Keeping Garden Records

This is the drawing of our garden from Plangarden.

My husband has always been a garden record keeper on all the seeds and plants he buys for the garden.  This year he discovered the Plangarden software. It allows him to keep track of when he starts seeds indoors, transplants, and harvests. This information is very handy for next year’s planning of the garden. The drawing he originally made of the garden has undergone much tweaking and re-vamping. It is a continuous process throughout the season. I hope you can read the drawing as it looks today. If you have a question about our garden, please ask in the comments section.

 For information on Plangarden, click on the photo on the right side of the page.

Dare We Think About Spring?

I know you folks in the North country are not seeing signs of spring buried under all the snow...What a tough winter. (Of course my son-in-law loves it since he picks up extra cash with his snow plowing service.)

In Florida we have had a ton of rain, but the yards are beginning to green up....the weeds are loving it. We still are not reaching the normal average high temps, but low 60's are acceptable. Still cool nights in the 30' and 40's.

My DH started white, red and yellow onions. He planted them in the garden and will dig them up to take north with us for our Michigan garden. He also started green, red, purple, yellow and chocolate pepper plants in packs. (If only we could grow chocolate in our garden!!)

Although the weather may not look like spring will come, it will! Have you been looking at seed catalogues and drawing out your new and improved garden for the winter?? Time to plan and dream.

Time to Plan Your Garden

These long winter days are the perfect time to plan your garden. Time to dream about the possibilities of your spring plantings and summer and fall harvests. You will leaf through all kinds of seed catalogs, check out vegetable gardening books, and click on gardening websites to get new and fresh ideas and crop information. Dave's Garden has helpful information in a guide to gardening by mail, mail order gardening, garden books, and catalogs.

Dream on. Gardener's know that the next garden will be the best garden they ever planted!

Waiting for Spring

There's not much you can do about hurrying up nice spring weather for planting. Let's face it. You are chomping at the bit after looking through those seed catalogs and you are ready to get some dirt under your nails. Alas, after looking out the window or walking outdoors, you realize there is no way that spring is close. (unless you live in a Southern state..)

So what do you do to chase away those can't-garden-blues? Now is the time to prepare for gardening such as:

1. Clean out pots/containers that you will need for transplanting.
2. Inventory for transplanting--such as germination mix, soil, ingredients for mixing soil, cell packs, warming mats, lights.
3. Clean and sharpen tools.
4. Find that soil report from the extension office.
5. Look over your journal from last year and make notes for improving this spring's garden. If you didn't keep a journal, look into ways of keeping one for this coming year. It can be a spiral book for jotting notes or something you use online. Decide what will work best for you.
6. Go through photos from last year and organize them into digital folders that make sense. Group photos of the tomatoes in one, beans in another, etc. You may even want to play with making a movie of your garden using Movie Maker or other programs.
7. Look for recipes you want to try this year using your fresh garden produce. (and please feel free to share them here for all of us. It's fun to experiement.)

Waiting for spring to arrive will drive many gardeners to start planting seeds indoors too soon. Oh yes, we are guilty of getting too anxious. Know when you can actually set out transplants in your zone without worrying about a heavy frost killing them. Then backtrack from that date so you can figure out by reading the seed packet the dates for planting the seed indoors. Seeding too soon can lead to plants overgrowing while waiting for the optimal planting weather.

Before you know it you will be out in the dirt again. Oh, maybe you should add to the list--buy some Ben Gay and and a hot pad for your aching back!