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.

[3rdragon]

Yeah, containers tend to be pretty straightforward, unless you start getting really intense.

The spreadsheet *is* really nice. My friend set it up so that you put in when you want to plant things outside, and how many days old they should be when you plant them (0 if you seed them outside), and it auto-calculates when they should be seeded, so then you can sort by either "What should I be planting around now" or "What should I be getting ready to move outside now." It's also a good place for notes like "This tomato was terrible and we shouldn't plant it again" or "Use row cover so that everything doesn't get eaten by bugs." I hadn't previously had a garden so big that I couldn't keep all that stuff in my head, but now that I do, it's a lifesaver.

[bridgetmkennitt]

I admit, I mostly have the tags for the prettiness. I pretty much know what's being grown just by looking at it.

Hot dang, that's a super spreadsheet! The best I can do when making a spreadsheet is...uh, not much. XD Your friend is a good friend. How big is your garden?