I could really use some help/guidance here.
How do you organise your vegetable growing? I know it starts with deciding what it is that you want to grow, but how do you plan from there?
I know that everyone has their own system and I would be curious to learn more about them.
As a first step in my planning I have finally finished sorting and listing my seed collection. I have sorted the seeds into a few basic categories, but these do not take into consideration plant families or seasons of growth.
Where do I go from here? How do you work out which combination of short cropping plants will work with slower maturing plants, etc?
There are huge gaps in my knowledge and any info about how you do things that you are willing to share will be a great benefit to me and I am sure other novice growers here.
Also, if you could suggest only one book for the novice allotmenteer, what would it be?
hi. i arrange first by what i want to grow, then time of year(when to sow/plant out and harvest), and finally where it can go (in which bed, by what each bed had in it last season!)
i really liked and would recommend the half hour allotment. but there are mixed thoughts on this book here on A4A!
Quote from: RosieMcPosie on January 10, 2008, 11:28:02
hi. i arrange first by what i want to grow, then time of year(when to sow/plant out and harvest), and finally where it can go (in which bed, by what each bed had in it last season!)
i really liked and would recommend the half hour allotment. but there are mixed thoughts on this book here on A4A!
Thanks for the info Rosie. I have the slight problem that about 70% of what I want to grow falls into the cruciferous family, and am thinking this might cause a problem with crop rotation as going forward the plants that I want to grow will continue to be largely from this one family.
Added to that, in terms of space requirements, my overwintering crops are nearly equal in terms of the ground space requirements to my spring/summer/autumn season crops, so finding a balance between the two is going to prove interesting.
It is finding the balance between the nutrient requirements/cultural requirements of plants, the seasonal demands of the two different growing seasons (summer and winter) and dietary requirements (how much of each plant should I be growing) that is going to prove tricky...
Thank you for the book recommendation. I have added it to my wishlist.
I use my computer now beats keeping folders with planting & sowing plans in.
See here;
Planning = http://tinyurl.com/3ddpbf
Seed sowing = http://tinyurl.com/yy5xkl
This is this years list and the seeds are packed in sowing order;
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd27/tgalmanac/Miscellaneous/P1020604.jpg)
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd27/tgalmanac/Miscellaneous/P1020605.jpg)
(http://i222.photobucket.com/albums/dd27/tgalmanac/Miscellaneous/Seeds.jpg)
All the plans I had in my first few months went out the window by my second year; being adaptable seems the best bet. For a book, my bible is Joy Larkcom's Grow your own vegetables. I always turn to this first!
I like to work backwards and start with a list of things I would like to eat at certain times of the year - then find out when I have to sow/plant them.
A lot of winter crops require long growing seasons - so I like to take care of those first (get the seeds and plan where they are to go). Often you can start these off March/April in a seed tray and pot them up later to go in the ground after early crops are finished (like following Broad Beans with Brussel Sprouts for example).
Certain software (mentioning no names) contains a large database of crops to grow and when they will be ready...
I find it best to organise seeds by sowing time, and I use my blog to see when I planted everything and where. This year I am using a planner that says when to sow, plant out etc,
http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-5-19-212,00.html (http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-5-19-212,00.html)
It seems to be quite well done, I copied it into an Excel file and it worked for me with a bit of calculation.
If you always want to grow just one family, rotation seems not likely.
I have a good book, that shows week by week tasks, but sorry, it's in French...
Quote from: antipodes on January 10, 2008, 15:00:21
I find it best to organise seeds by sowing time, and I use my blog to see when I planted everything and where. This year I am using a planner that says when to sow, plant out etc,
http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-5-19-212,00.html (http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-5-19-212,00.html)
It seems to be quite well done, I copied it into an Excel file and it worked for me with a bit of calculation.
If you always want to grow just one family, rotation seems not likely.
I have a good book, that shows week by week tasks, but sorry, it's in French...
Dang! can't read French. Now if it is published in Italian too that would be fine...
I have had another look at the veg I want to grow and think I can managed it if I can turn out 8 beds on my allotment. Two for brassicas and the other six for the rest of what I want to grow. As a large portion of the green leafy plants that I enjoy are in the brassica family (being oriental brassicas) I need to give this family a bit more space. The upside is that the vast majority of the plants are quick croppers - usually being harvested within 30 days of planting out.
I will check out the HDRA link and see if that will work for me. I am sure that with a few seasons under the belt I will find the correct balance, it is just this first year that will be a challenge, not least because I am starting so late - will only be able to start work on the site in February. Not sure how much work will be needed before I can start planting either.
This is an intreresting thread. :)
i like to draw a plan of my plot and i then divide it into four areas for rotation purposes. Within those four areas are three or four beds of varying sizes. I then dicide where my potatoes are going and my onions and then i make a list of all the other things i want to grow that season and slot them into the right rotational area and then i buy the seeds. As the year goes on things change and there is a lot of flexibility in it as long as the major groups are rotating i find that i will pop bits and peices in as and when there is space. i refer to my plan throughout the season and add things and take things out. I'm not very good at writing doewn sowing/planting/cropping dates, i have a general idea of these things in me head.
I'm also a big fan of the joy larkcom book and refer to it a lot.
Cheers for starting this thread Rob. I'm going to bookmark it. I was wondering where to put my sprouts - they'll be perfect where my beans are now. :)
I'm every impressed. My system, up until now has always been a little more basic.
1) Get hold of a catalogue / go to garden centre.
2) Say 'Oh, that looks nice' and buy it
3) Get a box to put all the seeds in
4) Sort of mid-March onwards, start sowing things
5) When ready to plant out, wander up the allotment and find room for it.
6) Cram in a bit more.
7) Cram in even more, wish you hadn't sowed so much.
8) Go home and sow something, "just in case" some room becomes available.
9) Around August, find the planting plan you did last December.
Be honest. :-[
For planning what goes where I use a spreadsheet with all the cells set as large squares representing sq ft of plot. Boundaries and fixed plantings are marked in then crops are created from oblongs or circles on the draw toolbar. Make these the size you want then drag them about to some virtual cropspace.
To keep records of seeds in store and sowing, germination etc I use an on-line database on one of my servers so the information is always to hand and backed up.
As for actually finding realspace, by late May I still end up walking round and round the plot with a trayfull of something looking for a home. ::)
Quote from: silverbirch on January 10, 2008, 18:12:22
I'm every impressed. My system, up until now has always been a little more basic.
1) Get hold of a catalogue / go to garden centre.
2) Say 'Oh, that looks nice' and buy it
3) Get a box to put all the seeds in
4) Sort of mid-March onwards, start sowing things
5) When ready to plant out, wander up the allotment and find room for it.
6) Cram in a bit more.
7) Cram in even more, wish you hadn't sowed so much.
8) Go home and sow something, "just in case" some room becomes available.
9) Around August, find the planting plan you did last December.
Be honest. :-[
This would be more or less the path that I am headed down. I already have the seeds (last count over 300 varieties) and have been growing haphazardously for a few years now, but not on the scale of an allotment...
Will be interesting to see what the year brings...
I have several allotment books now, but my favourite is 'The Allotment Handbook, by Caroline Foley' It was my first lottie book and the one I most use for reference.