For my garden at work, I spent one winter planning out the garden to specifically manage the pests, watering, and weeding. This process allowed me to develop a garden plan that ensured that I was using crop rotations and beneficial companion planting (for pest management), drip line irrigation to limit the amount of labor and time spent watering the garden, as well as the use of black fabric, biodegradable "plastic" and a silage tarp for weed management. I also included plans to limit the amount of tilling and heavy equipment use to lower the compaction for soil health and to use cover cropping for soil health and weed management. All of these items work together in order to produce food without the use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, and herbicides. Spreading compost in the spring is also done. Each year, this plan is adjusted to account for new pests, crop rotations, and soil health.
For our garden space, I have been working to incorporate more of the natural cycles into our garden and promoting native pollinator landscapes. This has shown me to think of the "bigger picture" of our garden space and how it should also benefit the insects, animals, and any other living organism within the space, not just us humans.