Tracking Seed Planting Question

rowena___. wrote:boffer pretty much covered it for me. i use paper and pencil and all i record are what i planted, the date i planted, the date things first sprout, the date i plant them out (if they were started inside). i record the date of first harvest, and i weigh everything because i want to prove to my parents that i can so do it, nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah.

however, i do use each year's notes for the next year, because i am trying to stretch the seasons here each year until i reach 12 months, so when i look back and see that last year i planted X on such date, i can attempt to push that a week earlier, or if i see that last harvest was on such date i can attempt to extend that by another week. it also helps me plan my successions a little better.

but my notes are very casual--i made a chart which is on my romesticity blog--and sometimes i make notes on the margins or on the back. i'm not planning on publishing a white paper so this is good enough for me.

I live a little north of you about 40 miles above Lexington and I am also interested in extending my season to 12 months. I am in my third year of planting so I am right where I need to be to start trying to break the weather barriers. Can you tell me some of your ideas for late season planting? Such as planting close to September, October & November in order to grow through the winter? I am planting a ton of potatoes this year so I have stash of food along with other preservation methods. But I want to GROW all year long. Besides window gardening, I have a hoop house and a newly constructed green house (compost heating in 4 corners) at my disposal for winter growth. This coupled with an indoor seedling operation that can be heated and I think I am set in the way of preperation (or am I??) Any thought you had for the Oct - March season I would love to hear! Thanks!

Last year I mapped my garden in a spiral notebook, then it got lost during the Winter, so didn't do me a bit of good, but I had pictures & could remember pretty much what I planted where so as to not plant in same spot as it grew last year. This year I mapped it out on paper, then entered it into a spread sheet so I would have a record for next year. Surely I won't lose that. I tried putting in dates of sowing/sprouting in my notebook, but it didn't last long.

I guess the only thing I am going to try and be diligent about is keeping track of my tomato plants & my opinion of them since I am growing some different kinds this year. (although I have a whole flat of 48 seedlings that no longer have markers after the 2 year old granddaughter pulled them out).

Like someone has said on here "trowel and error" to find what works best for you.

yosoypanadero wrote:
Any thought you had for the Oct - March season I would love to hear! Thanks!

eliot coleman is the authority on 12-season gardening and he has several books that explain it in detail. as to what i grow here (nashville has a slightly different climate than the rest of middle TN--it's all the asphalt and concrete):

last year i extended to the first part of december. after that i didn't attempt anything more because i wanted to regroup and plan a more intentional winter harvest. what i ended up doing was putting up the hoop houses and just nursing along the summer garden. on thanksgiving day we picked fresh tomatoes, chard, black beans, and peppers, and had marigolds for a centerpiece. here is a post of what was in the garden just a few weeks before that:
http://www.romesticity.com/2010/11/extending-the-season-that-hasnt-really-ended-yet.html

this spring i started seeds for spring crops in the hoop houses in the first of february, so it was only about 6 weeks when i wasn't actively gardening. at the same time i started seeds for summer crops inside my portable greenhouse. i am planting in successions so as to make sure i have plenty of fresh harvest available for as long as possible each season. i will set some of the summer things in the garden even before i pull up the last of the spring stuff, and as one crop ends the other will just begin needing more room.

i'll start fall crops sometime in july, in the portable greenhouse but with a shade cover instead of a plastic cover, and i'll keep the greenhouse in the shade of a tree as well. and i'll overlap plantings with these too.

this year i will make a final in-ground planting sometime in october, depending on the weather, so as to grow a winter crop of edibles and a cover crop in the gardens that i won't be using.

Squat_Johnson wrote:
I am taking notes as to what I actually get in the ground, and will adjust next year.
Check it out...
http://littlehouseinthesuburbs.com/2009/01/free-download-2009-spring-garden.html

I'm using this as well, but I need more room to write notes, so I have a notebook to go along with it. It is very handy.

The only reason I need notes is because I'm doing some experimenting in the garden. If I don't write things down I'll have a hard time figuring out if the experiment was worth it. Heck, this whole SFG thing is an experiment for me. I've only ever done row gardening!

yosoypanadero wrote:Seriously, check that Ipod app out, you all will be amazed.....

I bought that too!

I have been gardening about 1-year now. This is the first time I EVER grew any vegetables and I wanted to maximize my little beds right from the start. (Because I'm in an HOA, I can only have 2 4X4's, 1 strawberry bed and 1 Herb bed in the house borders and about 20 self-watering containers).

So, I wrote a little database using MS Access. I enter what I plant, the date and the location and it calculates from the last/first frost date, the approximate date of germination, when the produce should be ready to pick and when it should be finished. That way I can anticipate when the square will be available to re-plant. When I pick, I enter that information and it totals what I've yielded form the garden.