How to Plant and Maintain a Chaos Garden

• Combine all your spare or unused seed packet in a large bowl or baking sheet, then wet them with warm water to let them germinate.
• Till the soil to prepare it for planting, then distribute your germinated seeds evenly throughout the soil in about mid-March or later.
• Water and fertilize the soil to give your garden the best shot at thriving, or go hands-off and let nature grow what it will.
• Take note of which plants are thriving and incorporate successful seeds into next year’s mix, and hunt for vegetables once every week or so.

What is chaos gardening?

Chaos gardening involves planting many different seeds to see what grows. With chaos gardening, you throw your expectations (and seeds) to the wind. With this method, gardeners mix all their disused seed packets together and spread them haphazardly across the soil. Whatever grows, grows! And no harm done if something doesn’t eventually sprout. Your seed mix doesn’t have to be carefully curated or planned out if you don’t feel like doing that. There also isn’t much in the way of organization when it comes to chaos gardening—no rows or separated garden sections. Everything grows all together.

Chaos gardening is as involved or hands-off as you like. Another big part of chaos gardening is letting Mother Nature do her thing, or helping her along if you feel the urge. Many chaos gardeners let rain, birds, beneficial insects, and other natural things take care of watering and pest control. Others water their garden same as any other, and fertilize as they see fit. At the end of the day, a chaos garden is an experiment! Things may or may not work out as you hoped, but you’re sure to learn something useful, regardless.

Chaos gardens can often be healthier than traditional gardens. Monocrops, or crops of single species, often fail because they lack diversity. A chaos garden’s overwhelming diversity, on the other hand, promotes many mutually beneficial relationships. Climbing vines might wind their way up taller plants, and taller plants may shelter smaller crops closer to the ground, and so on. In addition, the plant density of chaos gardens often deters pests like unwanted insects—which get eaten by beneficial insects—and foraging animals, which have to work harder to find a prize. All these mutually beneficial relationships among the plants often results in a garden that requires much less work and much less stress.

Choosing and Mixing Seeds

Gather all your old or unused seed packets together. Venture into your shed, garage, or wherever you keep your seed packets, and retrieve any you think might be suitable for a chaos garden. These could be packets you don’t know where to plant or how to grow, or packets that are past their suggested plant-by date. Be as picky or as adventurous as you like. Discard any seeds that are invasive to your area—planting these may result in propagating an invasive species. Check your seeds with a site like Invasive.org to find out more. Alternatively, buy new seed packets in a variety of species and plant types, or purchase a specially made chaos seed mix.

Sort your seeds into complementary groups to boost your success. While it’s totally cool to toss everything together, just a little more planning can go a long way to making sure you have a bountiful garden in a few months. Sort larger seeds like beans, melons, corn, or squash into a separate pile. We’ll plant those first, since they tend to grow more quickly and pioneer the soil. Consider crafting a “Three Sisters” mix, which consists of corn, pole beans, and squash. This mix has incredible synergy and was used by Indigenous farmers for many years. In addition, boost your success rate by discarding seeds that don’t tend to flourish in your area’s climate. These may end up simply withering and taking up space.

Soak your seeds in water for 24 hours. Place all your seeds in a large bowl or baking sheet lined with paper towels and add warm water until the seeds are wet and the paper towels are damp. Then leave them in a dark, warm place for about a day. This germinates them, kickstarting their growth. At this point, you might choose to discard any seeds that haven’t sprouted and prioritize healthy seeds; let them continue to germinate for another few days; or go ahead and plant them anyway and see what happens!

Planting a Chaos Garden

Select a site for your chaos garden. While your seeds are germinating, choose where you’ll sow your chaos garden. You might want to keep it to 1 corner of your existing garden to save room for more conventional planting, or plant in raised beds or planters to keep the chaos garden contained and separate. There’s also nothing wrong with going all-in and dedicating all your space to your chaos garden, just know that there’s no guarantee of success, which is part of the fun.

Till your soil in mid-March. Most plant species tend to thrive in soil that’s about 60 °F (16 °C), so wait until March or later to plant your chaos garden. Then, use a hoe or hand-tiller to churn up the soil and create haphazard furrows or pockets that are about 0.75 in (1.9 cm) deep into which you can toss your seeds. Alternatively, ditch the digging altogether and simply spread about 0.5–1 in (1.3–2.5 cm) of compost over your garden plot, which will act as an effective planting medium. Additionally, plant mini chaos gardens in large flower pots or bins by filling them with potting mix.

Distribute your germinated seeds evenly about your garden. Like everything else in chaos gardening, you don’t have to be precise here. Take handfuls of seeds and toss them here and there, but do try to hit every area of the garden more or less evenly. Then, dust a thin layer of potting mix or fertilizer over the garden to cover the seeds. To distribute your seeds more evenly, mix them with a few handfuls of potting soil beforehand to make the mixture more diluted and random. For easy distribution, pat your seeds dry and place them in a colander or fertilizer spreader. Shake your colander or crank your fertilizer spreader as you walk along the garden. If you’ve separated your large seeds, distribute these first, letting them fall deeper into the soil. Then, cover the garden in another 0.5–1 in (1.3–2.5 cm) of soil, and distribute the smaller seeds on top.

Water the soil until it’s moist. After your seeds are distributed, use a hose or watering can to moisten the soil. We’re not looking to flood the garden, just get things nice and damp to give the seeds the best shot at thriving. This has the added benefit of making the seeds “stick” to the soil, helping them cling to the ground and reducing the likelihood that they blow away in the wind or are otherwise kicked up.

Tending a Chaos Garden

Help your garden grow, or leave everything to Mother Nature. Your chaos garden is what you make of it. Some chaos gardeners treat their garden as they would any other, watering it just enough and fertilizing it every now and then. Others go totally hands-off until harvest, letting nature take its course and seeing what comes of it. Helping your garden along betters its chances of thriving, while letting it do its thing encourages the growth of hardier plants. Whichever you decide, you most likely won’t have to weed your chaos garden much. The natural diversity and density crowds out most weed species. A diverse garden also tends to be naturally pest-averse, since beneficial insects and animals are drawn to the biodiversity, and handle any pests naturally.

Take note of which plants are thriving. After some weeks and with a little luck, your garden will begin to take root and the greenery will come in. Survey your garden and record what types of plants are appearing to thrive. You might decide to include more seeds of these types next year for an even lusher garden. Use a plant identifier app to identify any plants you're unfamiliar with. Let your chaos garden be an educational opportunity! Some plants that don’t usually thrive in your climate may thrive in your garden. Your garden’s diversity promotes many mutually beneficial relationships and interactions among plants.

Harvest any vegetables starting a month or 2 after planting. Since your plants are haphazardly distributed, they won’t mature at the same rates. Once your garden has begun flourishing, hunt through the foliage for mature vegetables once every week or so to take full advantage of your bounty. True, things won’t be neatly arranged for harvesting, but hunting for vegetables and encountering your garden up-close is part of the chaos gardening experience. Cook up your vegetables for a tasty home-grown meal, gift them to your neighbors, or donate them to your local food bank.