every year I forget what I'm doing

[Two_Sheds]

every year I forget what I'm doing, and how to do it.

All the new threads about sowing onions, tomatoes and chillies send me into a mild panic.

I do keep a gardening diary, of sorts, but it invariably falls by the wayside when I just get too busy.

I tried to keep a veg-per-page diary last year, with detailed notes, but that didn't even get started due to work on the house, work and general busyness

Maybe I'll spend these quiet Old Year days starting it again

[Bex]

I know what you mean TS, this is my first proper growing season for a couple of years and I forgot how busy it can get. I'm trying to keep a journal and that's fine for now but I'm sure I'll forget it when it gets even busier.

[Brengirl]

Well well well. I thought you peeps were the professionals (gurus) even. It seems that every year I ponder over the same problems. Google would go broke if it were not me.

[zazen999]

Every year I get to my seed box sort out and think '******* - I was SO going to grow that this year.

I suppose that's the problem when you are a seedaholic!

[FionaH]

You lot just make me feel so much better!

[Glutton4...]

I made myself a planner on the Poota, and started to keep a gardening/jobs to do kind of diary. For ease of access I kept it on the 'desktop' so when my hard drive died in the spring I lost it I couldn't be bothered to start again, and the info off the old hard drive was unrecoverable, so I just jotted anything important on my kitchen calendar. Just got to go through and try and decipher it all now!

[Jillyreeves]

This year was my first year of growing and I started off my record keeping with good intentions in March when I sowed my first seeds, variety, date of sowing, date of germination, germination rate etc all on a spreadsheet on my PC. Kept it up until about the end of May early June by which time I was so busy gardening it fell by the wayside.

New Years Resolution - keep better growing records :-)

[zazen999]

You lot just make me feel so much better!

I now have a 2 year old packet of scorzonera - opened but I've not once managed to get a seed near compost yet. I always forget around April what I need to grow for November; as I get lost in all those beans and tomatoes.

[Hazel at the Hill]

I'm pretty organised with record keeping of what I have done with the blog and an excel spreadsheet as a sowing/sprouting/harvesting record, but not so clever at what I am going to do.

It's the successional sowing which fools me - I might think that I'll sow a small batch of carrots, say, every month from March to August, but that doesn't quite work out, as I'll do March and maybe April, then forget the rest.

I think if I put my seeds into a month per pocket thing then that might help, and move them forward to the next month where appropriate.

Thank you for making me think about this, T_S.

[Jillyreeves]

I think if I put my seeds into a month per pocket thing then that might help, and move them forward to the next month where appropriate.

This year I will be using the two chocolate tin method (the big ones you get at Christmas with Rose/Quality Street/Celebrations)

Tin one been the holding tin for all seeds.

Tin Two for seeds that I can sow that month, once sown if any left they go back in tin one or if I am successional sowing they stay in the tin as a reminder.

Oh yes, I have a third tin, this contains my spare seeds for swaps.

Tried this at the end of the summer, worked well as a reminder of what to sow, only problem is I have to remember to sort my seeds at the end of the month

[Jeanied]

Having made a fabric advent calendar some years ago, with pockets for each day - I am mulling over an idea to do an allotment version with a fabric plan of the plot and some velcroed patches for the beds - just a little idea at the moment but it might work, you never know. Perhaps one of my dafter ideas...

[SarzWix]

I do the seeds per month thing, things still end up being missed sometimes but it works better than anything else I've tried.

My problem is that I've got a huge backlog of jobs to do since last year when I wasn't fit, all the new year jobs added to that, no source of muck for the plot, and a stoopid college course that I wish I'd never started...

[Jillyreeves]

Having made a fabric advent calendar some years ago, with pockets for each day - I am mulling over an idea to do an allotment version with a fabric plan of the plot and some velcroed patches for the beds - just a little idea at the moment but it might work, you never know. Perhaps one of my dafter ideas...

Like your train of thought Jeanied

[gojiberry]

Every year the new year resolution is to make better records of what I have done in the garden. But like a lot of people with busy lives it gets to the point where the actual gardening gets so hectic that there just isn't any time to do the records. I am due to retire next year and I think to myself maybe then I will have time to keep a record, however even then I have my doubts.

Ian

[FROSTYFRECKLE]

Last year I tried to be really organised and had a gardening calender set up with when my seeds would be sowed, down to the day - has anyone seen it