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.

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] 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?
[41:32] Joe’s Organic Vegetable Gardening Course

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

For Joe's proven and tested gardening strategies,

check out the full show notes and blog here!

Follow Joe:

Pinterest

Thank you to our episode sponsor:

Quarto: Go Forth and Forage by Whitney Johnson

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.

Follow Maria and Growing Joy:

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

Join the Bloom and Grow Garden Party Community Platform & App AKA the plantiest and kindest corner of the internet! Get your FREE 2-week trial here!

Take the Plant Parent Personality Quiz (Get the perfect plants, projects and educational resources for YOUR Lifestyle)

Support Bloom and Grow Radio by becoming a Plant Friend on Patreon!

Instagram: @growingjoywithmaria

Tiktok: @growingjoywithmaria

Subscribe to the Growing Joy Youtube channel! /growingjoywithmaria

Website: www.growingjoywithmaria.com

Pinterest: @growingjoywithmaria

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Biggest Questions Going Into the 2026 F1 Season

The Ringer F1 Show

Potential Competitive Imbalances and Historical Parallels

The AI-powered Podcast Player