Visual Garden Innovation

August 7, 2021

The Art of Applied Visual Thinking

The official newsletter of Applied Visual Thinking SUPERHEROES. Vol. 2 No. 16 August 7, 2021

Vegetable gardens are a lot of work.

Vegetable gardens are a lot of work. That's the takeaway my kids offered up at the end of our second season of attempting an organic, raised bed vegetable garden in our side yard. With some prompting, we identified a few of the rewards from the effort and talked about how we might improve our garden to require a little less maintenance and yield more of what we love.

2 garden diagrams with wire structures, light and watering direction indicated in first, plants in second diagram

"Let's make our garden plan visual," we agreed. It helped us focus and find more joy in the work. I'd like to share the process and the simplified planning tool that came out of the conversation in case it helps you think of new ways to simplify your garden planning, space organizing or whatever else you might be occupied with this season.

Let's make a simple, visual garden plan.

First we talked about "lessons learned." Last year, the sunflowers were amazing – as tall as both kids stacked one on top of the other and flowers bigger than our heads. The tomatoes had much more flavor than any purchased at the store. Of course, we had more beans, basil, hot peppers, kale and cilantro than we could eat. Drying and freezing were fun projects, too, but the kids were less than excited about eating most of these crops. One of my boys did discover that he loves kale cooked until well softened and doused with a bit of soy sauce.

There were a few crops, however, that didn't do very well, much to the kids' disappointment. We had huge pumpkin leaves and vines cluttering up the yard, but the pumpkins were tiny or non-existent. The corn, too, seemed to steal all the sunlight from the shorter plants, but only the ornamental corns produced, and even those were not very impressive. The carrots looked huge on top, but revealed only short, deformed "aliens" when picked. We determined that the soil in the beds was probably not deep enough to grow full-sized carrots.

Before we even began planting this year, we took action. We added more soil to the beds and made visual maps to think visually about sunlight, plant supports and spacing.

Try this Simple Planning Process now to start planning your fall or 2022 garden, or apply the same principles to another project of your choosing. Download the free template to get started.

Download Your Free Template HERE!

Step 1 - List it out. Make a list of what plants (or whatever items are in your project). Use color, vary your lettering, and add some icons to make your list visual.

Step 2 - Praise. In a second column, add what worked well in the past - what plants did well and what's your theory why? By acknowledging what worked well, you will have a starting point for the next cycle.

Step 3 - Lessons learned. In the third column, add what was less than ideal (and again, your theory why).

Step 4 - Draw a map (or 2 or 3). Decide what is important to you, and record one idea per map. For example, I drew 2 maps. On the first map, I indicated areas that tend to receive more vs. less sun and water and where I would place plant support structures. On the second map, I planned where each plant would go. You might want to include a key or icons to keep your maps simple. Measure your beds and supports to be sure you'll have enough room when the plants mature, but keep your sketch quick and loose, and don't worry if you have to make multiple edits. You might even want to cut out shapes for each plant so you can move them around on the page until you are happy with the arrangement.

Step 5 - Take notes. What do you need to do and when? Take some notes, then add reminders to your calendar!

Of course, there are many more things to keep in mind to become a great gardener. My family and I have only begun to scratch the surface of gardening knowledge. Starting simple has made becoming better gardeners an attainable goal, and using our new visual tool has us excited. Now we have a way to keep track of what we did this season and document what happens. We hope to add to our learning and innovate to improve our results a bit more every year. Maybe next year we will learn more about companion planting to keep the insects at bay.

Want to learn more about how to use visuals for innovation?

Our AVT for INNOVATION course is designed to give you and your teams easy-to-learn, fast-to- implement visual tools to quickly innovate your products, goods, or services.

As an extra bonus you'll also receive free access to our Applied Visual Thinking FOUNDATIONS course, where you'll learn to build your visual vocabulary, use color and hierarchy and create simple maps, charts, and diagrams to start you on the path to becoming a great visual thinker.