36 of the Best Spring Garden Planning Resources for a Productive Garden

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Spring is here which means that it is finally time to get your garden in the ground! If you didn’t plan and prep your garden over the last few months, don’t fret! You can still get everything together in this early springtime for a full & productive garden. Look through this list for my favorite reputable seed companies, online gardening courses, spring garden supplies, as well as additional Spring garden planning resources & tools.

Spring Garden Planning Resources

Reputable Seed Companies

1. Hoss Tools

Hoss Tools is my new favorite garden supply company! They offer online garden classes, a weekly garden show called Row by Row, heirloom seeds, garden tools, and gardening supplies.

2. Baker Creek

Baker Creek is currently one of the most popular seed companies among homesteaders. This company is also family owned. The work hard to offer quality heirloom seeds to customers as well as providing free seeds to many impoverished countries and to local school gardens.

Online Gardening Classes

4. Online Gardening School

Our Stoney Acres offers this online school with various courses such as:

5. Vegetable Garden Planning Webinar

This webinar is hosted by Seeds for Generations. The webinar covers planning and positioning your garden, determining your optimal seed starting and planting dates, calculating usable space, maximizing production, succession planting, and preserving your harvest.

Spring Garden Supplies

While you are planning a garden, be sure to list all of the supplies that you will need for the season.

6. Kneeling Pad

A kneeling pad is not a necessary item for spring gardening, but it sure can make planting and weeding a lot more comfortable. You can find simple kneeling pads that are made of a block of foam, but if you plan to use this for more than one season, I recommend a more heavy duty option like this one. It is covered in canvas material that is removable and machine washable.

7. Garden Gloves

Having a quality pair of gardening gloves can preserve your hands and make working in the garden much less messy. You will not want a bulky pair because you need to be able to handle seeds and move your fingers around freely.

I like using these Carhartt work gloves when I am in the garden. They aren’t specifically marketed as gardening gloves, but they are the ones that I prefer.

8. Mounted Hose Reel or Portable Hose Reel

Having a hose reel for your garden hose can prolong the life of your hose and make daily watering a little less time-consuming because it eliminates the need to untangle the hose each time you need it. We use a simple mounted hose reel, but if you need more freedom to move your hose & reel, I recommend a portable hose reel like this one.

9. Garden Gathering Apron

A garden apron comes in handy when you are planting and weeding as it can hold your seed packs and tools, freeing up your hands to do what they need to do. You can also use a garden apron when you are gathering your produce. You can purchase a garden apron like this one OR you can make your own.

I don’t have to gather tomatoes in my shirt anymore!

10. Long Heavy-Duty Garden Hose

Watering is pretty important for the success of a garden (sounds common sense, but my first year’s garden died because I neglected to water it #rookiemove). You will want to have a heavy-duty hose because you will be using it multiple times each day. Investing in a quality hose from the start will save you the trouble of purchasing multiple lower quality hoses throughout the season.

11. Adjustable Nozzle

It is also a good idea to have an adjustable nozzle so you can control the water flow to keep from drowning your plants. If you are using a drip system, you won’t need the nozzle.

12. Drip Irrigation Tape or PVC Irrigation

Decide on the type of watering system that you will use while you are garden planning.

Drip Irrigation is my preferred method of watering. A drip system provides water directly to the base of each plant instead of over the leaves, fruits, and extra soil. This reduces water waste and helps to prevent scorching of your plants on very hot days. You can purchase drip irrigation tape or you can create your own drip irrigation system out of PVC pipes. This system can be connected directly to your garden hose or to a gravity fed watering system.

13. Basic Garden Tools

You will need some basic garden tools such as a trowel, a cultivator, a rake, and a spade.

14. Wheelbarrow

I like to use a metal wheelbarrow as opposed to a plastic one because they hold larger quantities without buckling.

15. Seed Starting Pots or Seed Starting Trays

I always opt for biodegradable seed starting pots and trays like ones made from peat so that I am not increasing my plastic consumption. Leftover cardboard egg flats work great as well. They can be composted when you are finished with them.

This year I opted for heavy duty seed starting trays from Hoss Tools. These trays are super sturdy and can be used year after year!

Hoss Tools Seed Starting Tray | Spring Garden Planning Resources

16. Indoor Grow Light

If you are starting seeds indoors and you don’t have a space with abundant natural light, you will need a good set of indoor grow lights.

17. Plant Markers

When planting multiple varieties in your garden, it is a good idea to use plant markers to help you know exactly what is planted where until germination is completed. I like the idea of using these bamboo plant markers because you can reuse them and they are biodegradable. Hoss Tools has a wooden garden label option as well.

I like to use these printable garden labels for my seed starting trays. I just print, cut, and laminate them. They fit perfectly in the seed trays and they can be reused each year if laminated. Then I switch to wooden labels when I transplant to the garden bed.

Spring Garden Planning Tools

18. Garden Plan Pro

Garden Plan Pro is an app that allows you to design just the right layout for your vegetable, herb, or fruit garden. The app adjusts to your location, sends you planting reminders, and allows planning for a traditional or a raised bed garden.

19. Smart Gardener

The Smart Gardener tool allows you to plan out your garden in an interactive grid format. It also provides you with information such as your weekly growing conditions, ideal plant recommendations, a garden to-do list, and garden journal that tracks & collects your garden information. This tool is priced at $6 for 90 day use or $20 for 360 day use.

Demo Interactive Garden Grid

20. Seed Quantity Calculator (Free)

Use this free tool to determine how many seeds your will need for your specific garden space. Simply enter the crop type, the unit of measure, the number of feet in each row, and if you plan to direct sow or transplant. You can also opt to enter the length of space between seeds and plants, the feet in each row, and the number of rows.

21. Seed Starting Date Calculator (Free)

Enter the last Spring frost date into the Seed Starting Date Calculator to easily see how many weeks before setting out you need to start your seeds, best dates to start indoors for various crops, and the safest time to set plants out based on the frost-free date.

22. Garden Planning Calculator (Free)

This Garden Planning Calculator from Seeds for Generations gives you the following information based on your last average Spring frost date: germination timelines, germination temperatures, indoor start dates, earliest direct seed dates, earliest transplant dates, and the earliest harvest dates. This information is available for 46 different types of crops.