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Re: how to keep track?

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

+How do you all keep track of what you're supposed to be doing, and when?  
+ Silvia

Cheap calendar.  Mark your last frost and first freeze dates.  Then as you
decide what you are going to grow you look it up in "the book" and 
decide how early you need to start the seeds for that particular
square.  Mark it in your calender.  Notice when you are likely to harvest
a sqare and decide what would be nice to go there.  Mark back in
the calendar enough days so that you can start indoors (or whereever)
the seedlings you want to go in when the earlier plant comes out.
Or if that is pushing the envelope too much.  Just mark down what
you want to plant (from seed) next.  Making sure there is time till
first frost to actually pick that crop.  

I did this partially last year.  And it helped keep me on track
much better than waiting and saying "now what?"

I am doing this now as a gardening activity of the winter.
I just ordered the seeds I used up last season, went through
my collection of seeds to see which should still be viable
and just how I want to plan them.  Now I am working up the 
garden plan, what I am going to plant when and where.
Allowing for some variation.  I now have marked out in
the calendar what I need to start when.  Staggered around
so that I don't have too much to do on any weekend.  I plan on 
having a few extras of each seeding crop, to 1) allow for failures
and 2) give the extras away to friends, especially nice when you
have varieties that they could not pick up as starts at the
farmers market.

I am also planning out my other tasks so that I stay ahead
of the game and unhurried.  Seeds are cheap so I plan to start
everthing in sets of two.  If I think my last frost date will be May 1 
I need to start brocolli the last weekend of this month.  And just
in case I will start some more 1-2 weeks later.  Only one set will
make it to the garden.  If it gets frosted or eaten early enough I 
will still have the other one to transplant.  If too late I will have
already given it away (or composted, or eaten it...)

I do not plant a lot of any one plant but I do plant quite a few
different varieties.  All with slightly different germination and
transplant times.  Right now I am looking up the details on the
new seeds I should be getting and will write it on the packets
(if it is not already there) and in my journal when they arrive.
Then with my trusty calendar I will select when I want to plant
them which lets me know to calculate when to start them and
mark that in the calendar too.  

Some things will fail.  I will mark that in my journal so hopefully
next year I can look up peas and remember, train them up the
trelliss before the become hopelessly entangled with the
tomatoes.  Or don't interplant older tomato transplants with
pepper transplants.  This last year my dozen pepper plants
were so shaded by the earlier tomato plants that I harvested
one bell pepper (1.5 inches across) and one jalapeno.

Now as spring approaches and it seems as if there is a million
things to do.  Reading and planning won't be one of them.
I won't waste a sunny day trying to decide what to do.  I will
be outside playing in the dirt planting my little green toys.
And on those occassionly rained in days or after dark I will
look to my calendar and remember what I need to start.
And in those dog dead days of summer when so many
plants are pooped out I will be able to look forward to fall
as I plant fresh transplants.  

I especially make sure to plant for harvest events.  I try
to stagger the plantings and hence harvesting of things that
will require special preperation.  Canning can be a pain in
small batches.  But one or two big canning days can hold
me in tomatoes till next spring.  And food can spoil waiting
it's turn in the dehydrator.  But if I plant and plan correctly
I can send a steady stream of veggies at the dehydrator
ready to rejoin me in some sturdy soup on a cold winters
night.  

The only thing more important then the calendar is the
garden map.  One year I ripped out early the misshapen
tomatoes plants in one bed only to find the sweetest
baby potato's in the roots.  Okay so they weren't tomatos
I forgot what I planted.  

Ahh I can almost feel the dirt between my fingers now...
- Ron Souliere


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