I did something dumb

I went out to check out my SF boxes and saw some little greens breaking through the mix. I went to get my paper that I made that shows where and what I planted in the squares. I seem to have lost all my papers that I made on my garden. I think I may have shreaded them by mistake. I guess it will be a big surprise as to what is growing as I cant remember what I planted and where. lesson learned: make more than one copy or find a way to put it on the computer or make a file and put it in the file cabinet.

Oh dear! Hopefully you will find your notes. You may want to survey your seed packets and see what you have, maybe that will jog some memories of what you put where. But it sounds like your seeds are doing just fine, regardless--congrats!

Last spring I was worried about telling seedlings apart from weeds, so I tried to mark the seeds (not just the squares) with broken-off twigs. It worked fairly well for most things, but I think I lost all of my spring onions and summer savory to mistaking them for weeds.

I have a garden bag that I carry with me. In it I have Sharpie Industrial markers (the regular ones will wash off) and a bunch of plastic tags. I rotate seeds in and out of the bag. I try to plant a square of lettuce or radishes every chance I get... And try to remember to mark it.

I saw a tip to cutting up Venitian mini blinds, and plastic knives would work also.

I keep a 3 ring binder for my garden notes. I photocopied the blank grid out of the back of the book, wrote my planting notes (in pencil) in the squares. Then the paper sheets go into acrylic sleeves, then into the binder. I have lined paper to keep a daily diary of weather and garden activities. It has been quite helpful to glance back at entries from last season while I do this seasons planning.

I do hope you find your notes, but all is not lost. If you made fresh Mel's Mix, the only thing coming up should be what you put in there.

Oh golly, I did something like that this spring.
I made up my new garden plan with what would go in which of my nine boxes with the variety. Placed it somewhere. Who knows where.
When it came time to place my orders for any seeds I might need, lo and behold, I couldn't find the darn thing. Looked hi and lo. Still never found it.

I made a new one and this time I planned it with companion plants and away from crops I heard they don't care for very much, so my losing the first one was actually, a good thing.

I then repeated this info in my garden plot on a computer site for safekeeping.

If I make any changes of the one in the notebook (its in pencil), I immediately go to the one on the computer and do the same.

I keep a notebook with a calendar of weekly notebk pages of what to start in certain weeks, both inside and outside. I also keep a small notebk (with a page at the beginning for each raised bed all lined and named) with a pencil in my gardenshirt pocket so when I'm out in the garden, I jot down when I plant whatever. The little notebk is also my diary and notes daily happenings, like weather, day and nite temps, rainfall, what germinated, what was harvested. You get the picture, I'm sure.

I love taking notes anyway, so this is not an effort for me. Its fun time in the garden! I just don't like having to do it TWICE.

Hmmm, looks like someone either didn't label the squares with name/variety of seed planted in it, OR, a varmint sneaked in and removed the label. So, here's a very inexpensive way to label your squares in the most "in-your-face" way: Either at a Goodwill, or garage sale, look for light-colored plastic venetian blinds--guaranteed to be cheap. Remove the strings and cut the blind slats in half at an angle (to make a point to thrust into the ground), write on the blind slat with a grease pencil the variety of seed just planted, and immediately place your new marker in the ground by the newly planted seeds. A variation on this theme is to cut out the name/information from the seed packet and tape (with clear shipping tape) to the slat. If you don't want to cut up your seed packet, download the description from the web, print it (and that of several of its friends you will be planting) and cut the individual names/descriptions to size and tape them to the slat. My slat labels with information from shipping tags sent with some iris I received two years ago still look good...even the cold, rain/snow of two winters failed to destroy them. Just an idea, Nonna, St. Helens, OR

I went outside and made a new chart. most was easy (onions and garlic) What is sprouting I think may be romaine lettuce and cabbage. I just cant remember where I planted the squash, beans and peas as nothing has sprouted there yet . also the seeds that I planted in the jiffy green house trays still have not sprouted.

You'll have a better idea once the seed leaves are up--that should tell you how many you planted per square, and that may help to remind you what you planted where. (Example: If you see 16 plants coming up in a single square, you better hope it's not 16 squash plants! It's more likely to be lettuce. Beans and peas are probably in the 9-ish range.)

Also, once you figure out what is where.... IF you plan on trellising, get your trellises erected ASAP. I read all kinds of advice about that, last spring, and didn't really understand why. I thought it would be okay if I waited until the plants were a few inches high. And, it was, up to a point. But maneuvering the trellis around to get the conduit onto the rebar all by myself was a little tricky. Hard to dodge all the little baby plants and not step on anything, especially while you're focusing on getting one end anchored while the other side is wagging around! I've promised myself I'm going to put my trellises in at the same time I'm planting, from here on out.

Megan,
Also if you wait too long to put up your trellises and poles, you might be damaging a root system or two while burying their ends in the soil.

quiltbea wrote:Megan,
Also if you wait too long to put up your trellises and poles, you might be damaging a root system or two while burying their ends in the soil.

Absolutely. My trellis supports were outside my boxes, but that is a really good point!

I am going to have to think hard about trellis supports for my backyard. It is chock full of tree roots and driving the rebar into the ground could be very difficult.

it might be hard to see but the back wall has a 25' long x 5' tall trellis with the trellis netting on it. this is where I have the squash, beans and snap peas planted I just cant remember which is where in the box.

Durn, that is one BIG ol' trellis!!! *applause*

Megan wrote:Durn, that is one BIG ol' trellis!!! *applause*

Gwynn

well I guess I not so dumb after all I just cant remember things.LOL Today I was going through the filing cabinet and what do I find a file marked garden, and what do I find inside my orig paper that shows where and what I planted in the squares. I have been going crazy and now after finding this I feel like I can get back on track. Thank to all that gave me words of encouragement.

Yay for your find!!!

Now I'm waiting for the trellis madness to start. (I had LOTS of that last year!)

Well, who would ever think to look in the file where it belongs??? How the heck did it get there?

If it is not in the pile on my desk..........

Gwynn



PS. Glad you found it. These things do have a way of turning up.

YEAH, don't you feel better???

I wanted to thank whoever it was that shared that they printed out the grid from the back of the book and hauled it out to the garden. I did that the other day, I have a nice size plastic storage type box that has a snap tight lid and I loaded up my seeds, my marker, my tape measure, my book, and my printed pages. I was able to scribble in the garden in the grid and come write neater on my computer log. THANK YOU!!!