Planning a Garden

Planning a Garden

The first step when planning a garden is to determine its layout. The layout will include the shape and dimensions of the garden. For example, this picture shows a 15’x12’ rectangular garden layout.

Next, a gardener would determine what types of vegetables to grow in order to figure out how they will be planted. For example, lettuce is not usually planted in a square or rectangular bed, but in rows or columns, depending on the shape and dimensions of the garden. The example garden has been broken up into 4 planting rows, 4 walking rows (brown), a bed of carrots, a column of tomatoes, and a column of pumpkins.

Mathematics is also involved in figuring out the dimensions of each part of the garden. If we knew each planting row is to be 2’ wide by 10’ long, then the rest of the dimension of the garden can be figured out easily using simple mathematics:

Planting Rows:

4 planting rows x 2’ wide = 8’ in planting rows

12’width of garden - 8’ in planting rows = 4’ left over

4’ feet left over / 4 walking rows = 1’ per walking row.

Bed of Carrots:

15’ lengths of garden – 10’ length of planting rows = 5’ left over for bed

Width of bed is 2 planting rows and 2 walking rows: 2’ + 2’ + 1’ + 1’ = 6’ width of bed

Column of Tomatoes and Column of Pumpkins (equal size):

5’ / 2 columns = 2.5’ per column

12’-6’= 6’ long

(Geometery, Measurement, Numbers and Operations)

Area
 

Determining the area of the garden is essential, especially when buying fertilizer. Fertilizer can be expensive, so it is important to only buy as many bags as necessary. Each bag of fertilizer tells the surface area it will cover, so the easiest way to ensure you will have enough fertilizer without over buying is to use the mathematical equation: Area of garden/Area of 1 bag fertilizer = # of fertilizer bags needed.

 The area of a garden is found by multiplying the length by the width (l x w = A). In our sample garden, the area is 180 sq ft.:

15’ x 12’ = 180 sq ft

If each bag of fertilizer covers 20 sq ft, the sample garden would need 9 bags of fertilizer.

180 sq ft/20 sq ft per bag = 9 bags

(Geometry, Measurement)


  

Perimeter

  Once a garden has been planned, constructed, and fertilized, a fence is normally built around it to keep animals out. Once again mathematics must be used in figuring out the perimeter of the garden in order to know how many feet of fence is needed. Perimeter is calculated by adding up the measurement of each side. Our sample garden would need 54’ of fence to go all the way around. 12’+15’+12’+15’= 54’

(Geometry, Measurement)