Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Planning the 2015 Garden

Brassica_seedlings

 

Planning for the 2015 garden actually started last year as I observed what worked in the current garden and what did not do well in my garden, given soil and climate conditions. I usually write up a post mortem on the garden but slacked off this year. Still, I know what worked for me and what did poorly. I also keep a list of interesting new varieties to try, influenced by visits to the kitchen garden at Tower Hill Botanical Garden and fellow bloggers and gardeners.

 

The next step is to finally decide what I am growing next season. I make up a planting list, inventory my seeds, and then decide what I need to purchase. I like to try new things so there are usually several new varieties in the list. For those, I need to find a seed vendor who carries them. A snippet from the 2015 list is shown below and the complete list can be found here. Vendor codes are at the end of the complete list at the link.

2015_Planting_List

 

The next task is to develop a planting schedule for each plant being grown. This is a multi-pronged, iterative task. Given a fixed amount of gardening space, I have to determine what fits where, how much of each variety to grow, and when to start seeds and when to plant/transplant. For this task I have two tools:

a plot plan of my SFG garden with ruling into one-foot squares, and a planting schedule spreadsheet.

 

The plot plan looks like this and I can write in year and Spring or Fall  for planting season. I sit down with my planting list and a 0.5mm mechanical pencil and a good eraser and work out a planting arrangement for the year. You can see I am dealing with a fixed amount of space: the plot is 15x22 feet and I have 180 squares to squeeze in everything I want to grow.

 

 

Plot_Plan

 

The work with the plot plan diagram produces the number of plants or seeds of each variety that must be started/planted. and is transferred to the planting schedule. The schedule is shown below and the online version may be viewed here.  The schedule has the usual columns for planned and actual seed start dates but it also includes number of plants and format (soil block size, etc.). Plants are listed alphabetically, which has the advantage of keeping them together. Sorting by seed starting date might make sense, but might also make a mess since that column has non-date entries. So I just scan the column to see what I need to do next.

 

2015_Garden_Schedule

 

I print out copies of the plot plan and planting schedule and put them in sheet protectors to keep them clean. They go with me to the garden and I try to keep them updated with the actual dates. Sometimes I even manage to update the online file with the actual dates and notes. This creates a record of dates, what was planted, and what worked that is then useful in planning the next season. And now as I scan the schedule while writing this, I see I better get to work with my brassica and pepper starts

9 comments:

  1. You have the same column I do. The actual start date. As we all know, when we really start the seeds is not always when we planned to. Mine goes: Plant, Variety, In, Out, #, Actual #, Actual Seed, Actual Plant. In and out means planting indoors and transplanting outdoors. I almost always plant in 1 1/2" soil blocks, so I don't have that column. Recently I've been changing my plans around. So I may print out a new one.

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    1. Seeds don't necessarily read the packet instructions. So I think recording actual experience is useful. The challenge for me is to follow through and record all the information.

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  2. In a way, I think I would be nice to start with a new garden every year. The biggest challenge with year round gardening is having space available when I need it. I've found that schedules with target planting dates don't work for me so I've been working up a spread sheet that shows windows of optimal or possible start dates. I designate certain types of plantings to each bed and then decide what to start as space looks like it will become available. I'm constantly reevaluating what I can grow.

    You've got an ambitious and interesting list of varieties this year!

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    1. I have a similar problem with succession planting. If I want a Fall crop, I have to work back from first frost date. But the Spring crop in those squares might not be ready to vacate. Trouble is, winter is inevitable (so far). A Fall crop has to be well established if it is going to mature in the Fall with shorter days, weaker sunlight and cooler temperatures. So like you, I have to decide if I want a few more harvests (bird in hand) or do I yank it to make space for a Fall crop that may not actually mature before cold weather (bird in bush).

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  3. That is a great list of varieties - I see lots that I am also growing so it's going to be fun comparing results from our different gardens. The chard you are growing particularly caught my attention - I have not heard of any of those, but they sound like they will be a very colourful trio. I also really liked your spreadsheet with all of the "at a glance" information - as Daphne pointed out, when you plan to start/transplant and when you actually do are two different things and it can have a big impact (good or bad) on your harvest that year.

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    1. The experience factor really comes into play with some seeds such as peppers. My experience is some hot peppers tend to take much longer to germinate than sweet peppers. Using an average germination date for peppers doesn't always produce ideal results if half the seeds germinate and are ready to exit the heat pad but half of them have to stay on the pad.

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  4. It's always informative to see how other gardeners do things. I capture pretty much the same info you do, except my spreadsheet is usually in chronological order. And I just record actual dates for sowing, transplanting, so on. I do take copies of the plan with me to the greenhouse and garden, but I never thought about sheet protectors - what a great idea. Who says you can't teach an old dog like me new tricks!

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    1. Just practical experience having smeared mud on a lot of my plans. And I need the planned dates, at least for seed starting, even if I don't always make them.

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  5. I'm afraid I am not that disciplined! I keep a record in a word document of when I sowed seeds, year on year, for comparison, but mostly I rely on 2 things - my memory (getting less reliable), and my blog with its associated Picasa photo-albums. My growing-space is very small though, so I suppose its not a huge challenge to remember everything.

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