Organizing Strategies: Garden Paperwork

It is possible to garden without keeping any records. People do it all the time. But there are some very good reasons to keep at least some records, especially with regards to the vegetable garden:

• Records of crop rotation: a basic tenant of organic gardening is to rotate crops to help ward off diseases.
• Previous year's seed orders to refer to when ordering new seeds.
• Planting guide to know where to plant current year's crop
• Guide to planting dates for your region.
  

Plus there are things that are just nice to have like magazine/newspaper articles relating to specific gardening interests, plant tags and records of trees, shrubs, and flowers planted, and an overall garden plan.

Some people keep beautiful and detailed journals of what they've planted, how they thrived (or didn't), how they were cared for, pounds of harvest each year and the like. And that's great for those that enjoy it, but that's not me.

I like to keep it simple, remember?



So my system is very basic. Looking at this picture I sorta wish I had a more attractive binder. But, hey, it's easy to keep clean. You know...being vinyl and all.

OK, it's not a thing of beauty, but it has been with me for about 15 years now so it's obviously doing it's job. And it's only a 1-inch binder because I just keep what I need to. Sometimes I wish I remembered a certain plant and how it performed, but never enough to spend the time writing it all down.

I have two pockets in the binder and 5 dividers. Here's what I keep in my binder that I've found helpful to have from year to year:



In January or February, I draw out a plan for the next year's vegetable garden, making sure to rotate the crops through the raised beds so that the same crop is not in a bed two years in a row. I date it and make notes and put it in a page protector before storing in the inner pocket.

Why a page protector? This is the most important thing in my binder. I use it to know how many tomatoes, peppers, and such I need to start indoors from seed, and I take it with me outside to know where to put the the seeds I sow directly in the garden, as well as transplants. Without the page protector it gets wet, crumpled, and even carried away by the wind.

Yeah, I know this very well. It actually took me awhile to figure out to keep it in a page protector.

I should also mention here that this is not written in stone and there are many times I may change little things, like where the peas or basil end up. But the important rotations like tomatoes, peppers, and cole crops (broccoli, cabbage, etc.) do not change from this plan.



The first division contains my overall garden plan that I used when I initially designed it, and I keep this for reference and update it as things change (plants die, something didn't work like I thought, a new bed is added...).



It also holds all the previous years' vegetable bed plans, so I can see how I'm doing rotating the crops and what things I've grown in the past.

If I do want to make a note of something, I will usually do it on these vegetable pages so I can refer back to them.



The second divider holds last year's Organic Vegetable Garden Checklist. The checklist for the current year hangs on the side of the refrigerator so I can refer to it often. I keep the lists from year to year because, like the vegetable bed plans, I make notes on this list of things I want to remember like the weather and when I actually planted things.

Umm...that would be because I very rarely plant when I'm supposed to. My intentions are great, though. That's probably one of the things I like about vegetable gardening- each year is basically a start-over and a chance that I will finally get it right...



Next I keep a section for seed order records. I like to see what I spent each year as well as the actual seeds (and garden supplies) I bought.



The last two sections are for information I like to be able to refer to, like dates for seed starting and fall and winter vegetable dates.

I also keep this comprehensive vegetable gardening guideline I downloaded from the local extension service's web site. It's very handy to have and I would encourage you to search your local extension service for information tailored to your area.

Most of the time you will be able to find time lines of what to accomplish each month in the garden as well as recommendations as to the varieties of plants that do well in your area.

So this little binder is my super-basic tool for keeping the paperwork I find most necessary to gardening.

I used to have a lot more about flowers in here (bed plans, favorite combos, tags from plants I've planted, etc.), but I found I didn't refer to them as much, so I moved them to files in a file cabinet and this binder became all about vegetables.

How do you keep track of your garden? What do you think is important to keep from year to year?

-Jami

This is linked to:
Favorite Things Friday
It's a Hodgepodge Friday