Tag Archives: edible garden

7 Free Vegetable Garden Planner Software For Better Gardening

If you would like to grow your own fresh vegetables, but don’t know where to start, these 7 vegetable garden planner software sites from our round up will help you from plowing to harvesting. The free garden planning advice given for home vegetable gardens on these software sites is invaluable to both novice and seasoned gardener alike.

1-Smart Gardener Vegetable Planner Sotware

The first one in our list is Smart Gardener that helps you plan a vegetable garden layout and select the right plants for your layout, growing zones and household size. This vegetable garden planner software will also help you keep track of work that needs to be done in your garden by creating a customized ‘To-Do’ list for you.

The free garden planning software also keeps garden journal for you so you’ll have past gardening information at your fingertips for future reference. You can enter photos and notes into the garden journal, but all pertinent information will be journaled for you, a big plus for busy home gardeners!

vegetable garden planner software
vegetable garden planner software, Image source: Smart Gardener

2- Free Kitchen Vegetable Garden Planner

Kitchen Garden Planner by Gardeners will help you virtually build raised bed gardens so you can create a vegetable garden design that will produce an abundant crop in minimal space.

Use this vegetable garden planner to create your own garden design or choose a pre-planned design. Expert advice and several gardening resources, including pest and disease control advice, are also available through this software that I like about this software.

Free Kitchen Vegetable Garden Planner
Free Kitchen Vegetable Garden Planner, Image source: Gardeners

3-Vegetable Gardening Online

Vegetable garden planner by vegetable planner.vegetable-gardening-online.com provides a grid for planning a vegetable garden online that is customized for your household’s needs and growing zones. Plant your garden online before ever breaking ground so you can tinker with plants and planting and design your own garden plans with a click of a mouse. This is one of our most favorite vegetable garden planning software.

This vegetable garden planner software will also provides zone chart, worksheets, planting guide and more. A garden gift shop is also available so you can purchase needed and wanted items for yourself or a gardening friend. You may also like check out landscape design software.

vegetable garden planner
Vegetable garden planner, Image source: vegetableplanner.vegetable-gardening-online.com

4-Interactive Vegetable Garden Planner

GrowVeg.com provides an inactive garden that allows you to plant and replant until you get your vegetable garden plans just right. The interactive vegetable garden planner on this software site has vegetable garden designs that range from raised beds, in-ground rows and square footage garden plots.

You choose the design then choose from 130 different vegetable and herb plants to set out in your online interactive garden, then in the soil of your home vegetable garden.

interactive vegetable garden planner
Interactive vegetable garden planner, Image source: GrowVeg.com

5Vegetable Garden Planner

Here we have The Old Farmer’s Almanac vegetable Garden Planner Software that has been helping people with everything from starting a vegetable garden to preserving their vegetable harvest for years. The Old Farmer’s Almanac in paper back version was often referred to as the ‘gardener’s bible’  and nothing was plowed, planted, harvested or preserved unless the almanac was first consulted.

Now the updated online software allows the modern day gardener to have a wealth of digital information at their fingertips so they can grow vegetables in a home garden just as tasty as grandpa did. The garden planner software will also send you email reminders of garden tasks which need to be done.

almanac garden planner
Almanac garden planner, Image source: gardenplanner.almanac

6-Online Garden Planning Tool

Plangarden.com is a vegetable garden planner software that allows you to layout, plan and manage your home vegetable garden online. This software site allows you to quickly plan how you want your garden to grow and offers expert advice to frequently asked questions. Learn when to start seeds indoors, how far apart to space the plants when setting them out in your home vegetable garden and when to harvest.

Discover innovative gardening ideas that just might be the answer to your challenging landscape or growing zone issues. Plangarden.com also offers a forum where you can interact with other gardeners to chat and get or give advice. You may also like check out fast growing vegetables.

online garden planning tool
Online garden planning tool, Image source: Plangarden.com

7-Vegetable Garden Planner

Vegetable Garden Planner provides users with an easy to use garden bed layout tool that allows you to place and re-place each plant until you get your garden arranged just the way you want. Planning a vegetable garden is hard work, but this free garden planner software helps make the job easier by allowing you to know right where every plant will thrive and produce its best before it’s set in the soil.

This garden planner software also allows you to upload photos of your growing vegetables, keep a garden journal, make and update a to-do list and record your planting and harvesting times for future reference. You may also like check out vegetables that grow well in pots.

vegetable garden planner
Vegetable garden planner, We love this vegetable design software as it offers personalized features to let you know how your real garden will look.  Vegetable Garden Planner

Conclusion!

