This Spring I decided to plan a new bed for my yard and I realized that I needed graph paper in order to do an organized job but unfortunately I never thought to look for an online garden planner. Instead I drew up some of my own graph paper, decided on a scale to use and went to a grower's website and began to plan my new bed. It looks pretty good but what pops up next Spring will be the true test.

As someone who enjoys visually appealing designs (who doesn't?) but is not particularly gifted when it comes to creating them, I like the idea of the online planners where I can drop icons into my space and rearrange without having to use an eraser. Using cut up post-its on the graph paper works well for having to rearrange items, but it isn't as pretty. I have never had a tried and true garden plan. I have the planning concepts in my head, and then I just put things in the ground. I also haven't been gardening for that many years, so maybe fate will eventually catch up with me. I could see sharing a screen and going through a few virtual garden planners to give folks an idea of how they work and what we mean by a garden plan--especially for those like me who haven't personally used them before!