Plants are the most important part of any real garden and choosing the right ones and putting them in the right places is the most important part of creating a food garden. Your first criteria for choosing plants should be that they produce something you like to eat, the next is that you use varieties that will grow well in your location (you can try growing things that don’t, but they involve more work). Once you have chosen the right plants you need to put them in the places where they will grow best. This is particularly important with the more marginal plants, as they won’t grow well unless you put them in the best microclimate available. I can’t emphasize enough how important careful placement is, if you put your plants where they will be happy, the garden will largely grow itself. If you put a plant in an unsuitable place you will always have extra work to do to keep it growing well.
Of course you are creating a garden not a farm and so your planting also has another goal; you will use the plants to create the structure of the garden and enhance its’ appearance. In fact this will often be the determining factor in where you put the plants (after you have met the growing conditions of course).
Another aspect of planting concerns the nature of a plant, some species are quite sensitive and only thrive when given everything they need, whereas other are very vigorous and can grow almost anywhere (these will give you a lower maintenance garden of course). It may help your planning to divide the plants into those that require no maintenance and those that need regular attention.
How many plants of each type you need will vary according to species and its uses. Sometimes you only need one plant because you don’t use much (bay, rosemary). Some plants grow slowly and you will need to grow a few (so you can harvest a little from each). Some you use in large quantities and can easily preserve (basil, blackberries, apricots), in which case you can never have too much. Sometimes you will want several plants blooming in sequence to get a staggered harvest. Some fruiting plants need to be pollinated by another nearby plant (which may be simply another compatible variety or it might have to be a non-bearing male plant).
In very dry climates it helps to know how much water a plants needs, so you can keep those with similar requirements together. This would allow you to put all of the moisture loving plants in one irrigated area and use drought tolerant plants for the rest of the garden. Scattering moisture loving plants around the garden and then running irrigation lines to each one isn’t very efficient.
When you start to think about planting the garden it is helpful to be familiar with how the native plants around you grow (what kinds of plants, what kind of communities are formed, how do they space themselves, how do they deal with drought?). This can help you figure out the best low maintenance way to grow your own plants too. In a broader sense it really helps to spend some time learning how nature does things because it is so important to follow her rules. The biggest mistake you can make (one that many garden designers make every day) is to try and impose your will on nature. You can do it of course, but only by expending additional energy and resources trying to maintain the unbalanced status quo.
When you start planting the garden it may seem logical to fill up all of the growing space in one area before you move on to another one, but it is more important to get the long term woody plants (mainly fruit trees and shrubs) in the ground all around the garden. These take a few years to really get going and start producing, so the sooner you plant the better. Of course you have to know exactly where to put them, so you don’t regret it later. It is possible to move trees and shrubs while they are still small, but it sets them back for at least a year.
Getting plants in the ground isn’t the end of the matter of course. You still have to tend to their needs until they are established (and in some cases even longer). It soon becomes obvious when a plant isn’t doing well because it doesn’t get much bigger. It will often look dull and listless, leaves may emerge but slowly turn yellow and die, to be replaced by more new leaves, which then die in turn (slowly using up the plants resources). I have dug up an unhappy plant and found that its roots never even got beyond the confines of the gopher basket. If you have such a plant you need to find out why it is struggling. Probably the commonest reason is that it has been planted in the wrong place: it may be getting too little sun (pale and leggy), too much sun (leaves wilt frequently, turn yellow and die), too little water or its roots may be suffering from waterlogged soil. If a plant is definitely in the wrong place then try and move it to somewhere more suitable (this is worth trying even if it is quite big). Of course it is much better to make sure you put it in the right place to start with (I wasted a year and almost killed my Magnolia Vine (Schizandra) by putting it in full sun and fairly dry soil – which is not what it wants at all). If you are growing something for the very first time, do some research into the conditions it prefers (get as specific as you can). There are lots of online resources for finding out what conditions plants require.
When I first started my garden I reasoned that I could save money by propagating my own plants and then planting them. I did save money but I also wasted time (which apparently is money) because it takes a long time to grow a tree from a cutting or seed. I now think a better approach is to buy as many plants as you can afford (more in fact) to get the garden producing as quickly as possible (if you buy enough at once you may even be able to get a discount). When you get them growing you can start to practice your propagation techniques (layering, cuttings, seed) to get more plants. When you have more of these than you need you can sell the surplus to recoup your investment (and enrich other peoples gardens).
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