this book is going to help you build confidence in the woods and the kitchen.

Grab yourself a copy of Go Forth and Forage: A Guide to Foraging Over 50 of the Most Common Edible & Medicinal North American Mushrooms by Whitney Johnson at your local bookstore, bookshop.org, Barnes and Noble, quarto.com, or amazon.com.

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