My Garden Planning Philosophy: Poker Planting

I’ve done a lot of talking, showing, researching, and overall doing around garden planning. And then a great analogy hit me recently: poker. I just harvested a ton of onions, finally getting an amount that will feed the family at least nine months (if the onions cure properly) and I wanted to be able to share the behind-the-scenes of it all. 

It took a bit of planning to get here. I had to evaluate the cost of the onions, the space they need, when they’d be planted, and how much to plant. Each season I do this with most crops, starting with the most important to us plants and going down from there. 

That brought me to an approach that I have self-titled and developed called, Poker Planting. 

 This is how I prioritize what I grow, and how much of it. 

My Garden Planning Philosophy

Aces, Faces, Generals, and Jokers are the plant categories. I use this to prioritize the amount of time and space that each crop gets. That makes the process flow and gets a big yield on the plants we want the most. 

Here’s how it pans out: 

Aces are the most important crops for the family – we want to replace the grocery store with these and will give these crops the space they need. We know how to grow these, and they typically do well for us. These are non-negotiables so we give them space and time. 

In my garden, this is onions, potatoes, leafy greens, zucchini, peas, herbs, cucumber, and cauliflower. 

Faces (face cards) are important to us, but secondary to the aces. They may be a bit of a gamble to grow and we may need to do some supplementation with farm-bought veggies. Overall, we love these crops and they trump anything we aren’t totally sure about. 

In my garden, this is tomatoes, basil, citrus, beans, squash, Asian greens, broccoli, and carrots. 

Generals are like the rest of the deck of cards. We pick and choose what we like and fill in the gaps with these. Often this is things like edible flowers, or maybe extra varieties of crops we grow well. 

In my garden, this is peppers, radishes, turnips, beets, cucamelons, and more. 

Jokers are the test crops or just-for-fun plants. I always love to experience, grow things to share, or test out new plants and see if I can grow something that may not be hardy to our area. 

This year’s jokers in our garden are zinnias, sunflowers, old seeds from the 50s that we’re testing and some special herbs like yarrow and bergamot. 

With this garden planning system we can still plant with a ton of biodiversity, we can companion plant, and we can add in things that we want to test and try, without it overtaking the overall goal. It’s a layering of priorities and knowing that most of us can’t plant it all – but we can try!