Need Garden Layout Feedback

I'm trying to lay out my first ever garden. Any feedback on how to put the puzzle together would be greatly appreciated.

Welcome to the forums from Ohio! You'll find a wealth of helpful information here, and be sure to use the search function on the upper left of the screen to find topics or subjects of particular interest to you.

My only comment on your placement is with the need to plan for seasonal crops and succession planting. For example, in your drawing you have pole beans next to sugar snap peas on the trellis. Sugar Snap Peas are a cool weather crop, and pole beans love hot weather. Here in SW Ohio, I plant Sugar Snap Peas in mid-March, and start harvesting them in mid-to late May.  But mid-June the Sugar Snap Peas are done, and I take out the plants and succession plant Blue Lake Pole Bean in their place. I do the same with other early cool weather crops such as Bok Choy, Kohlrabi, etc. When it gets too hot for them, I plant heat loving plants such as peppers, eggplant, etc., in their place. 

Unrelated comment: A 5' trellis is not high enough for things like pole beans that quickly get to 6' or higher.

Aren't peonies perennials? If you have any plant that over-winters, you might want to move it to the last row so that it doesn't block the sun from your starter plants in the following spring. Or maybe even have a separate (smaller) SFG or pot for them.

Happy Gardening!

The peonies were just to appease the better half so I didn't have to plant a separate flower garden haha.

What's the best way to know if a crop is a cool or warm weather crop? I don't see anything listed for that on the website for each plant. I'm working through succession planting and I guess I just figured that the bell peppers, sugar snap peas, green beans, Jalapeños and tomatoes would just produce continously (and long enough) and I didn't need to think about a succession plant in that square.

I've also narrowed it down to 4x4 (see new photo)

Hi Rock, Welcome to the Forum from California.  

Mark and OG have already responded.  OG has snowy winters so his advice on cool weather/hot weather planting is a big help.  Peonies, I have no knowledge about but maybe a little bed for them as Mark suggested.

For the 4 broccoli, cauliflower and kohlrabi, I would plant them in 4 adjacent squares so you can cover with bridal tulle or insect netting to keep off the white butterfly (Pieris rapae) and/or the cabbage moth/looper. Nothing worse than finding little caterpillars eating and pooping on your veggies.  I can't find the photo I saved of someone's small net set up but here is my whole bed setup for brassicas.

I would move the Roma tomato to the SW or SE corner as they can get bushy.

Peonies are not a good choice for a square-foot garden. The clump I planted in 2018 takes up about 6 square feet now - not aggressive, just big. Unlike many perennials, they do not like being lifted and divided. They take time to re-establish and will not flower for a year or two afterward. So you will be frustrated in any attempt to keep them small. Follow the suggestions to plant them elsewhere. If you want to include flowers, try edible annuals like coreopsis, nasturtium, and pansies.

OK I'll swap out the peonies for garlic. What are people's thoughts about potatoes in a square foot garden?

Also, I'm struggling with what/how to succession plant this thing in the hot summer months. I plan to have one round of broccoli/cauliflower/etc in the spring and one in the fall, but what do I do with those squares in the hot summer months? I already have things like peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, etc. in the other squares, so what do I do with the extra space?

njrock wrote:what do I do with those squares in the hot summer months? I already have things like peas, beans, tomatoes, peppers, etc. in the other squares, so what do I do with the extra space?

Radishes and Leaf Lettuce are always quick growers that can fill empty spaces.

OhioGardener wrote:
Radishes and Leaf Lettuce are always quick growers that can fill empty spaces.

OK perfect. I'll plan on some spinach as well. What else can I use?

Hi, njrock, glad you found us!  Nasturtiums are a good choice too, long bloomers, too.  Do you like any squashes or zucchini or eggplants?  Eggplants love heat. How about cucumbers?   I am in Ohio, too, with cold winters but hot (and lately) dry summers.

Scorpio Rising wrote:Hi, njrock, glad you found us!  Nasturtiums are a good choice too, long bloomers, too.  Do you like any squashes or zucchini or eggplants?  Eggplants love heat. How about cucumbers?   I am in Ohio, too, with cold winters but hot (and lately) dry summers.

About the only thing like that that I'd want to plant is cucumbers to make my own pickles, but I can't do those on the south end of the bed where I've got the broccoli and cauliflower squares, can I?

njrock wrote:

OhioGardener wrote:
Radishes and Leaf Lettuce are always quick growers that can fill empty spaces.

OK perfect. I'll plan on some spinach as well.

Spinach tends to bolt to seed in hot weather, it is best planted early spring or fall.

njrock wrote:About the only thing like that that I'd want to plant is cucumbers to make my own pickles, but I can't do those on the south end of the bed where I've got the broccoli and cauliflower squares, can I?

If you have space in front of your bed, and if you don't need to keep it covered as protection, what I've done with some vines planted in the first row (or the end squares of the second row) is to lead them forward or away from the bed and towards the front.

I see that while some people have responded to some of the crops, not all of them have been addressed as whether they are cold or warm weather plants. Also, you will find that rotating your crops is critical to controlling disease. So, I usually group like crops together.

Warm Crops:           Family:
Honey Dew Melons   Cucurbits
Green Beans            Legumes
Jalapenos                Nightshades
Roma Tomatoes       Nightshades
Tomatillos                Nightshades
Bell Peppers            Nightshades

Cool Weather:
Sugar Snap Peas      Legumes
Cauliflower               Brassicas
Kohlrabi                   Brassicas
Broccoli                    Brassicas

Cool Weather but can handle the heat of summer in Ohio:

Carrots                      Umbellifers
Onions                      Allium
Marigolds                   Obviously a flower

So, I would move all the brassicas near each other and the night shades near each other, etc. That way you can rotate what you plant in each bed so that you don't have the same family planted in the bed for at least 3 years and 5 years is even better. I wish you the best of luck!

njrock wrote:About the only thing like that that I'd want to plant is cucumbers to make my own pickles, but I can't do those on the south end of the bed where I've got the broccoli and cauliflower squares, can I?

I trellis mine on a north end of a bed.  They do very well!