What should I be planting when?

[wsmoak]

We moved to the country (a couple of hours south of Atlanta) in February and have so far put in four 4x8 raised beds. I have tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, okra, squash, strawberries, carrots...

It's all doing amazingly well, but nothing is planned, it's just whatever plants and seeds I grabbed at the hardware store. I didn't keep track of when anything went in, so I have no idea when it will be ready. And I keep poking more seeds in the ground when I see a bare spot.

Ideally I'd like to stagger plantings so I have things ripening in stages that we can use up, or know when a big harvest of something is coming up so we can plan to can or freeze.

What do the more organized among you do to keep track of the garden? Notebooks? Excel spreadsheet? Google calendar?

I'd love to hear what's working for you.

--
Wendy

 

[lesa]

You know the thing I love about gardening, is that there is no right or wrong way to do it! Lots of people on here are super organized with charts and graphs- and that works great for them. I think you are doing the right thing- it is a new garden for you and you are experimenting with lots of different plants and planting times. You will learn so many things from this. If you feel the urge to keep records- go ahead. I've never kept much of a record myself and my garden turns out wonderful year after year. I think vfem started a post to figure out costs of gardening, etc. Check that out for ideas. Good luck and happy gardening!!!

 

[digitS']

Wendy, from 1988 on - I have kept copies of my seed orders. I'm not really sure why I've bothered but in more recent years, it is about the only formal information that I have on my gardens.

In 1992 and thru 1996, I kept a loose-leaf garden journal which sat on the night stand beside the bed. I wrote about what was planted, harvested, etc. I was even mapping the gardens during those years, all carefully measured by the foot - my foot.

By 1996, I was able to put together a "Start By" chart. I've edited that chart a few times over the years but having 3 or 4 years of dates and results helped me get guidance down on paper.

After '96, I had a computer but it wasn't until 2002, that I joined a garden forum online . Since then, I've saved, at least, some of what I've written. So, this forum has become my garden journal . Often, I haven't saved what I'm looking for but the "Search Button" has become my birddog .

Steve

 

[Chantay]

I draw maps of my yard, garden, flower beds, and ponds with a pencil in a notebook. I save all of my seed packets and the tags from plants in ziplock bags labeled with the year. I take lots of photos of my plants and yard all the time and I have them in scrapbooks and on my computer. I usually try to organize it all in the winter as soon as seed catalogs arrive in the mail. There is a calendar on the Georgia Gardener's website that is quite helpful on when to plant everything. www.walterreeves.com

 

[ecopepper]

I got tired of not knowing what did good and when. In Florida and maybe Ga a bit the books don't realy help except for companion and rotating and such. But I have to adjust my growing patern to work for my area. Like Sept. is a great time for all my cool veggies. I keep a rough diagram of my raised beds just so if something does good I can do it again. Of corse I think I pulled up a tomitillo thinking it was a weed the other day lol!