Garden Planning: Do a Review Then Set Your Goals
Last updated: January 2026
TL;DR
A simple garden planning method involves looking back on the previous season to pinpoint what worked and what didn’t, setting goals that fit your life, and turning those goals into actionable steps.
Garden planning for greater success means doing a quick year-end garden review. Once you know what worked and what didn’t, you can set 3–5 realistic goals for the next season and turn them into a simple plan with specific actions and a calendar you can follow. Then, add a garden journal or record of some sort so each season gets easier and more productive than the last.
The Full Scoop
If you want this year’s garden to be more productive and less stressful, the best time to start is now, before spring momentum takes over. A short review of last year’s garden helps you remember what worked, spot patterns in problems, and set goals that fit your real life.
This post will walk you through a simple process you can do in one sitting, using whatever notes, photos, or memory you have from the season.
Step 1: Review the season with four quick questions
Grab a notebook and answer the following questions for last year’s garden:
1) What worked well?
Think crops, varieties, systems, and timing. Which plants were reliable? Which methods made your life easier?
2) What didn’t work and why?
Look for patterns. Was it shade, poor timing, a pest cycle, overcrowding, or inconsistent watering?
3) How did the layout perform?
Did tall crops shade smaller ones? Were certain beds always drier, wetter, or more disease-prone?
4) How did gardening fit into your life?
This matters more than we admit. If you were constantly behind, your plan may need simplifying to fit your available time.
Step 2: Capture the year so you don’t rely on memory
I’m a huge proponent of the garden journal, but it doesn’t have to be fancy. A useful record can be:
A simple list of planting dates and varieties
A basic map of what grew where
A photo folder labeled by month with a few short captions
Even minimal documentation helps with diagnosing problems and prevents repeating the same mistakes.
Step 3: Set 3–5 specific goals for this year
Vague goals don’t translate into action. Choose goals you can recognize and measure. Examples:
“Harvest salad greens twice a week in spring using succession sowing.”
“Add compost to all beds before planting and mulch early to reduce weeds.”
“Use a simple rotation so tomatoes aren’t in the same bed as last year.”
“Reduce planted area by one bed to keep maintenance realistic.”
These goals are specific and actionable. Goals should support your values: more food, more joy, fewer pests, less overwhelm - whatever matters most to you!
Step 4: Turn goals into calendar actions
For each goal, write one concrete step and assign it a month or season. For example:
January: finalize seed list and bed plan
March/April: prep beds and add compost
May: install trellises before planting vining crops
Weekly in summer: quick garden walk + notes
This is how goals become outcomes: not by motivation, but by scheduling.
Step 5: Adopt a “learning year” mindset
Weather will surprise you. Pests will show up. Some crops will fail. That’s normal. A review process doesn’t prevent all problems, but it helps you respond more effectively and prevents the same problems from repeating year after year without understanding why.
Want the deeper version?
If you’d like a guided, end-of-year planning walkthrough and more examples of realistic garden goals, listen to the podcast episode “Garden Goal Setting for the New Year” for the full end-of-year episode. You can also find it on YouTube.
And to really get the low-down on garden planning, step-by-step, check out my Plan Like a Pro garden planning course!
Your Friend in the Garden,
Karin
Everything I write about is evidence- or experience-based. Here are some university and journal resources to explore for more info.
References:
Penn State Extension. “Keeping a Garden Journal.” 2023.
– Describes garden journals as tools to review past seasons, track the present, and plan future gardens
Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. “Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal Setting and Task Motivation.” American Psychologist, 2002.
– Summarizes decades of research showing that specific, challenging goals improve performance when supported by feedback and commitment
Karin Velez is the garden educator behind Just Grow Something. She holds a degree in Horticulture from Oregon State University and is a specialty crop farmer and garden consultant with 20 years of gardening experience. Through her podcast, articles, courses, and workshops, Karin helps home gardeners grow more food with practical, evidence-based methods, turning research and real-world experience into clear steps that work in everyday gardens. Outside sources and references are always included when they’ll help you dig deeper.