Newbie Planning Tools

I am new to SFG. Reading Mel's All New SFG book. Making plans for my first Spring SFG. I am looking for Excel Spreadsheets, Software, etc. that may help us newbies. Thanks for any help you can give. God Bless to All and Happy Holidays!

Hello from Texas , well I am starting this spring as well. There is alot of great people here..

hope to see you around

Welcome aboard, rube! You have stumbled across the best compliment to the book you can find. The book is an easy read, but can bring up questions with more depth. That's why we are here. Ask away and we'll do the best we can to help out, provided we don't have the same question.

Here are two of my favorite links to get you started.

First, the planner. If you click the link, look for the "Design your own" tab and click that to start dragging and dropping veggies into your squares. This really helps provide a visual to your planning.

http://www.gardeners.com/Kitchen-Garden-Planner/kgp_home,default,pg.html

Next, frost dates. Just plug in your zip code and look at the three closest locations to you for help in gauging when to start/stop planting. This is really good if you plan to start anything indoors....like broccoli.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/freeze-frost-dates/

You really can't beat these two in my opinion. Look forward to seeing more of you around!

http://www.gardeners.com/Kitchen-Garden-Planner/kgp_home,default,pg.html

This is the first time I have seen a free planner like this,
A Great Big Thank You BBG ! Previously I could only find planners you had to pay for.

The next one is excellent too!
http://davesgarden.com/guides/freeze-frost-dates/

Thank you

llama momma wrote:http://www.gardeners.com/Kitchen-Garden-Planner/kgp_home,default,pg.html

This is the first time I have seen a free planner like this,
A Great Big Thank You BBG ! Previously I could only find planners you had to pay for.

Llama - If you have odd-sized or shaped beds that are not supported by the gardeners.com planner, it is easy to copy and paste the pics from it into excel for setting up your own lay-out (like L-shaped beds). I like the way each pic shows you how many to plant of each veggie! I am a very visual learner and had to see my garden all in one spreadsheet to be able to figure out what I was doing!

GG

Excellent thank you/will tuck that away for future reference. This forum is like a daily christmas present of help and support.

I am using this one. It is a pay one after a free trial, but it has a nice set of features...

http://gardenplanner.territorialseed.com/gardenplanner/gardenplanner.html#

BackyardBirdGardner wrote:Welcome aboard, rube! You have stumbled across the best compliment to the book you can find. The book is an easy read, but can bring up questions with more depth. That's why we are here. Ask away and we'll do the best we can to help out, provided we don't have the same question.

Here are two of my favorite links to get you started.

First, the planner. If you click the link, look for the "Design your own" tab and click that to start dragging and dropping veggies into your squares. This really helps provide a visual to your planning.

http://www.gardeners.com/Kitchen-Garden-Planner/kgp_home,default,pg.html

Next, frost dates. Just plug in your zip code and look at the three closest locations to you for help in gauging when to start/stop planting. This is really good if you plan to start anything indoors....like broccoli.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/freeze-frost-dates/

You really can't beat these two in my opinion. Look forward to seeing more of you around!

Thanks for your help. I truly feel welcome and hope to make a contribution as I learn more. Merry Christmas!

Ashort

That looks great, it is going into my favorites. More toys to play around with! Appreciate you sharing it.

The only planning tool Ive used so far is the iPhone app for SFG, thats not really a planning tool though is it, but it does offer me the ability to make my beds and have the info at the ready. I do like this program. Im still learning to "plan" myself. I go by seasons when I start to plan. Like right now I am in the midst of making a list of seeds to buy (checking it twice, three and four times it seems). I have seed packets separated by cold weather, spring time planting and fall planting. Cold weather and fall planting are really close for me so there is really only two sections of seeds. I am still in the area of planning myself.
Hope this helps a tiny bit.
Ha-v-v

I was reading another thread and came across a tool that would be nice for all gardeners
Here is the thread
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t9469-portable-planning-planting-guide#91144

Impressive
Ha-v-v

I used LetsGrowVeggies.com this fall and enjoyed it. The only problem I had was, it's a new site and they were late getting it on-line for fall planting (for my zip code anyway). I kept checking it, and there'd be nothing, and then one day it was up and I was supposed to have planted my peas and carrots two weeks ago. Whoops! But it's based on average first and last frost dates, so the information will be exactly the same every year from here on out.

I imagine it works in the same way as the portable garden planner in the other thread that Ha-v-v just posted about. I like how visual it is, and I really like how it knows the current day and so will tell you what your gardening chores are this week and give you a peek ahead one week of what you'll be up to then (which gives you time to go shopping for seeds/transplants or whatever).

Welcome enjoy your planning,and try Totallytomatoes.com the have a free planner as well it's even got a SFG Tad,as some of the best prices you'll find on seeds

gwennifer wrote:I used LetsGrowVeggies.com this fall and enjoyed it. The only problem I had was, it's a new site and they were late getting it on-line for fall planting (for my zip code anyway). I kept checking it, and there'd be nothing, and then one day it was up and I was supposed to have planted my peas and carrots two weeks ago. Whoops! But it's based on average first and last frost dates, so the information will be exactly the same every year from here on out.

I imagine it works in the same way as the portable garden planner in the other thread that Ha-v-v just posted about. I like how visual it is, and I really like how it knows the current day and so will tell you what your gardening chores are this week and give you a peek ahead one week of what you'll be up to then (which gives you time to go shopping for seeds/transplants or whatever).

I just logged on to this one and it looks pretty neat - I think I will use it as the basis for setting up my own Excel spreadsheet schedule. That way I can make my own notations as well.



GG