Now you have vast options to consider planning your vegetable garden. You can choose any of the above free vegetables garden planner software we have shared with you for planning your own garden that best suits your requirements. Hope you like our article! We will be excited to see you once you have done your work!

10 Edible Weeds That Have Rich Taste and Nutritious Value

Most home owners and gardeners spend hours every summer killing weeds in their lawn and garden. They don over-the- shoulder canisters filled with chemicals, a mask and gloves every Saturday and head outdoors to do battle with their green enemies. But as those who fight this summertime battle already know, those little green enemies are a formidable foe and keep coming back again and again. Maybe it’s time to make peace with these plants and look at them from a new perspective. Many of these weeds we try in vain to kill are not poisonous weeds, but are actually edible. They can add a rich taste and nutritional value to salads, stir fry or stews, and best of all, they’re free for the picking. Learn the art of identifying edible weeds and give some of these 10 edible weeds a taste test, you just may discover a fondness for their flavor.

You may also like to check out: common garden weeds and natural weed killers.

1- Dandelions

With flat green green leaves that grow low to the ground and bright yellow flower that children can’t resist picking, dandelions are well known lawn weeds.

The leaves of these wild greens have a bitter flavor and the bigger the leaves, the more bitter the flavor. The flowers and stems are sweet and crunchy.( See also edible flowers)

Dandelions weed

2- Clover Weed

While hunting for a 4-leafed clover for luck, pick a few extra to chop into a soup or salad. The leaves can be dried and made into tea. Identifying edible weeds doesn’t get any easier than clover.

 Clover edible Weed

3- Chickweed

Chickweed has a a 6 inch stem with small round leaves and produces small white flowers in top of a mature plant. The entire chickweed plant can be eaten raw or cooked and has a spinach-like flavor.

Chickweed also has medicinal uses and can be brewed into a tea and used a diuretic or made into a poultice and applied to minor cuts and burns.

Edible Chickweed

4- Curly Dock Edible

This wild plant produces long edible leaves that curl and both leaves and stems can be eaten. The leaves have a tart taste. The seed of curly dock weed can be dried and brewed as a substitute for coffee.

Curly Dock Edible

5- Lamb’s Quarters

These edible plants is also called goosefoot because of the size and shape of the leaves. It can be eaten raw, steamed or sauteed and offer a flavor and texture much like spinach. Seeds from lamb’s quarters are edible and have a flavor like quinoa.

Lamb’s Quarters weed

6- Plantain

Not to be confused with the fruit that goes by the same name, this little weed that grows in gardens and landscape across the country is one that children are very familiar with. Plantains have low-growing broad leaves with spikes of green seed pods that are easy for kids to strip off and throw at each other.

The young leaves of this edible weed can be raw, steamed, boiled or sauteed. As the plant matures, the leaves become tough, so pick them while they are small and tender.

The seed pods can be cooked and eaten like a grain or ground into a flour for variety of cooking uses. The seed pods are rich in fiber and provide the same digestive benefits as psyllium seeds.

The plantain weed has also medicinal uses and can be ground and used as a topical onitment on minor cuts, rashes and burns.

Plantain lawn weed

7- Mallow

Mallow has a seed pod that resembles cheese and that causes this edible weed to also be known as cheeseweed. Both  leaves and seed pods are edible and can be enjoyed raw or cooked. The polder plant leaves tend to be tough, so harvest leaves while mallow is small.

edible Mallow weed

8- Pigweed

Also known as wild amaranth, is a fast growing and tall edible weed that seems to pop up overnight as a garden weed. The large, flavor leaves can be used in any dish that calls for leafy greens, either raw or cooked. The long seed pods which sprout from the weed top can be gathered and cook in the same way as store-bought amaranth, either cooked of ground.

pigweed wild amaranth

9- Purslane

Purslane spreads along the soil in any moist, shady area and it’s high omega-3 content makes it an edible weed well worth hunting for and adding to your dinner plate. This edible weed is a succulent that has a crispy texture and peppery taste and adds a nice crunch to salads. Purslane is also used as a thickening agent for soups and stews.

Purslane weed

10- Queen Anne’s Lace

Also known as wild carrots, Queen Anne’s lace produces a large head of tiny white flowers that resemble lace. The flower heads are good to eat raw, but are typically lightly battered and deep fried. The seeds can be can be added to soups and stews, or brewed into a tea.

Queen Anne’s Lace