The Zone Planning Worksheet
A printable zone-planning worksheet and a blank seasonal-arc template that you can adapt for your own garden.
They’re simple, flexible and designed to help you plan with rhythm, not rules.
Introducing the Zone Planning Worksheet + Seasonal Arc Template
When I plan a garden, I am thinking in two directions at once: across the ground and across the year.
On the ground, I think about proximity, frequency and flow. What do I reach for most often? What needs to be close to the kitchen, the tap or the path I walk every day? What can sit further away? Where do I need room for a basket or wheelbarrow? Which parts of the garden ask for more attention, and which can largely look after themselves?
That is what I mean by zone planning. Not a rigid set of numbered rings, and not a way of dividing a garden into fixed compartments. I use zones as a practical way to understand relationships: what needs to connect, what needs to be easy, what can do more than one job and how the garden can support the way I actually live.
Then there is time.
A garden is never equally active all year. Different beds, plants, systems and parts of our lives gather momentum and ease off at different times. My seasonal arc helps me see that rhythm before I disappear into detail. It asks a different set of questions: What is the garden asking of me now? What is it offering? When am I tending, planting, harvesting, preserving, building soil, observing or resting? What season am I in, not just by the month, but by the feeling of the place?
My own answers are shaped by a cool-temperate garden in the Central Highlands of Victoria. They are not a model for anyone else to follow. In an arid or very hot region, the milder conditions of spring and autumn may be the busiest periods for growing and garden-making. In a tropical climate, wet and dry cycles, rainfall and humidity may be far more meaningful than four conventional seasons. In subtropical areas, cooler and drier windows can shift the rhythm again. In the coldest alpine places, snowmelt, soil thaw and a compressed growing season may be the markers that matter most.
The point is not to make your garden fit my rhythm. It is to notice your own.
Used together, these two tools give you a simple way to think about space and time. The Zone Planning Worksheet helps you reduce friction and make everyday relationships clearer. The Seasonal Arc Template helps you see when those spaces and activities become more or less important through your own year.
They are deliberately flexible. Draw on them, write all over them, cross things out and return next season. There is no perfect finished version. The value is in noticing the patterns that belong to your garden, your climate and your life.
Download your copy here
The Zone Planning Worksheet + Seasonal Arc template — a printable zone-planning worksheet and a blank seasonal-arc template that you can adapt for your own garden.
They’re simple, flexible and designed to help you plan with rhythm, not rules.
Related Resources
If you’re planning zones in your garden, the Quick Garden Audit and the Garden Design Brief from the book live in the resources library too. And The Productive Garden Companion itself is the long version of everything here.
Workshops
My workshops are about fostering the reconnection between the layers of everyday life, the self and the natural world.
Time: 10am to 1pm
Dates:
Saturday 21st November 2026
Location: Stonewalls, Musk.
For as long as I can remember, I have tended a productive garden. From childhood veggie patches to the abundant landscapes of Oak and Monkey Puzzle, growing has always grounded me and shaped how I see the world. This workshop draws from that lived experience.
Whether you're working with a courtyard, a veggie patch or a larger garden, this is about creating a productive space that offers both beauty and abundance.
We explore what productive gardening really means. I share how my process has evolved across very different properties—Oak and Monkey Puzzle and Little Cottage on a Hill and for the first time, Stonewalls—blending hands-on learning with thoughtful intent.
We cover soil care, compost systems, green manures, vertical growing, chickens, worms and closed-loop cycles. You’ll see how I use wicking beds as productive, water-wise microclimates, and how I approach different soil types and site conditions.
We talk about heirlooms and hybrids, perennial and medicinal layers, espalier techniques, and the role of beauty in even the most functional plantings.
This is not a technical how-to on growing food. It is a practical and inspiring session on preparing and shaping a garden that is generous, resilient and connected to place. You’ll leave with tools and ideas to help you begin.
Dates: Sunday 1st November 2026
Time: 10 AM – 12.30 PM
Location: Little Cottage on a Hill, Daylesford
For years, I’ve designed gardens that balance beauty, productivity, and sustainability, but when I discovered wicking beds, they transformed the way I grow. These self-watering garden beds have changed everything—from reducing water use to making gardening more accessible, efficient, and abundant.
In this hands-on workshop, I’ll guide you through the practical steps to create your own wicking beds—whether you’re working with a small courtyard, a backyard, or a larger productive space. You’ll gain an in-depth understanding of how wicking beds work, how to build them using IBC containers, and how to create a thriving, water-wise garden with minimal effort.
We’ll explore my own wicking bed garden at Little Cottage on a Hill, where I’ve grown everything from celery and purple sprouting broccoli to sugar snap peas and edible flowers—all with less watering and less maintenance. You’ll leave with the knowledge and confidence to build a garden that is not only sustainable and resilient but also deeply rewarding to tend.
This workshop is designed for anyone looking to garden smarter—not harder. Whether you’re just starting out or a seasoned grower, wicking beds are a game-changer in sustainable and productive gardening.
Time: 10.00am - 1.00pm
Dates:
Saturday 7th November 2026
Location: Daylesford, Victoria
Whether you're starting from scratch or reshaping an existing space, this half-day garden design workshop invites you to see your garden differently. From the structure of the land up, this is not a plant-by-plant session. It is a place to think like a landscape architect and begin shaping your dream garden with clarity and purpose.
Together, we’ll explore the fundamental principles that guide thoughtful garden design. You’ll learn how to observe and respond to the unique conditions of a site, and how to work with what already exists to support the kind of space you want to create. We’ll talk about how to create rhythm, balance and a sense of flow in the garden. Not through formulas, but through a practice of observation, clarity and intention.
Using tracing paper and bold textas, you’ll begin a layered, iterative design process based on Natasha's own garden. A technique that prioritises experience over detail. This isn’t about where your grandma’s rose will go. It is about learning to see the bigger picture, and how to design in a way that brings coherence and life to your space.
You’ll leave with the tools to create your own garden brief, a new approach to site mapping and design thinking grounded in landscape architecture, and a renewed way of seeing and shaping your garden. No matter its size or complexity.
We draw from real projects such as Oak and Monkey Puzzle and Little Cottage on a Hill, and explore how to reimagine constraints as creative opportunities. There is also a guided tour of Little Cottage on a Hill, where we see how theory comes to life in a compact space.
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If you're here, you've stepped a little further into the pages of my book — and arrived a little ahead of everyone else. The book is in your hands early, and everything behind this page will be ready on 11 September, just before publication day on the 15th. I can’t wait to share more with you.
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Community & Collaboration
Everything I do is about connection and community. I’m deeply passionate about meeting and working with people, brands and businesses that align with my values. If you think we’d create magic together — I want to hear about it!
Acknowledgment of Country
We acknowledge the first custodians of the land on which we live and work, the Wurrundjeri People of the Kulin Nation. We pay respects to Elders past, present and emerging and to all First Nations People. Sovereignty was never ceeded and treaties were never signed.
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