The Modern Victory Garden

Blog

« Back to Blog « Older Entry | Newer Entry »

Mid Week Musing

Posted on October 21, 2009 at 11:31 PM

I woke up extra early this morning (it happens sometimes) and since I know from experience that forcing myself to get more sleep never works out - I just got up and made use of the additional time.   I pulled up the Word file that has the current garden configuration graphically laid out and began the initial process of moving the crops around to test ideas of what to plant next year and where.   This initial exercise is mainly one of exploring possibilities.   Obviously, I have a lot of time in the coming months to really fine tune next season's garden plan, but it was a good exercise to do this first look while the memory is still fresh on what worked (and what did not) in this year's garden.                                                

             

                  

         

Invariably even when the plan is deemed "final" -  I end up changing it (at least somewhat) almost the moment I start planting!   However, it does provide a general blue print and some guidance in the selection of seed varieties.                        

            

I have initially decided to skip a few crops next year so I can rotate in a crop of dried beans - something I have not grown for at least two years now.   Specifically, I am going to pass on growing beets, kohlrabi, and probably even brussel sprouts, so that I have more room to add a sizeable crop of dried beans.   I confess that I am wavering on the brussel sprouts decision because we love them, but they do occupy a lot of space and for a long time (slow maturing).  

  

Do you have your garden layout drawn out on graph paper or electronically to allow for this kind of planning process?

Categories: Garden Thoughts, Garden Beds

Post a Comment

Oops!

Oops, you forgot something.

Oops!

The words you entered did not match the given text. Please try again.

Already a member? Sign In

8 Comments

Reply Dan
12:54 AM on October 22, 2009 
I'm not much of a planner and if I make lists it's only when I am frenetic & buried in projects. I have been thinking similarly to skip some crops next year. I think I would be better off growing less variety in order to have higher yields.
Reply Becky
06:43 AM on October 22, 2009 
Great idea to get a jump start while your memory is still fresh. I should do the same. Last year I made my garden plan with construction paper and colored pencils. (Can you tell I have small children in the house and an elementary school teaching degree?? LOL)
I'm already excited about planning next years garden and I can't wait for the seed catalogs to arrive in a few months :)
Reply Daphne
09:11 AM on October 22, 2009 
I'm a paper and pencil gal. Which in a way is bad, because I don't have a history of my garden on paper. The paper gets lost. I often don't do all the garden on paper. I have a rotation that I follow every year so I sort of know what goes where to a large extent.
Reply GrafixMuse
01:30 PM on October 22, 2009 
I am such a visual person that I have to plot everything out. I use a graphic design program and move things around similar to the way you do in Word. I usually change it around many times too. This year, I stopped at version 5 :)
Reply Kimberly
02:02 PM on October 22, 2009 
Ooooo, thank you. I wouldn't have thought to do a prelim. garden plan for next year NOW, but what good advice. By January, when I would've been planning by my own inclination, I would've forgotten all of those mental notes!

I made detailed maps and schedules on graph paper this last year, since it was being built/first garden. I'll still do it on graph paper. I also value Daphne's input on losing the papers, so I think I'll scan this last year's crop maps and start a file on the computer.

The big challenge this year will be crop rotation, as I deal with so many shady beds and so few sunny ones.

Kimberly
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
10:26 PM on October 22, 2009 
Dan - Lists and planning are what keep me sane because it seems I am constantly frenetic and buried in projects! LOL!

Becky - I have been known ot use colored pencils myself when I did graph paper versions of a garden plan. Any excuse to play with crayons and colored pencils. :D

Daphne - I always lose the printouts to water damage from rain, dirt smudges, and even just blowing away when a wind kicked up. That's the beauty of the computer version, you can always reprint, or even better just look at it online.

GrafixMuse - I had a version in a scaled down autocad program once but I had to relearn the system every time I went to use it because that was the ONLY time I used it. Gave up and abandoned that several years ago. I have seen some fairly interesting versions available online - but none have been quite as good as my "make do" method.

vfd - great idea about scanning it! I have the same challenges you do in that several of my beds receive far less sun and are therefore limited in what can be grown there. Makes rotations more diffcult.
Reply hsheather
09:43 AM on October 23, 2009 
I use pen and graph paper. I have a little notebook that I keep everything in so that it doesn't get lost and I have a record of everything year to year. It really helps me to sit down now and make my lists of what went right, wrong and what I want to do next year. I have already done a very preliminary plan for next years garden. Then I added another bed. LOL But that is why I do this.

One thing I'm really fond of is page protectors. When I plant my seedlings in a large flat, I write down what went where, put it in a page protector and post it on the wall behind the flat. Similarly the garden plan gets put into the protectors to keep it from getting destroyed. I'm still really new to gardening, so I really need to keep everything I can to avoid making the same mistakes. This makes me sound far more organized than I really am.
Reply kitsapfreedomgardener
10:58 AM on October 24, 2009 
hsheather - You DO sound very organized! I have used page protectors for sheets I kept in a binder - seed inventory, seed starting schedules, etc. I keep all that online here on the website now, so I have quit maintaining that binder of info. The page protectors worked really great and it was easy to swap out with new sheets (no hole punching because the page protector ahd the holes).