This may sound silly...

[crickett1234]

Thanks everyone for your replies!  

I now can't wait to get out there and get digging... but unfortunately I leave the house in the dark and get home in the dark as well at the moment, so there is no time left to go to the allotment.  It will have to wait until the weekend!

Thanks again!

[Tenuse]

Hugh,

Yes, I could do it on the computer, and did consider this. It's just that I prefer curling up on the sofa with my best pen to fill in my nicely designed, ringbound paper records - not about efficiency, more about what satisfies me the most!

Ten x

[aquilegia]

I made an excel spreadsheet which is a database of all my plants (well at least all those i can remember the names of) and also has a monthly diary to put in what to do that month (most of it stolen from The Gardener's site - thanks!)

Then (as I don't have a computer at home) I copied all that info onto a calendar (lovely one with pics of wild flowers!) then when I do something, I cross it off. If I don't get it done that day, it doesn't matter, but if I do it a long time away from when it says, I write it in again on that date. I also add any extreme weather conditions.

[crickett1234]

I have a big diary which I intended to use as my record of planting and things.  It is a rather virulent purple colour, and you simply can't miss it!  However I have not yet had the time to sit down and do much with it.    I will get round to it if I can, but my schedule at the moment is mad!   :-/)

[legless]

as a new allotment holder myself crickett, my method of choice is panic, stare at the ground a bit, follow the seed packets and a book unless something easier or simpler is mentioned here, get more confused, and the cycle begins again..

my husband is getting used to horrified looks and urgent outbursts such as 'but ceri's sown her leeks should i sow mine do you think what do i do arrrgghhhh'

i have a card index system with each bed assigned a letter and then a green card where i record everything i do to that bed, what i sow etc with date and then a blue card behind it detailing what will be sown there according to plan and when, no idea if it works yet but makes me happy  

[crickett1234]

Legless,

That sounds a really, really good idea.  I think I might work on that plan...  I have loads of cue cards from when I was studying and doing revision notes!!  Plus it appeals to the latent administrator within me!!  

It is soooo nice to know that I am not the only one panicking at the amount of work I have to do on the plot. (not that it helps us of course, but it is comforting to do!)  

I am lucky that hubby is keen to do as much hard labour as he can to help out (bless him!) , but I have a vision of the allotment as a paradise of weed free beds, organic heaven with all the correct beasties and none of the pests.   I know, I know, perfectionist clap trap with no basis in reality!  But it is this vision which is keeping me going at the moment!!   :-/

Oh I don't want to be shut in at work today!!  I want to be at the lottie digging out bramble roots (or trying to!) and battling the couch grass!  It is even raining a bit here at the moment, and I still want to be at the lottie for preference!!

[The gardener]

Based on my experience, here are a few tips for you folks who are keeping diaries;

There was a time when I used to get the small 'freebies' from clients. Invariably they turned out to be too small, particulary at busy times of the year.

Get a page a day diary.

OK these are more expensive but when you think you don't  have to buy one for another few years, i.e. until it is full

Curious?? Well plants do not know if it is 2004 or 2005 if it is Tuesday or Wednesday, so filling the details in by date means you can easily locate the information in future years, effectively you have created a perpetual diary.

It also saves you looking through twenty years of diaries to find a little bit of information.

But the best method of all is to form a data base on your PC, ensuring you always have a key word to locate the info you want.

For example in the case of say Potatoes I ensure the word 'Potato' is included when filling in the details I want to save.

Now all I have to do, is filter out the word 'Potato' and everything I have recorded about potatoes over the last twenty or so years is listed.

The resultant information determined my website layout, now I never look at my diaries, I just look in my website.

It has certainly assisted my aging memory, I think there is nothing more frustrating in trying to find an entry you know you have made, but can never find when you want it.

[legless]

crickett? what do you mean that vision isn't realistic? shatter my illusions why don't you?  

my hubby will only come down the allotment if i buy him a hammock to lay in up there!

[legless]

and also it means i don't have to lable the rows in the beds as i have a record on paper relating to each bed specifically - no worries of fading or losing labels (theoretically)

oh i love my lottie...... and my seed packets......

[tim]

The Gardener's ideas are great -  but the effort in transferring everything to the computer is mind-boggling. I just open a book - whatever its cost.

What label printing does not fade?? Other than impressed copper?

Never panic - it's almost never too late. The most challenging thing is to decide what 'early, mid  or late spring' means?? = Tim

[gavin]

Don't despair, legless and crickett - it'll take time, but in 18 months, you'll be encouraging a whole batch of newbies similarly daunted!  "Hey, look what we've done!  We've managed to do this, and this, and .............."



And backing up everybody else - yes, do keep notes; some sort of diary - there's always summat new I'm learning, or I'd forgotten (like the date of the Shipley Potato Day on Saturday - I thought it was Sunday!  Thoroughly p....d off with myself, I am).  

Make sure it's in a form that works for you - organised by calendar (which didn't work for me), or by vegetable (which was my choice), or bed, or whatever; as long as it works!

All best - gavin  

[Ceri]

I keep all the seeds I've bought in their packets in an old large icecream tubs (well, why would I ever buy a small icecream tub?), look at them lovingly every few days, re-read the advice on the packet in case 'sow in April' has turned into 'sow in February' - I am the impatient type.  Does that count as keeping a record?  

[Doris_Pinks]

Ceri, that is exactly what I am going to do today!! Bit worrying that every one is sowing like mad, and I have only gotten so far as buying seed compost! :-( (mind you the kids have been off school!)