Keeping track

[3rdragon]

How do you track what you have planted where, and what you want to plant where, and what you planted there last season?

As a kid I just did popsicle sticks with the name written on, but nowadays I have ambitions for crop rotation and record-keeping, and little sticks just aren't cutting it. We have a map, and a Google spreadsheet with when we planted stuff and how long it took to germinate*, but neither is an easy way to know if I should plant lettuce in this particular spot, or if kale would be a better choice this year.

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*I didn't make it -- a friend of mine gave me a copy of hers, and I just put stuff in boxes.

Comments

[bridgetmkennitt]

I admit, mine is easy because I have my garden in my apartment so they're all in containers. I have little tags I made from materials from Michaels that are on the plant stands to designate what is what.

Ooo, your method is fancy! I like how organized it is.

[zesty_pinto]

Maybe you could try using stakes and stringing off the sections, add a label along the way as well? I've seen it done, although it was usually to cordone off areas where the crop wasn't ripe enough yet...

[tielan]

I am contemplating a full-blown whiteboard/pinboard for it. Because my garden is small but intense, and while I keep a diary, it's a bit of a mess. (A bit.)

And yes, I'd kind of like an app that could at least tell me what I've grown and who I bought the seeds from, and how they grew in my area and where in the garden I planted them...but I think that my ambitions highly outstrip the capabilities of any app that could be created (unless i made it specifically for myself).

[cesy]

Growstuff does the tracking side, but won't show particular locations in that level of detail yet. It's useful to share the data of how long things take to grow, though, to help other small farmers and hobbyists worldwide.